# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/1/8

​ON the 21st of September, 1832, General Winfield Scott and Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, negotiated a treaty by which there was acquired from these tribes six million acres of land on the west side of the Mississippi, known as the “Black Hawk Purchase.” The treaty was made on the west bank of the river in the present limits of the city of Davenport. The tract thus ceded extended from the northern boundary of Missouri, to the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, and had an average width of fifty miles, westward of the Mississippi.
The consideration to be paid for this grant was an annual sum of twenty thousand dollars for a period of thirty years; and a further sum of fifty thousand dollars to be applied to the payment of debts due from the Indians to traders Davenport and Farnam, at Rock Island. Six thousand bushels of corn, fifty barrels of flour, thirty barrels of pork, thirty-five beef cattle and twelve bushels of salt were also appropriated for the support of the Indian women and children whose husbands and fathers had been killed in the war just closed. It was estimated that the United States paid in money and provisions about nine cents an acre for this munificent grant of lands.
Black Hawk being a prisoner, the treaty was agreed to on part of the Indians by Keokuk, Pashepaho and about thirty other chiefs and warriors of the Sac and Fox nation. There was reserved to the Sacs and Foxes within the limits of this grant, four hundred square miles of land on the Iowa River, including Keokuk's village. This tract was called “Keokuk's Reserve,” and was occupied by the Indians until 1836, when by a treaty negotiated by Governor Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin Territory, it was ​ceded to the United States. The Sacs and Foxes then moved to a reservation on the Des Moines River, where an agency was established for them on the site where Agency City has been built. Here Keokuk, Appanoose and Wapello, chiefs of the united tribes, had each a large farm under cultivation. The farms belonging to Keokuk were on what is known as Keokuk Prairie, lying back from the right bank of the Des Moines River. Appanoose's farm included a portion of the present site of the city of Ottumwa. The memory of these chiefs has been perpetuated in our State by three counties and two cities, which bear their names, while a county in northern Iowa bears the name of the famous old war chief, Black Hawk.
On the 11th of October, 1842, another treaty was made with the Sac and Fox Indians, in which they conveyed all of their remaining lands in Iowa to the United States. They were to vacate the eastern portion of the lands ceded, to a line running on the west side of the present counties of Appanoose and Lucas and north through Marion, Jasper, Marshall and Hardin counties, to the north limit of the grant, on May 1, 1843, and the remainder on October 11, 1845.
When the time came for the departure of the Indians they were sad and sorrowful. They lingered around their old homes reluctant to leave them forever. The women were weeping as they gathered their children and household goods together for the long journey to a strange and distant country. The warriors could hardly suppress their emotion as they looked for the last time upon the beautiful rivers, groves and prairies that they had owned so long and were so reluctant to surrender. As the long line of the retreating red men silently an sorrowfully took its way westward, the booming of guns and the light of a hundred bonfires gave evidence of the advancing hosts of white settlers who hastened in to occupy the vacant places. In the progress of years these
KEOKUK Sac Chief
​once and powerful and warlike tribes became listless and enervated, losing the energetic characteristics which distinguished them in former times. The excitement of war and the chase having long ago died out in their changed environment, they became degenerate, intemperate and lazy.
Keokuk, or “the Watchful Fox,” was born in the Rock River Valley in 1780. He was not a hereditary chief of the Sacs, but attained that position by bravery in battle with the Sioux, when a young man. When Black Hawk had determined to resist the occupation of the lands which certain chiefs had sold to the United Stares without his consent in 1804, Keokuk was the leader of the peace party. He was wily, shrewd, ambitious, selfish and avaricious. He knew that his race could not successfully war with the United States and he determined to submit to the demands, surrender the homes on the east side of the river and make the best terms possible for himself. He saw the opportunity to eventually supplant Black Hawk by becoming the leader of a peace party and thus secure influence and assistance of the whites in his ambitious plans. He was a most eloquent public speaker and used his oratory with great effect. While the warriors of the united tribes were disposed to fight for their homes under Black Hawk, Keokuk by shrewd diplomacy won a majority to his peace policy. Upon one occasion when the war spirit was running high he called his followers together and addressed them thus:
“Warriors: I am your chief. It is my duty to lead you to war if you are determined to go. The United States is a great nation and unless we conquer them us must perish. I will lead you against the whites on one condition, that is that we shall first put all our women and children to death, and then resolve that when we cross the Mississippi we will never retreat, but perish among the graves of our fathers rather than yield to the white men.”
His warriors after listening to the desperate proposal, hesitated and finally determined to yield to the greatly ​superior power of the whites. When the war of 1832 was ended and Black Hawk was defeated and a prisoner, Keokuk's day of triumph came. Black Hawk was deposed by his conquerors and, amid great pomp and ceremony, Keokuk arrayed in all his gaudy trappings was installed in his place. “Keokuk's Reserve” was on the Iowa River, and his village was for several years about six miles below where the city of Muscatine stands. In 1836 this reserve was sold to the United States and Keokuk removed to the Des Moines River near Iowaville.
The followers of Black Hawk hated and despised Keokuk and never became reconciled to his accession to power by the bayonets of the United States. Their leader was Wish-e-co-ma-que, called by the whites Hard Fish. In 1845, having sold all of their lands in Iowa to the whites, Keokuk led the remnant of the once powerful Sac and Fox nation to a new home in Kansas. Here Keokuk, once the gaudily dressed chief, in his old age became a confirmed inebriate. He was avaricious in the extreme and was believed by his people to have dishonestly appropriated to his own use large sums of money received from our government for his tribe. He had four wives and upon all public occasions adorned his person with gay trappings and was attended by a band of forty or fifty favorites. In June, 1848, he died from poison administered by a member of his tribe.
Pashepaho, which signifies “The Stabber,” was the head chief of the Sacs at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He was an old man when first known by the whites. he was the leader of the five chiefs who went to St. Louis in 1804 to meet William H. Harrison to negotiate the release of a member of his tribe accused of killing a white man. While there he and his companions became intoxicated and were persuaded to agree to a treaty conveying to the United States an immense tract of land on the east side of the Mississippi River, including that upon which their ancient village of Saukenuk stood. They
WAPELLO Fox Chief
​returned loaded with presents and it was a long time before their tribe knew that they had conveyed to the whites more than fifty-one million acres of their choicest lands, including their homes of more than a hundred years. Pashepaho had won great fame as a warrior, having been the leader of the Sacs and Foxes in their long war with the Iowas. He was the commander in the last great battle in the Des Moines Valley, which nearly annihilated their old time enemies. He led an unsuccessful attack upon Fort Madison soon after its establishment. He was easily won over to the peace party by the wily Keokuk and joined the “Sly Fox” in the treaty of 1832, by which they sold the “Black Hawk Purchase” to the United States. He, like Keokuk, became a drunkard and moved with his tribe to Kansas.
Poweshiek, whose name signified “Roused Bear,” was, after the Black Hawk war, head chief of the Fox tribe. His rank was superior to that of either Appanoose or Wapello. His village in 1837 was near the Iowa River, not far from where Iowa City stands. He was born on Iowa soil about the year 1797. He was a large, powerful man, weighing more than two hundred and fifty pounds. He was a noble specimen of his race, a man of great energy, a wise counselor and the soul of honor. He was grateful for favors and always truthful. In 1838 he led a party to select a location for a Sac and Fox agency on the Des Moines, in company with General Joseph M. Street, the Indian agent. When his tribe moved west he made his home near the mouth of the Raccoon River, in the vicinity of the future capital of Iowa. From there he went south with his people to Grand River and in 1846 reluctantly conducted them to their distant reservation in Kansas. A remnant of his tribe, dissatisfied with the Kansas reservation, after a short time returned to their old homes in Iowa. An Iowa county perpetuates the memory of Poweshiek.
Wapello, which signifies “prince,” was a head chief of ​the Fox tribe. He was born at Prairie du Chien in 1787, and at the time of the erection of Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island, his principal village was on the east side of the Mississippi, where the city of Rock Island was subsequently laid out. In 1829 he moved his village to the west shore of the river opposite Muscatine Island. A few year later he had a village built where the town of Wapello now stands. He belonged to the “peace party,” and supported Keokuk and Pashepaho in adhering to the treaty of 1804. He signed numerous treaties with the United States, ceding lands to the government. He appears to have been easily influenced by Keokuk to part with their lands. It is related of Wapello that when one of his sons was slain by a Sioux warrior, in 1836, instead of avenging the murder, he purchased a barrel of whisky and, inviting his people to partake, they appeased their sorrow by indulging in a drunken debauch. his favorite hunting grounds were along the Skunk River, but he finally moved his village to the Des Moines Valley where Ottumwa now stands. He died in 1842 and was buried at Agency City, near the grave of General Street, who had been his friend.
Kiskkekosh, which signifies “The man with one leg,” was a Fox chief. He was a daring warrior and won his fame in battle with the Sioux. He was an orator; tall, straight and perfect in figure. His village was at one time on Skunk River in Jasper County. He sought to bring about a reform with his tribe by changing the long established custom of his race which required Indian women to perform all of the labor, while the warriors, young and old, refrained from work as degrading. He was very much attached to his beautiful wife and was unwilling to leave all of the toil for her to perform. It was a hopeless effort, but this independent chieftain, though unsuccessful in overcoming an unjust and oppressive requirement, exhibited his convictions of right by aiding his wife in her labor. From 1843 to 1845 his tribe lived
KISHKEKOSH A Chief of the Fox Indians
APPANOOSE Sac Chief
​at various times in Jasper County on the Skunk River, in Marion County, in the valley of the Des Moines and later near old Fort Des Moines. he was reluctant to give up his Iowa home and remove to the Kansas reservation. Monroe County was, when first organized, named Kishkekosh, but it was afterward changed by act of the Legislature.
Appanoose, which signifies “A chief when a child,” presided over a band of Sacs. Little is known of his early life, but during the Black Hawk war he belonged to the peace party. He was tall, straight as an arrow, finely formed and intelligent. After the removal of the tribes to the Des Moines Valley the village over which he presided stood near where Ottumwa has been built. Appanoose was one of the chiefs who accompanied Keokuk to Washington in 1837. At Boston he made a speech which made him famous. He had four wives and lived a very quiet life, seldom going far from his village. The exact date of his death is not known.
Taimah, “The man who makes the rocks tremble,” was a Fox chief. In 1820 his village stood on the Flint Hills, where Burlington was built. It was called Shock-o-con. Tiamah was the head of a secret society of Indians noted for their courage and good character. Women of the best class were eligible to membership. It was known by the name of “Great Medicine,” and its secrets were never divulged. Taimah was one of the chiefs who went to Washington in 1824 and signed the treaty made at that time. Tama County was named in honor of this chief.
THE MUSQUAKIES
These are a remnant of the Pottawattamies and Foxes who returned from the Kansas reservation in about 1850, and stopped on the Iowa River to hunt and fish. They were so attached to Iowa that they persisted in staying in the State that had so long been their home. ​Che-me-use (Johney Green) was the chief of the Pottawattamies, who first returned to the Iowa River. In 1859 Maw-nae-wah-ne-kah, a Fox chief with some of his tribe joined the Pottawattamies on the Iowa River. Here they lived peaceably, cultivating small patches of land, hunting, fishing and trapping for several years. In 1866 a special agent was appointed by the government who paid them a share of the annuities due their tribes. Two thousand dollars of the annuity fund was invested in the purchase of land, and additions to it were made from time to time until several hundred acres were acquired. These lands lie in Tama County, within a few miles of Toledo, in the valley of the Iowa River and on the line of the Chicago and Northwestern railroad. In 1880 the tribe numbered three hundred and thirty-five people and they had accumulated personal property to the value of about $20,000. They make frequent excursions into other portions of the State in small parties for the purpose of hunting, fishing and begging. They have made very little improvement in erecting their dwellings and in their costumes, adhering to the customs of their ancestors.
THE WINNEBAGOES
This tribe belongs to the Dakota group and is mentioned by French writers as early as 1669. They appear to have been the first of the Dakotas to migrate eastward, crossing the Mississippi River from Iowa at a remote period. When first known to the French they were a powerful tribe and hostile to the Algonquins. Early in the seventeenth century the tribes of the Northwest formed an alliance against the Winnebagoes and in a battle five hundred of the latter were slain. In 1766 Carver found them on the Rock River. They and the Iowas are thought to be the only Dakotas that migrated to the east. Meeting the Algonquin tribes of Pottawattamies, Chippeways, Sacs, Foxes, Mascoutines and Ottawas, they finally formed ​an alliance, which lasted for more than one hundred and fifty years. They were reluctant to come under English rule after the expulsion of the French, but finally became reconciled and fought with the British through the war of the American Revolution.
In 1794, in alliance with other hostile tribes, they met General Anthony Wayne in battle and were defeated with heavy loss. In 1811 they are found fighting under Tecumseh at Tippecanoe, where they were again defeated by General Harrison. They joined the Pottawattamies in the massacre at Fort Dearborn in 1812 and were, with Black Hawk, allies of the British throughout the war. In 1816 they entered into a treaty of peace with the United States. In 1832 they joined Black Hawk in his war and at its termination were required to relinquish their lands in Wisconsin in exchange for a tract in Iowa known as the “Neutral Ground.” They were not compelled to remove to their new home until 1841. By the terms of this treaty the Winnebagoes were to be paid $10,000 annually for twenty-seven years, beginning in September, 1833. The government agreed also to supply them with certain farm implements and teams and establish schools for the Indian children, maintaining them also for twenty-seven years. The “Neutral Ground” was a tract forty miles wide extending from the Mississippi River to the Des Moines. The boundary line which had been established between the Sioux on the north and the Sacs and Foxes on the south in 1825, was agreed to by a council held at Prairie du Chien on the 19th of August of that year, in which William Clark and Lewis Cass were the commissioners on part of the United States, and the following tribes of Indians: The Sacs and Foxes, Sioux, Chippeways, Winnebagoes, Pottawattamies, Ottawas and Menomonies. The principal object of the treaty was to establish peace between contending tribes as to the limits of their respective hunting grounds in Iowa. In this treaty the line is described as follows: Beginning at the mouth ​of the Upper Iowa River on the west bank of the Mississippi, and ascending said Iowa River to its west fork; thence up the fork to its source; thence crossing the fork of the Red Cedar in a direct line to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines River; thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calument (Big Sioux) River, and down that to its junction with the Missouri River.
On the 15th of July, 1830, at a council held at Prairie du Chien, the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of land twenty miles in width lying immediately south of the above named line and extending from the Mississippi to the Des Moines River.
At the same time the Sioux ceded to the United States a strip of the same width lying immediately north of the line. Thus the United States came into possession of a belt of land forty miles wide, extending from the Mississippi to the Des Moines River. This tract was known as the “Neutral Ground,” and the tribes on either side were allowed to hunt and fish on it unmolested until it was ceded to the Winnebagoes in exchange for their lands on the east side of the Mississippi River.
While occupying the “Neutral Ground” of Iowa, the Winnebagoes found themselves between the hostile Sioux on the north and the friendly Sacs and Foxes on the south. Their hunting grounds were along the Upper Iowa, Turkey, Wapsipinicon and Cedar rivers. On the 16th day of October, 1846, they were induced to cede their Iowa lands for a tract in Minnesota, north of St. Peter River, to which they soon after removed. For many years parties of them returned to hunt and trap along their favorite Iowa rivers until most of the game had disappeared.
One of their most noted chiefs was Wee-no-shiek, or Winneshiek, as now written, in whose memory an Iowa county is named. In the Winnebago war of 1827 young Winneshiek, who was but fifteen years of age, took an active part. He was captured by Colonel Dodge, but refused
FORT ATKINSON Erected in 1840
​to surrender until forcibly disarmed. He fought bravely with Black Hawk in 1832, but was again taken prisoner by General Dodge. In 1845 he was made head chief of his tribe. He is described as one of the finest specimens, both physically and intellectually, of his race. Tall, well-proportioned and of dignified hearing, graceful in manners, and of undaunted courage, he was always popular with his tribe. He never became reconciled to the fate of his race in being dispossessed of their homes by the whites, and he regarded them as implacable foes to the end of his life.
Waukon-Decorah, signifying “White Snake,” was another of the most noted of Winnebago chiefs. He was inclined to keep peace with the whites, as he realized that war upon that powerful race was useless. His influence with his tribe often prevented acts of hostility on part of the impulsive young warriors. His village was located on the Upper Iowa River near the site of the town of Decorah, which bears his name. After his death the citizens of that village gave his remains a final resting place in the public square.
Two treacherous members of this tribe captured the leader of their allies, Black Hawk, when he had taken refuge among them after the massacre of Bad Axe and delivered him over to his enemies. Their names were Chasta and One-eyed Decorah.
In 1829 the Winnebagoes numbered five thousand eight hundred. In 1836 the smallpox destroyed one-fourth of their people. In 1855 they had become reduced to two thousand seven hundred and fifty-four. When they were first seen by the French they were of good stature, strong, athletic and dignified, with straight black hair, piercing black eyes and superior mental capacity. But after generations of contact with the whites, they degenerated rapidly, acquiring a strong appetite for intoxicating liquors. They were not a quarrelsome people and only made war to avenge the killing of members of their tribe. Their ​warriors were always volunteers who furnished their own equipments. The war chief commanded in campaigns and battles and decided the fate of prisoners. They usually killed and scalped wounded prisoners and left their own dead on the field of battle. The dead of their tribe were dressed in a new suit before burial and the arms of warriors were buried with them. The graves of their chiefs and noted warriors were protected with poles or pickets. In winter their dead were deposited on scaffolds. Their cabins were built by setting posts in the ground and covering them with bark. In winter skins of animals were stretched over them. They were kind to old people and carefully nursed the sick.