Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects The State of Iowa Indian Purchases, Reserves and Treaties

At the close of the Black Hawk War, in 1832, a treaty was made at a council held on the west bank of the Mississippi, where now stands the thriving city of Davenport, on grounds now occupied by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, on the 21st day of September, 1832. At this council, the United States were represented by Gen. Winfield Scott and Gov. Reynolds, of Illinois. Keokuk, Pash-a-pa-ho and some thirty other chiefs and warriors of the Sac and Fox nation were present. By this treaty, the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of land on the eastern border of Iowa fifty miles wide, from the northern boundary of Missouri to the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, containing about six million acres. The western line of the purchase was parallel with the Mississippi. In consideration of this cession, the United States Government stipulated to pay annually to the confederated tribes, for thirty consecutive years, twenty thousand dollars in specie, and to pay the debts of the Indians at Rock Island, which had been accumulating for seventeen years and amounted to fifty thousand dollars, due Davenport & Farnham, Indian traders. The Government also generously donated to the Sac and Fox women and children whose husbands and fathers had fallen in the Black Hawk war, thirty-five beef cattle, twelve bushels of salt, thirty barrels of pork, fifty barrels of flour and six thousand bushels of corn.

This territory is known as the "Black Hawk Purchase." Although it was not the first portion of Iowa ceded to the United States by the Sacs and Foxes, it was the first opened to actual settlement by the tide of emigration that flowed across the Mississippi as soon as the Indian title was extinguished. The treaty was ratified February 13, 1833, and took effect on the 1st of June following, when the Indians quietly removed from the ceded territory, and this fertile and beautiful region was opened to white settlers.

By the terms of the treaty, out of the Black Hawk Purchase was reserved for the Sacs and Foxes 400 square miles of land situated on the Iowa River, and inlcuding (sic) within its limits Keokuk's village, on the right bank of that river. This tract was known as "Keokuk's Reserve," and was occupied by the Indians until 1836 when, by a treaty made in September between them and Gov. Dodge, of Wisconsin Territory, it was ceded to the United States. The council was held on the banks of the Mississippi, above Davenport, and was the largest assemblage of the kind ever held by the Sacs and Foxes to treat for the sale of lands. About one thousand of their chiefs and braves were present, and Keokuk was their leading spirit and principal speaker on the occasion. By the terms of the treaty, the Sacs and Foxes were removed to another reservation on the Des Moines River, where an agency was established for them at what is now the town of Agency City.

Besides the Keokuk Reserve, the Government gave out of the Black Hawk Purchase to Antoine Le Claire, interpreter, in fee simple, one section of land opposite Rock Island, and another at the head of the first rapids above the island, on the Iowa side. This was the first land title granted by the United States to an individual in Iowa.

Soon after the removal of the Sacs and Foxes to their new reservation on the Des Moines River, Gen. Joseph M. Street was transferred from the agency of the Winnebagoes, at Prairie du Chien, to establish an agency among them. A farm was selected, on which the necessary buildings were erected, including a comfortable farm house for the agent and his family, at the expense of the Indian Fund. A salaried agent was employed to superintend the farm and dispose of the crops. Two mills were erected, one on Soap Creek and the other on Sugar Creek. The latter was soon swept away by a flood, but the former remained and did good service for many years. Connected with the agency were Joseph Smart and John Goodell, interpreters. The latter was interpreter for Hard Fish's band. Three of the Indian chiefs, Keokuk, Wapello and Appanoose, had each a large field improved, the two former on the right bank of the Des Moines, back from the river, in what is now "Keokuk's Prairie," and the latter on the present site of the city of Ottumwa. Among the traders connected with the agency were the Messrs. Ewing, from Ohio, and Phelps & Co., from Illinois, and also Mr. J. P. Eddy, who established his post at what is now the site of Eddyville.

The Indians at this agency became idle and listless in the absence of their natural and wonted excitements, and many of them plunged into dissipation. Keokuk himself became dissipated in the latter years of his life, and it has been reported that he died of delirium tremens after his removal with his tribe to Kansas.

In May, 1843, most of the Indians were removed up the Des Moines River, above the temporary line of Red Rock, having ceded the remnant of their lands in Iowa to the United States on the 21st of September, 1837, and on the 11th of October, 1842. By the terms of the latter treaty, they held possession of the "New Purchase" till (sic) the Autumn of 1845, when the most of them were removed to their reservation in Kansas, the balance being removed in the Spring of 1846.

1. Treaty with the Sioux.--Made July 19, 1815; ratified December 16, 1815. This treaty was made at Portage des Sioux, between the Sioux of Minnesota and Upper Iowa and the United States, by William Clark and Ninian Edwards, Commissioners, and was merely a treaty of peace and friendship on the part of those Indians toward the United States at the close of the war of 1812.

2. Treaty with the Sacs.--A similar treaty of peace was made at Portage des Sioux, between the United States and the Sacs, by William Clark, Ninian Edwards and Auguste Choteau, on the 13th of September, 1815, and ratified at the same date as the above. In this, the treaty of 1804 was re-affirmed, and the Sacs here represented promised for themselves and their bands to keep entirely separate from the Sacs of Rock River, who, under Black Hawk, had joined the British in the war just then closed.

3. Treaty with the Foxes.--A separate treaty of peace was made with the Foxes at Portage des Sioux, by the same Commissioners, on the 14th of September, 1815, and ratified the same as the above, wherein the Foxes re-affirmed the treaty of St. Louis, of November 3, 1804, and agreed to deliver up all their prisoners to the officer in command at Fort Clark, now Peoria, Illinois.

4. Treaty with the Iowas.--A treaty of peace and mutual good will was made between the United States and the Iowa tribe of Indians, at Portage des Sioux, by the same Commissioners as above, on the 16th of September, 1815, at the close of the war with Great Britain, and ratified at the same date as the others.

5. Treaty with the Sacs of Rock River.--Made at St. Louis on the 13th of May, 1816, between the United States and the Sacs of Rock River, by the Commissioners, William Clark, Ninian Edwards and Auguste Choteau, and ratified December 30, 1816. In this treaty, that of 1804 was re-established and confirmed by twenty-two chiefs and head men of the Sacs of Rock River, and Black Hawk himself attached to it his signature, or, as he said, "touched the goose quill."

6. Treaty of 1824--On the 4th of August, 1824, a treaty was made between the United States and the Sacs and Foxes, in the city of Washington, by William Clark, Commissioner, wherein the Sac and Fox nation relinquished their title to all lands in Missouri and that portion of the southeast corner of Iowa known as the "Half-Breed Tract" was set off and reserved for the use of the half-breeds of the Sacs and Foxes, they holding title in the same manner as Indians. Ratified January 18, 1825.

7. Treaty of August 19, 1825.--At this date a treaty was made by William Clark and Lewis Cass, at Prairie du Chien, between the United States and the Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes, Menomonees, Winnebagoes and a portion of the Ottawas and Pottawatomies. In this treaty, in order to make peace between the contending tribes as to the limits of their respective hunting grounds in Iowa, it was agreed that the United States Government should run a boundary lines between the Sioux, on the north, and the Sacs and Foxes, on the south, as follows:

Commending 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 Red Cedar River 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 Calumet River, and down that river to its junction with the Missouri River.

8. Treaty of 1830.--On the 15th of July, 1830, the confederate tribes of the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of country lying south of the above line, twenty miles in width, and extending along the line aforesaid from the Mississippi to the Des Moines River. The Sioux also, whose possessions were north of the line, ceded to the Government, in the same treaty, a like strip on the north side of the boundary. Thus the United States, at the ratification of this treaty, February 24, 1831, came into possession of a portion of Iowa forty miles wide, extending along the Clark and Cass line of 1825, from the Mississippi to the Des Moines River. This territory was known as the "Neutral Ground," and the tribes on either side of the line were allowed to fish and hunt on it unmolested till (sic) it was made a Winnebago reservation, and the Winnebagoes were removed to it in 1841.

9. Treaty with the Sacs and Foxes and other Tribes.--At the same time of the above treaty respecting the "Neutral Ground" (July 15, 1830), the Sacs and Foxes, Western Sioux, Omahas, Iowas and Missouris ceded to the United States a portion of the western slope of Iowa, the boundaries of which were defined as follows: Beginning at the upper fork of the Des Moines River, and passing the sources of the Little Sioux and Floyd Rivers, to the fork of the first creek that falls into the Big Sioux, or Calumet, on the east side; thence down said creek and the Calumet River to the Missouri River; thence down said Missouri River to the Missouri State line above the Kansas; thence along said line to the northwest corner of said State; thence to the high lands between the waters falling into the Missouri and Des Moines, passing to said high lands along the dividing ridge between the forks of the Grand River; thence along said high lands or ridge separating the waters of the Missouri from those of the Des Moines, to a point opposite the sources of the Boyer River, and thence in a direct line to the upper fork of the Des Moines, the place of beginning.

It was understood that the lands ceded and relinquished by this treaty were to be assigned and allotted, under the direction of the President of the United States, to the tribes then living thereon, or to such other tribes as the President might locate thereon for hunting and other purposes. In consideration of three tracts of land ceded in this treaty, the United States agreed to pay to the Sacs three thousand dollars; to the Foxes, three thousand dollars; to the Sioux, two thousand dollars; to the Yankton and Santie bands of Sioux, three thousand dollars; to the Omahas, two thousand five hundred dollars; and to the Ottoes and Missouris, two thousand five hundred dollars -- to be paid annually for ten successive years. In addition to these annuities, the Government agreed to furnish some of the tribes with blacksmiths and agricultural implements to the amount of two hundred dollars, at the expense of the United States, and to set apart three thousand dollars annually for the education of the children of these tribes. It does not appear that any fort was erected in this territory prior to the erection of Fort Atkinson on the Neutral Ground, in 1840-41.

This treaty was made by William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and Col. Willoughby Morgan, of the United States First Infantry, and came into effect by proclamation, February 24, 1831.

10. Treaty with the Winnebagoes.--Made at Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, September 15, 1832, by Gen. Winfield Scott and Hon. John Reynolds, Governor of Illiois. In this treaty the Winnebagoes ceded to the United States all their land lying on the east side of the Mississippi, and in part consideration therefor the United States granted to the Winnebagoes, to be held as other Indian lands are held, that portion of Iowa known as the Neutral Ground. The exchange of the two tracts of country was to take place on or before the 1st day of June, 1833. In addition to the Neutral Ground, it was stipulated that the United States should give the Winnebagoes, beginning in September, 1833, and continuing for twenty-seven successive years, ten thousand dollars in specie, and establish a school among them, with a farm and garden, and provide other facilities for the education of their children, not to exceed in cost three thousand dollars a year, and to continue the same for twenty-seven successive years. Six agriculturalists, twelve yoke of oxen and plows and other farming tools were to be supplied by the Government.

11. Treaty of 1832 with the Sacs and Foxes.--Already mentioned as the Black Hawk purchase.

12. Treaty of 1836, with the Sacs and Foxes, ceding Keokuk's Reserve to the United States; for which the Government stipulated to pay thirty thousand dollars, and an annuity of ten thousand dollars for ten successive years, together with other sums and debts of the Indians to various parties.

13. Treaty of 1837.--On the 21st of October, 1837, a treaty was made at the city of Washington, between Carey A. Harris, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the confederate tribes of Sacs and Foxes, ratified February 21, 1838, wherein another slice of the soil of Iowa was obtained, described in the treaty as follows: "A tract of country containing 1,250,000 acres, lying west and adjoinining the tract conveyed by them to the United States in the treaty of September 21, 1832. It is understood that the points of termination for the present cession shall be the northern and southern points of said tract as fixed by the survey made under the authority of the United States, and that a line shall be drawn between them so as to intersect a line extended eastwardly from the angle of said tract nearly opposite to Rock Island, as laid down in the above survey, so far as may be necessary to include the number of acres hereby ceded, which last mentioned line, it is estimated, will be about twenty-five miles."

This piece of land was twenty-five miles wide in the middle, and ran off to a point at both ends, lying directly back of the Black Hawk Purchase, and of the same length.

14. Treaty of Relinquishment.--At the same date as the above treaty, in the city of Washington, Carey A. Harris, Commissioner, the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States all their right and interest in the country lying south of the boundary line between the Sac and Foxes and the Sioux, as described in the treaty of August 19, 1825, and between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, the United States paying for the same one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The Indians also gave up all claims and interests under the treaties previously made with them, for the satisfaction of which no appropriations had been made.

15. Treaty of 1842.The last treaty was made with the Sacs and Foxes October 11, 1842; ratified March 23, 1843. It was made at the Sac and Fox agency (Agency City), by John Chambers, Commissioner on behalf of the Untied States. In this treaty the Sac and Fox Indians "ceded to the United States all their lands west of the Mississippi to which they had any claim or title." By the terms of this treaty they were to be removed from the country at the expiration of three years, and all who remained after that were to move at their own expense. Part of them were removed to Kansas in the Fall of 1845, and the rest the Spring following.