Iowa History
Project
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THE
MAKING OF IOWA
CHAPTER VII
KEOKUK, FRIEND OF THE WHITES.
Keokuk was Black Hawk's rival, and was placed over
him by the government. He was not so great a warrior as Black Hawk, but
he was a finer orator, and was shrewder. His name means "watchful
fox." In a treaty in which he signed it is spelled Keeokuk, and
after it is written, "he who has been everywhere." He was born
about 1780, in the Rock River village.
He was not a chief by birth. He gained a high
position on the account of his qualities, and because of government
influence. But he showed he could fight, when in battle he gallantly
killed a Sioux brave. Both were on horseback, and as the Sioux were
considered to be better horsemen than other Indians, Keokuk was thought to have
done a great feat. In other conflicts with the Sioux, Keokuk proved to be
such a strategist that he won much admiration. He overcame the foe by
trickery as much as by arrows and spears.
We have seen that he and his people move peaceably
across the river when ordered by government. Keokuk probably felt that
opposition would be of no use. He looked ahead. His reason, which
was of such advantage in fighting, enabled him to see that the wisest plan was
to yield to the superior force of the whites.
Before this time he had attracted favorable notice
from a considerable part of the Sacs and Foxes. When Black Hawk and his
band were away during the war of 1812, the Indians remaining in the village
discussed the question of defense thinking the village was to be attacked. Keokuk
volunteered to be leader, and this readiness to be front in danger earned him
great praise.
After Black Hawk returned from war Keokuk was
recognized as head of one faction. When the surrender of their
lands came up, Keokuk argued that it was better to obey the government, and
have peace. In this he opposed Black Hawk, and was called coward by
the more warlike Indians.
So Keokuk and his followers went across the river,
and settled in Iowa. Black Hawk and his discontented people stayed in
Illinois. We know what happened because of the course they took.
They tried in vain to induce Keokuk to join then in
their contest. For the time Keokuk's people were eager for war, and their
minds were inflamed by Black Hawk and his messengers. Keokuk addressed
them and put the matter in such a light that they decided it was wiser to keep
peace.
In the speech which he made he said he would lead
them against the whites, but on the condition "that we first put our wives
and children and old men gently to sleep in that slumber that knows no waking
this side of spirit land, for we go upon the long trail which has no
turn."
The advise to kill those who could not fight showed
the case was so desperate that the Indians decided not to assist Black Hawk.
When Keokuk left the Sac village on the Rock River,
he established a new village on the west shore of a lake about six miles west
of Muscatine city of to-day, along the slough. It occupied nearly all the
bottom land there, about forty acres. In 1834 the Indians raised their
last crop of corn on this land, and thereafter confined themselves to their
territory immediately about the Iowa River, until they gave up their
reservation and went to the Des Moines River.
Keokuk had been recognized, instead of Black Hawk, by
the United States as an authority over the Indians. His village was on
the right bank of the Iowa River, in the midst of the tract of four hundred
square miles reserved for the Indians when they transferred the Black Hawk
purchase to the government, at the close of the Black Hawk War.
When this reservation was sold, in 1836, the Sacs
and Foxes moved to the Des Moines River, and the Keokuk had his lodge near
Iowaville, on the south bank of the stream.
In 1837 a son of Keokuk died. Just before he
passed away he asked that his fine horse be sent with him to spirit land.
So the horse, all saddled and bridled, was led to the grave, and shot
through the head. For several years after the remains of the animal, and
of the trappings, were to be seen on the ground beside the grave. Traces
of Keokuk’s lodge, also, could be discerned for a long time after all the
Indians had left the region.
About the last village of the Sacs and Foxes under
Keokuk was near the mouth of Sugar Creek, not far from where Ottumwa now is.
After Black Hawk 's death bad feelings between his band and the
Keokuk people increased. Hard Fish succeeded Black Hawk as a leader of
the faction. He and his men accused Keokuk of stealing money which was
being paid each year by the government in accordance with treaties.
Keokuk distributed the money, and it was claimed he dealt wrongly with
portions of it. Once he was stabbed by Nes-se-as-kuk, one of Black Hawk's
sons, and was conveyed up the Des Moines River in a canoe to his home.
Keokuk was not so great an Indian as Black Hawk.
He was addicted to the use of liquor, and drank to excess. It is
claimed that he died because of these indulgencies. At any rate, after he
had gone to Kansas, with his tribe, he became very dissipated. In other
habits of life, also, he was less high minded that his rival.
Keokuk was a well proportioned man, rather tall,
and of splendid appearance. He had an open, intelligent countenance.
He prided himself on his horseman ship and his dancing. His passion
was for horses, next to whiskey, and he owned a number of fast animals.
He was fond of display. When he moved about
clan to clan he was attended by three or four wives, and a company of
favorites, all elaborately attired.
His position as a friend and especial pet of the
government gained him many privileges, and created jealousy, so that we cannot
tell how true were the charges made against him of swindling and theft.
We must remember Keokuk as a great orator, one
of the greatest among all the Indians, and as a diplomat. He had rare
ability to take the wisest and safest course, and to do what would have the
best effect. But morally he was not great.
Keokuk County
and city bear the name of the chief.