Iowa History Project
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OUR IOWA: ITS BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH
PART 4
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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IOWA'S INDIAN MASSACRE
OUTLAW INDIANS
The sad part about this bloody spot in Iowa history is that the attack was not made by a group of Indians who were defending their homes or fighting for their hunting grounds. It was made by a band of outlaw Indians who had been driven out of their own tribe.
A group of Sioux, because of their troublesome deeds, had been disowned by their tribe. The leader of this outlaw group of Indians, at one time, was chief named Sidominadota. He drove many white men away from the land in northwest Iowa that was claimed by the Indians.
Among these white men was a trader named Henry Lott who sold Whiskey to the Indians and then stole their horses. When Lott was driven out by the Indians he swore that he would get even. He and his stepson returned two years later. They killed Sidominadota and murdered his family. The Indians never forgot that act. Later it was given as one of the main reasons for the spirit Lake Massacre.
THE OKOBOJI SETTLEMENT
In the summer of 1856, Mr. and Mrs. Rowland Gardner and their family of five children moved to the shore of West Okoboji Lake. Their eldest daughter was married and her husband, Harvey Luce, went with them. This was the first White family to settle in that vicinity. Others soon followed. By the time winter set in a number of cabins were scattered along the lake shore.
SETTLERS' HARDSHIPS
The winter of 1856-57 was very severe. It began early with extreme cold and deep snow. The settlers' supplies ran low, and game was scarce. Settlements were few and far apart. The settlers at the lakes had to send an ox team all the way to Waterloo to get supplies. The supplies arrived just before the massacre took place.
INKPADUTA COMES
Early in the spring of 1857, the outlaw band of Sioux, with Inkpaduta as chief, came to the region around the lakes. Inkapaduta was a cruel and bloodthirsty leader. He was feared by both the Whites and his own tribe. At settlements away from the lakes, the Indians caused trouble for the White people. They killed the cattle and hogs, broke up the furniture in the cabins, and quarreled with the White settlers. They did not, however, kill any of the people at that time.
TWO MEN KILLED FIRST
Inkpaduta and his desperate band camped near the Gardner cabin on the seventh of march, 1857. The Indians held a war dance, and the Gardners could hear their whoops. Mr. Gardner had planned to go to Ft. Dodge the next day, but when the Indians came to his cabin that morning, he gave up his plans. The Gardners tried to be kind to the Indians. They gave them something to eat and a part of the few provisions which they had. Then the Indians left.
Mr. Gardner believed that the Indians meant to make trouble, and he thought the other settlers should be warned. Two young men went to warn the settlers, but the Indians shot both of them before they could get to anyone.
THE INDIAN ATTACK
Later that day, The indians came back to the Gardner cabin. Mr. Gardner wanted to fight them, but his wife begged him not to do it. She said she thought the Indians would soon go away without hurting anyone. The Indians asked for flour. As Mr. Gardner went to get it the Indians shot him. Then they cruelly killed everyone there except Abbie Gardner, the youngest child, who was about fourteen years old.
ABBIE GARDNER RANSOMED
Mrs. Thatcher Mrs. Thatcher was later shoved into the river by the Indians and drowned because she had become ill and was too weak to carry a pack. Mrs. Noble was shot by Roaring Cloud, a son of Ikapaduta, because she disobeyed him. Abbie Gardner and Mrs. Marble were later ransomed by friendly indians with money which white people had furnished them.
MARKHAM WARNS SETTLERS
Morris Markham, a White trader, arrived at the Gardner cabin on the night of March 8. He intended to visit the settlers at the lakes. He saw only dead bodies. He knew what had happened, and that the other settlers must be warned. It was so cold that night that Markham could not sleep. He stayed near by the ravine. In the morning he started for Springfield, Minnesota, the nearest settlement, which was 18 miles away. Markham had been without anything to eat for days. The snow was deep, but he got to Springfield in time to warn the settlers.
INDIANS MAKE ESCAPE
The Indians attacked Springfield and killed a few white people. Then they fled to the northwest. Relief expeditions were sent out from Ft. Dodge and Webster City, and soldiers tried to catch the Indians. Because of the heavy snow they escaped. They were never punished. Roaring Cloud was shot by some soldiers who were sent after him, but Inkapaduta died years later in Canada, where he had fled for safety.
Many years afterward, Abbie Gardner, then Mrs. Sharp, wrote a book about her experiences. She bought the old Gardner cabin. Monuments have been put up by the state for those who were killed in the massacre.
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THE DISCOVERY OF IOWA
LOUIS JOLIET
Louis Joliet, the son of the wagon maker, was born in Quebec. He was educated by the Jesuits for the priesthood but became a wanderer and sailed to France. Later he returned home and traveled into the wilderness. He learned to speak several Indians languages. Like other Frenchmen, Joliet had heard of a great river and a beautiful land. This land was farther west than any Frenchman had ever traveled. He decided that he wanted to find it.
Early in the year 1673 the French governor of Canada decided to send someone to explorer this great river and this wonderful land. He picked Joliet as the best man he could get for the task. Usually a priest also went along on such trips. The priests were sent as missionaries to the Indians. They were educated men and could make maps and keep good records of their trips.
ATHER MARQUETTE
Several priests wanted to go with Joliet. Father marquette was chosen. He had heard that the Illinois tribe of indians were very smart. Since he had learned to speak their language he was anxious to visit them.
Father Marquette was twelve years older than Joliet. He was born in France and had gone to school there. Soon after he came to Quebec in September,1666, he was sent to a mission church on the Great Lakes. He was especially interested in Indians and learned to speak six of the Red Man's languages. The Indians liked him because he was brave an friendly.
THE JOURNEY
Marquette and Joliet took five French Canadian woodsman along to paddle the canoes and to help them with their work. Only two canoes of the Canadian type were taken. They were birch-bark canoes, built with cedar splints, ribs of spruce roots and covered with yellow-pine pitch. They were light but very strong. For food they took only Indian corn and some smoked meat. They expected to get most of their food along the way. They took guns, ammunition, gifts for the Indian tribes, and paper on which to keep records of the trip.
We learn of the trip through Marquette's written account of it and from what Joliet could remember about it. Joliet on his way back to the french governor had the misfortune to upset his canoe and to lose all his records.
On May 17, 1673, mass was held in the little rude church at point St. Ignance, at the outlet of Lake Michigan. After this the brave Frenchmen boldly set out on their trip. The first part of it, over the waters of Lake Michigan, was easy.
Soon they met the first Indian tribe. It was a tribe of wildrice eaters. They were friendly. The white men got food and guides from them. Father Marquette tells us in his journal that he liked the wild rice very much. These Indians gave Marquette and Joliet warnings about the terrible tribes that they would meet farther west. They said,too, that it was hard to travel on the rivers.
Father marquette writes of many things that were new and of interest to the frenchmen. There were fish such as they had never seen before. Marquette tells in his journal of a large one that nearly upset his canoes. Occasionally the Frenchmen would would go on land to hunt. They killed "Wild Cattle," as they called the buffalo, and other strange animals. The explorers usually slept in their canoes, which were anchored near shore. They did not camp on land for fear of an attack by unfriendly Indians.
IOWA LAND
The Frenchmen floated down the Wisconsin River for several days. Suddenly, on June17, 1673, they came upon the great river. There they gazed for the first time upon Iowa land. It was across from where Prairie du Chien is now. Marquette wrote, "We entered the Mississippi with a joy I cannot express." It was the first time, in so far as we know for sure, that any white man had seen Iowa land or the upper Mississippi River.
Eight days went by on the Mississippi without seeing any signs of human beings. Then, on June 25, one of the men saw footprints on the sand. Quickly the canoes were brought to shore. The footprints led to a path. The Frenchmen did not know what to do. They did not know how the Indians would treat them. Finally, it was decided that Marquette and Joliet would go alone and unarmed. If the Indians saw but two men and those without guns, they would know that the white men could do them no harm. The five boatmen were left with the canoes and were told that if anything happened to their leaders they were to return home at once with the records.
Marquette and Joliet followed the path for several miles until they came to an Indian village. We do not know just where the village was located, but it was in Southern Iowa, near the Mississippi. As they came near the village. Soon four chiefs carrying peace pipes came to meet the White men. Marquette was glad when he found that the Indians were of the Illinois tribe.
The two Frenchmen smoked the pipe of peace with the Indians. A great feast was held and presents were exchanged. The next day, after learning all they could about the great river and the lands near it, the Frenchmen left. They visited two more villages and soon left Iowa land, never to see it again. They returned to Canada by way of the Illinois River.
Marquette and Joliet paid Iowa but a short visit. Their trip however, became famous and important. It caused other to follow them and France later claimed the great Mississippi Valley region, largely because of this trip.