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IOWA LOST BY THE INDIANS
We do not ordinarily expect to pay for anything twice, but that
is what the United States Government did to get Iowa. The United
States first paid France for it in 1803, as a part of Louisiana, and
then later also paid the Indians for it. The Red Men had lived on
the land for so many years that they claimed it as theirs. It was
not until a number of years after the Government bought the Iowa
land from France that white settlers wanted to live on it; and it
was then that the Indians had to be paid.
The territory of which Iowa was a part was claimed at different
times by Spain, France, and by England.
INDIANS LOVED THEIR
HOMES
The Indians loved their homes and really did not want to sell
their lands. In the East, in the earlier history of our country,
the white men often fought the Indians and took their lands away
from them. Or sometimes traders sold them goods and then, later,
the Indians had to sell some of their lands to pay their debts. So
the Indians learned that when the white men wanted land they would
manage in some way to get it. They thought therefore that it was
better to sell their lands to the write people at a good price than
to fight against them.
COST OF IOWA
We do not know just how much the Government paid to the Indians
for the land that is now Iowa. This is due to several reasons. A
part of what was paid was cash while the rest was merchandise and
food. Sometimes the Government paid several tribes for the same
land because each claimed it. The boundaries of the land that was
bought were not always clearly marked and sometimes took in land
that was not in Iowa. We knew that the amount paid was over
$2,887,500.
THE HALF-BREED TRACT
The first land that the Indians gave up was the "Half-Breed
Tract." The land of that tract is now the southern part of Lee
County, or the southeastern tip of Iowa. A half-breed was a person,
usually, whose father was white and whose mother was an Indian. The
half-breeds ordinarily lived with the tribe of their mother. The
Indians were interested in them and in 1824 gave them this land for
their homes. White men soon traded or cheated them out of it.
THE "WESTERN SLOPE"
The Sacs and Foxes, the Sioux, the Omahas, the Otoes, and the
Missouris sold their rights to the land in the "Western Slope" to
the Government in 1830. This "slope" included more than the western
one fourth of our present Iowa. Each tribe was paid a small sum of
money for its claim to the land,' The Government agreed not to let
white settlers come to it until later. The Indians were to keep it
for hunting ground.
THE "NEUTRAL STRIP"
You have learned in another story of the strip of land, forty
miles wide, that was set aside to keep peace between the Sioux and
the Sacs and Foxes. In 1830 those tribes agreed to sell to the
Government their rights to this land. The Government paid about
three cents an acre for it.
As with the "Western Slope," the Government agreed not to let
white settlers come at that time. The Indians, on the other hand,
agreed that the land might be used for other Indian tribes.
AFTER THE BLACK HAWK
WAR
A council was held at the present site of Davenport with the Sac
and Fox tribes after BlackHawk's defeat in 1832. General Winfield
Scott with United States soldiers
and Governor John Reynolds of Illinois were there to represent
the Government. The Indian chiefs and all of their tribes were
there. Antoine Le Claire acted as interpreter. The council lasted
three days.
Le Claire explained to the Indians, for the Government, that one
of their chiefs had started an unjust war against the white people
and that the Indians had been defeated. "Now," said Le Claire, "if
the Government wanted to do so, it could take the Indians' land away
from them and pay them nothing for it. But the great white father
at Washington," he continued, "is guided by his heavenly father.
He wants to be fair and just with indians. Now, the tribes too
must be fair and sell some of their lands."
The Government, Le Claire further said, would pay all the debts
that the tribes owed the traders and twenty thousand dollars each
year for thirty years. It would also give food to the widows and
the orphans of the warriors who were killed in the BlackHawk War.
The strip of land which the Indians gave up at the council in
1832 is usually called the Black Hawk Purchase. It was about fifty
miles wide and was located along the western side of the Mississippi
River. It ran from the neutral strip on the north to the State of
Missouri on the south. The Government paid about fourteen cents an
acre for the land.
KEOKUK RESERVE
Chief Keokuk and his warriors did not join Black Hawk in his war.
Because of this, and also because Keokuk and his tribe did not care
to move, the Government set aside for them four hundred square miles
of land on the Iowa River. Four years later, in 1836, the Indians
sold this strip to the Government for about eight cents an acre.
Keokuk and his tribe then moved to Des Moines Valley.
MANY WHITE SETTLERS
COME
White settlers came into Iowa so fast that more land was needed.
To take care of them the Government, in 1837, bought another tract
of land from the Sacs and Foxes. This tract was just west of the
Black Hawk Purchase. Again, in 1842, another purchase was made. By
a treaty with the Sac and Fox tribes the Indians agreed to sell all
their land they had left in Iowa. The Government paid about ten
cents per acre for it. The Indians agreed then to move to a
reservation in Kansas.
MOVED AGAIN
Two tribes that have left us some Indian names did not live long
in Iowa. The Pottawattamies, who had been brought to the Western
Slope, and the Winnebagoes, of the Neutral Strip, agreed in 1846 to
sell their rights to Iowa land. In return for it the Government
gave them other land for new homes. The Pottawattamies went to
Kansas and the Winnebagoes to Minnesota.
SIOUX TRIBE LEFT
The Sioux were the last to sell their land. They sold a large
tract, a part of which was in Iowa, to the Government in 1851. They
got about eight cents an acre for their land.
TWENTY YEARS FOR THE
CHANGE
Thus in just a little over twenty years Iowa changed from Indian
lands to White men's lands. No battles were fought on Iowa soil to
bring about this change. The Indians were paid for their land.
They were not paid the price they asked and perhaps not what they
should have had. Sometimes the Government did not pay all it had
agreed to pay. However, the Indians were not simply driven out by
force and robbed of their land, as the Government had power to do.
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