Who were the first
human
beings to inhabit the region now included in the State
of Iowa? The
question is more easily asked than answered. The first
white
settlements along the Atlantic coast were made early
in the seventeenth
century. More than a century elapsed after these
settlements were
established before evidences were discovered to show
that the interior
had once been peopled by a peculiar race.. These
evidences were found
in the numerous mounds and earthworks. Says one of the
reports of the
United States Bureau of Ethnology:"During a period
beginning some time
after the close of the Ice Age and ending with the
coming of the white
man or only a few generations before the central
part of North
America was inhabited by a people who had emerged to
some extent from
the darkness of savagery, had acquired certain
domestic arts, and
practiced some well-defined lines of industry. The
location and
boundaries inhabited by them are fairly well marked by
the mounds and
earthworks they erected."
The center of this ancient civilization if such it
may be called
appears to have been in the present State of Ohio.
Iowa may be regarded
as its western frontier. From the relics left the
people have been
given the name of "Mound Builders" by archaeologists.
Most of the
mounds discovered are conical in shape and when
explored generally are
found to contain skeletons. They have been designated
as burial mounds.
Others are in the form of truncated pyramids that
is, square or
rectangular at the base and flat on the top. The
mounds of this class
are usually higher than the burial mounds and are
supposed to have been
lookouts or signal stations. Here and there are to be
seen well-defined
lines of earthworks, indicating that they had been
used as a means of
defense against invading enemies. In a few instances,
the discovery of
a large mound, surrounded by an embankment, outside of
which are a
number of smaller mounds, has given rise to the theory
that such places
were centers of religious worship or sacrifice. Cyrus
Thomas, of the
United States Bureau of Ethnology, has divided the
region inhabited by
the Mound Builders into eight districts, in each of
which there are
certain characteristics not common to the others.
These districts are
as follows:
i. The Dakotah District, which includes North and
South Dakota,
Minnesota, Wisconsin and the northeastern corner of
Iowa. The
distinguishing features of this district are the
effigy mounds, which
are constructed in the form of some bird or animal.
They are believed
to have represented the totem of a tribe, or some
living creature that
was an object of veneration. The burial mounds in this
district are
comparatively small. In some places are mounds with an
outline of
stone, which is filled in with earth.
2. The Huron-Iroquois District, which embraces the
country once
inhabited by the Huron and Iroquois Indians. It
includes the lower
peninsula of Michigan, a strip across Northern Ohio,
the greater part
of New York, and extends northward into Canada. Burial
mounds are
numerous throughout this district, a few
fortifications have been
noted, and hut rings, or foundations of ancient
dwellings, are
plentiful.
3. The Illinois District, embracing the middle and
eastern portions of
Iowa, Northeastern Missouri, the northern part of
Illinois and the
western half of Indiana. Along the western side of the
Mississippi the
burial mounds in this district gradually grow smaller
as one travels
toward the south. When representatives of the Bureau
of Ethnology
explored this district they discovered that: "Upon the
bluffs near the
junction of the Des Moines River with the Mississippi
were many
circular mounds, most of which have been opened and
numerous articles,
mostly of intrusive burials, obtained there- from.
Several were opened
by the bureau agent, but nothing was found in them
save decayed human
bones, fragments of pottery and stone chips." The
mounds thus referred
to are in Lee County.
4. The Ohio District, which takes in the eastern half
of Indiana, all
of Ohio, except the strip above referred to as
belonging to the
Huron-Iroquois District, and the southwestern part of
West Vir- ginia.
In this district both the burial mounds and the
fortifications are
numerous, and the former are larger than the burial
grounds found
elsewhere, frequently having a diameter of one hundred
feet or more and
rising to a height of eighty feet. More than ten
thousand mounds have
been explored in the State of Ohio alone. The Great
Serpent, a
fortification in the form of a snake, situated on a
bluff in Adams
County, Ohio, is one of the most perfect specimens of
this class of
mounds so far discovered, and the Grave Creek Mound,
in West Virginia,
is one of the greatest lookout or signal station
mounds. There are also
a number of sacrificial mounds, surrounded by
embankments.
5. The Appalachian District, which includes the
mountainous regions of
Eastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina,
Southwestern Virginia and
the northern portion of Georgia. Throughout this
district have been
found abundant evidences that the tribe inhabiting it
was different in
many respects from the people of the other districts.
The mounds are of
a different construction, stone graves are numerous,
and among the
relics discovered are a number of more or less
ornamental tobacco pipes
and utensils of copper.
6. The Tennessee District, embracing Middle and
Western Tennessee,
Southern Illinois, nearly all of Kentucky, a strip
through the central
part of Georgia and a small section of Northern
Alabama. Here pottery
is plentiful, especially the long-necked water jar.
The fortifications
of this district are distinguished by covered ways
leading to the
streams, indicating that they were constructed with a
view to
withstanding a siege. Several stone images, believed
to have been used
as idols, have also been found in the mounds of this
district.
7. The Arkansas District, including the entire State
of Arkansas, part
of Northern Louisiana and the southeastern corner of
Missouri. Pottery
has been found in abundance in this district, hut
rings and village
sites have been discovered, though the burial mounds
are small and few
in number.
8. The Gulf District, which, as its name indicates,
includes the region
along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In this
district are a number of
fine truncated pyramids, some of them with terraces;
skeletons buried
in bark coffins have been found; other skeletons have
been found in
caves, and the entire district is rich in pottery,
polished stones,
weapons of obsidian, etc.
Who were the Mound Builders? Various authors have
written upon the
subject and nearly everyone has a theory as to their
origin. Some
maintain that they first established their
civilization in the Ohio
Valley, whence they worked their way gradually
southward into Mexico
and Central America, where the white man found their
descendants in the
Aztec Indians. Others, with arguments equally as
plausible and logical,
contend that the Mound Builders originated in the
South and migrated
northward to the region of the Great Lakes, where
their progress was
checked by hostile tribes. Practically all the early
writers were
agreed upon one thing, and that was that the Mound
Builders were a very
ancient race. The principal reasons for this view were
that the Indians
had no traditions concerning many of the relics, and
upon the mounds
and earthworks discovered were trees of several feet
diameter,
indicating that the works were of great antiquity.
Among the earliest writers on the subject were Squier
and Davis, who
about the middle of the nineteenth century published a
work entitled
"Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." Between
the years 1845
and 1848 these two investigators opened over two
hundred mounds, the
description of which was published by the Smithsonian
Institution.
Following the lead of Squier and Davis, other
investigators claimed the
Mound Builders, who once inhabited the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys at
a period more or less remote, were of a different race
from the Indians
found here by the white man. In more recent years
archaeologists, who
have made extensive research among the mounds, and
those who have given
the ancient relics the closest study in connection
with the Bureau of
Ethnology, are practically a unit in the conclusion
that the Mound
Builder was nothing more than the ancestor of the
Indian.
Early French and Spanish explorers in the southern
part of the United
States found that among the Natchez Indians the house
of the chief was
always built upon an artificial mound. Says Margry:
"When the chief
dies they demolish his cabin and then raise a new
mound, on which they
build the cabin of the chief who is to replace the one
deceased in this
dignity, for the chief never lodges in the house of
his predecessor."
How long this custom had prevailed no one knows, but
it might be the
reason for a large number of artificial mounds in the
country once
inhabited by the Natchez and their ancestors. The
Yamasees of Georgia
built mounds over those killed in battle, and
Charlevoix found among
the Canadian tribes earthworks resembling those of the
Huron-Iroquois
District of Thomas' Division. In the early exploration
of the mounds,
some surprise was manifested at the presence of
charcoal and burnt or
baked clay. Subsequent investigations have disclosed
the fact that
among certain tribes, particularly in the lower
Mississippi country,
the family hut was built upon an artificial mound,
usually of small
dimensions. The house was constructed of poles and
plastered with mud.
Upon the death of the head of the family, the body was
buried under the
center of the house, which was then burned. This
custom, practiced
perhaps for many generations, would account for the
great number of
small mounds, each containing a single skeleton.
Again, among some of
the southwestern tribes, white men have found pottery
very similar in
texture and design to that found in some of the
ancient mounds. In the
light of these discoveries it is not surprising that
the Indian
ancestry theory has made great headway within the last
few years, and
that a majority of the leading archaeologists of the
country advocate
that theory. Says Thomas: "The hope of ultimately
solving the great
problems is perhaps as lively today as in former
years. But with the
vast increase of knowledge in recent years, a
modification of the hope
entertained has taken place."
While much of this general history and description of
the Mound
Builders is not directly applicable to Lee County, it
is hoped that the
reader will find it of interest, inasmuch as it throws
some light upon
the people who formerly inhabited this section of the
country and
enables one to understand better the character of the
mounds found in
the county.
Several interesting mounds have been opened and
explored in Iowa. In
one in Marion County was found a number of pieces of
pottery, some of
them of graceful outline, and a copper spear head
about five inches in
length. A large mound in Boone County oval in form
and 90 by no feet
at the base was investigated in 1908. About four
thousand pieces of
pottery, some of them indicating that the vessels were
three feet in
diameter, were found in the center of the mound, with
a collection of
shells, four or five human skulls, a few bones and a
large pile of
ashes and charcoal. Upon the summit of this mound were
two oak trees
two feet in diameter. Some years ago Justus M. T.
Myers wrote the
following concerning the mounds of Lee County: "As far
as I know, there
are some fifteen or twenty mounds on my father's farm,
in Green Bay
Township, and several others on adjoining farms, all
of which are of
oval formation, from two to seven feet in height and
from twelve to
thirty feet in diameter. I have drifted into some of
these mounds and
found pieces of flint, pottery, and bones, both human
and animal. Some
of the bones were burnt or charred, as if the
occupants of the country
at that period of time cremated their dead, or
sacrificed them as burnt
offerings. In one of the mounds I found thirty-two
human skeletons,
that had evidently been left there at the time of
sepulture in a
sitting position, but had fallen over with the lapse
of time, until
their heads were drooping down between their legs when
I uncovered
them. The skeletons were incased in limestone vaults
that had been made
by setting broad stones on their edges, and covered
over with broad,
flat stones. Some of these stones would weigh as much
as two hundred
and fifty or two hundred and seventy-five pounds."
As the nearest known limestone beds are fully a mile
and a half from
the location of this mound, it would be interesting to
know the mode of
conveyance used by the Mound Builders in transporting
these heavy
stones.
Several small mounds have been discovered near Wever,
and those farther
down the Mississippi have already been mentioned in
connection with
Thomas' District No. 3. There are also some small
mounds in other parts
of the county, but none of historic importance.
The Indians
When the first white men came from Europe they found
the continent of
North America inhabited by a race of copper colored
people, to whom
they gave the name of Indians. This race was divided
into several
groups of families, each of which was distinguished by
certain physical
and linguistic characteristics. In the extreme north
were the Eskimo, a
tribe that has never played any conspicuous part in
history. The great
Algonquian family inhabited a large triangle, roughly
bounded by a line
drawn from the most eastern point of Labrador in a
southwesterly
direction to the western end of Lake Superior; another
line from that
point to the Atlantic coast near Cape Hatteras, and
the coast line from
there to the place of beginning. In the heart of the
Algonquian
country, along the shores of Lake Ontario, were the
Iroquoian tribes
the Senecas, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas and Cayugas
known as the
"Five Nations." South of the Algonquian family, in the
southeastern
part of the United States, lay the country occupied by
the Muskhogean
group, the principal tribes of which were the
Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek
and Chickasaw. To the northwest, about the source of
the Mississippi
River, were the brave and warlike Siouan tribes, while
the country
farther west was inhabited by the fierce Comanche,
Apache and other
tribes, closely allied to the Sioux in appearance,
habits and dialect.
Among the Algonquian tribes the Illinois or Illini,
as they were at
first known were probably the first tribe to inhabit
the region now
included in Lee County. In the latter part of the
seventeenth century,
according to their traditions, they were once a
powerful nation,
consisting of five subordinate tribes, viz.: The
Kaskaskia, Peoria,
Tamaroa, Michigani and Cahokia. Besides their country
east of the
Mississippi, they occupied a large district between
that river and the
Des Moines, in what is now the southeastern part of
Iowa. Here a band
of them were met by Marquette and Joliet on their
voyage down the
Mississippi in 1673. The tribal traditions also relate
that they once
lived farther eastward, but were driven back by the
warlike Iroquois.
The Ottawa chief, Pontiac, who led the uprising
against the white
settlements and posts in 1763, was assassinated by
some of the Illini
in 1769, whereupon the Sacs and Foxes, allies of
Pontiac, declared war
against the Illini and in time almost exterminated the
tribe.
The Iowa Indians (Sleepy Ones), the tribe from which
the state takes
its name, were one of the southern Siouan tribes,
included by Dorsey
with the Otoes and Missouris in his Chiwere group.
According to their
traditions, they once formed part of the Winnebago
nation, with which
they lived north of the Great Lakes. On the shores of
Lake Michigan
they separated from the Winnebago and received the
name of "Gray Snow."
They were first noticed by white men in 1690, when
they were living in
the vicinity of Lake Michigan under a chief named
Man-haw-gaw. The
first stopping place of the tribe, after separating
from the Winnebago,
was on the Rock River, in Illinois, a short distance
above its mouth.
School- craft says this tribe migrated no less than
fifteen times. In
1700 Le Sueur found some of them near the present town
of Red Earth,
Minnesota, where they were engaged in tilling the
soil, and three-
quarters of a century later a small band of them was
living near
Peoria, Illinois. In 1848 one of the tribe prepared a
map showing the
movements of the Iowas from the time they settled on
the Rock River.
The tradition accompanying the map says: "The tribe
separated from the
Sacs and Foxes and wandered off westward in search of
a new home.
Crossing the Mississippi River, they turned southward
and reached a
high bluff near the mouth of the Iowa River. Looking
off over the
beautiful valley spread out before them, they halted,
exclaiming,
'Ioway!' signifying in their language 'This is the
place!' "
The territory thus appropriated by the Iowas included
the present
County of Lee, though the tribe afterward established
its head-
quarters in what is now Mahaska County, which bears
the name of a noted
Iowa chief. Lewis and Clark met some of this tribe in
their expedition
up the Missouri in 1804 and refer to them in the
journal as the
"Ayouways," though the name is generally written
"Iowa" or "Ioway" by
historians. The tribe has long since disappeared, but
the name remains
to designate one of the great states of the
Mississippi Valley.
The Sacs and Foxes, the principal Indians in Iowa
history, are always
spoken of as one people, though originally they were
two separate and
distinct tribes of the great Algonquian family.
Evidence, traditionary
and otherwise, shows that the Foxes, in the early part
of the
seventeenth century, lived on the Atlantic Coast, in
the vicinity of
Rhode Island. Their Indian name was Mesh-kwa-ke-hug
(nearly always
written Musquakies), signifying "red earth people. 1 '
The name Fox
originated with the French, who called these Indians
Reynors. In 1634
Jean Nicollet found some of them near Green Bay, in
what is now the
State of Wisconsin. Three years later Claude Allouez,
a Jesuit
missionary, visited a Musquakie village on Wolf River,
in Wisconsin,
which had a population of about five thousand.
The Sacs also called Sauks or Saukies were called
the "people of
the outlet" and were first encountered by white men in
Eastern
Michigan, about Saginaw Bay, where they were allied
with the Ottawa and
Pottawatomi tribes. Subsequently they removed to the
neighborhood of
Green Bay, Wisconsin. According to Dorsey, the tribe
was divided into
fourteen gentes, viz. : Trout, Sturgeon, Bass, Great
Lynx, Sea, Fox,
Wolf, Bear, Potato, Elk, Swan, Grouse, Eagle and
Thunder.
In 1712 the Foxes joined in the attack on the French
post at Detroit
and were defeated with heavy loss. They then located
on the Fox River,
not far from Green Bay, where Nicollet had found some
of the tribe
three-quarters of a century before. A few years later
the Dutch and
English traders operating in Wisconsin and Northern
Michigan formed an
alliance with the Musquakies for the purpose of
driving out the French.
As a measure of defense, the French traders enlisted
the cooperation of
the Ottawa, Pottawatomi, Huron and some minor tribes.
In the war which
ensued the Musquakies were defeated and found a refuge
among the Sacs.
De Villiers, a French officer, with a force of French
soldiers and
Indian allies, marched to the Sac village and demanded
the surrender of
the refugees. The demand was refused and a battle
occurred which lasted
for several hours, the Indians finally meeting defeat,
but the refugees
were not surrendered to the victors.
The Sacs and Foxes then formed an alliance and moved
west-ward, but
were soon afterward driven from their new territory by
the Ottawa and
Chippewa Indians, allies of the French. About 1780
they crossed the
Mississippi near Prairie du Chien and established
themselves in Iowa,
about where the City of Dubuque now stands. Before
that time some of
the Sacs had dwelt on the Rock River, in Illinois,
where they had a
village called Sau-ke-nuk. According to the chief,
Black Hawk, this
village was established about 1731 . In the early part
of the
nineteenth century there were about eight thou- sand
Sacs and Foxes
still living in that locality. In 1788 those who had
crossed over into
Iowa sold part of their lands to Julien Dubuque, who
was the first
white man to establish himself permanently in Iowa.
When Lieut. Zebulon
M. Pike went up the Mississippi in 1805, ne visited
the Sac and Fox
villages at the mouth of the Rock River and in
Northern Iowa.
Although the Sacs and Foxes are commonly regarded as
one people, their
alliance was more in the nature of a confederacy, each
tribe
maintaining its identity, though one chief ruled over
both. Two of the
greatest chiefs in the history of the North American
Indians belonged
to these allied tribes. They were Black Hawk and
Keokuk, both born of
Sac parents yet acknowledged chiefs by the Foxes. The
former was a
warrior and the latter a diplomat.
Black Hawk, whose Indian name was
Ma-ka-ta-wi-mesha-ka-ka, was born at
the Sac Village on the Rock River in 1767, a son of
Py-e-sa, who was a
direct descendant of Nan-a-ma-kee (Thunder) , to whom
the great
medicine bag of the Sac nation was entrusted by the
Great Spirit. Black
Hawk was trained in the arts of war by his father and
established his
prowess in battle before he was nineteen years of age.
About that time
his father was mortally wounded in an encounter with
the Cherokees and
upon his death the medicine bag passed to the custody
of Black Hawk.
This medicine bag represented the soul of the Sac
nation and had never
been disgraced. To prepare himself for preserving it
unsullied, Black
Hawk took no part in war for five years after the
death of his father,
praying to the Great Spirit for strength and wisdom to
discharge his
onerous duty. During that period he would frequently
go to the
promontory near his home on the Rock River, where he
would spend hours
in smoking and thinking. This headland has been named
"Black Hawk's
Watch Tower."
Black Hawk was dissatisfied with the terms of the
treaty of 1804, an
account of which is given in another chapter, and when
the relations
between the United States and Great Britain became
strained in 1812,
the British Government took advantage of his
dissatisfaction and
secured his cooperation. Colonel Dixon, the English
officer in command
at Green Bay, sent two large pirogues loaded with
goods to the Sac
Village on the Rock River, and then went in person to
superintend the
distribution of the goods among the inhabitants. No
better man could
have been selected by the British authorities. Dixon
was naturally
crafty and thoroughly understood the Indian character.
When he took the
hand of Black Hawk he said: "You will now hold us fast
by the hand.
Your English father has found that the Americans want
to take your
country from you and has sent me and my braves to
drive them back to
their own country."
This speech won Black Hawk, who joined the British and
was with the
Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, when the latter fell in the
Battle of the
Thames. The British were defeated in the War of 1812
and the United
States proceeded to enforce the provisions of the
Treaty of 1804, by
ordering the Sacs and Foxes to remove to new territory
west of the
Mississippi River. While part of the Indians
acquiesced, Black Hawk and
his followers remained obstinate. Their discontent
finally culminated
in the "Black Hawk war," an account of which will be
found in Chapter
IV, in connection with the history of the treaty that
led up to it.
At the close of the Black Hawk war the Federal
Government recognized
Keokuk as the principal chief of the Sacs and Foxes.
It is said that
when the announcement of this recognition was made in
open council,
Black Hawk became so angry that he jerked off his loin
cloth and
slapped Keokuk in the face with it. A writer in one of
the reports of
the United States Bureau of Ethnology says: "The act
of creating Keokuk
chief of the Sacs has always been regarded with
ridicule by both the
Sacs and the Foxes, for the reason that he was not of
the ruling clan."
After being deposed as chief, Black Hawk retired to
the banks of the
Des Moines River, near Iowaville, where he passed his
declining years
in peace. His last public utterance was on July 4,
1838, when he was a
guest at a celebration at Fort Madison. In response to
the toast: "Our
illustrious guest Black Hawk," he said
"It has pleased the Great Spirit that I am here today.
I have eaten
with my white friends. It is good. A few summers ago I
was fighting
you. I may have done wrong. But that is past. Let it
be forgotten. Rock
River Valley was my beautiful country. I loved my
villages, my
cornfields and the home of my people. I fought for
them. They are now
yours. I was once a great warrior. Now I am old and
poor. Keokuk has
been the cause of my downfall. I have looked upon the
Mississippi since
I was a child. I love the great river. I have dwelt
upon its banks from
the time I was an infant.
Chief Keokuk
Photographed
from an original
daguerreotype. This daguerreotype was
procured by a Mr. Rentgen, a commission merchant,
who induced Keokuk to
sit for the picture in the latter '30s.
I look upon it
now
and I am sad. I shake hands with you. As it is my
wish, I hope we are now friends. I may not see you
again. Farewell."
The last words of this speech appear to have been
prophetic, as the old
chief died on October 3, 1838, at the age of
seventy-one years. About a
year later it was learned that his bones had been
taken from the grave,
but they were subsequently recovered through the
efforts of Governor
Lucas and sent to St. Louis, where they were cleaned
and wired
together. The skeleton was then returned to the
governor's office and
Black Hawk's sons were content to let it remain there.
It was afterward
given to the Burlington Geological and Historical
Society and was among
the collections that were destroyed by fire in 1855.
Black Hawk has been described as five feet ten inches
in height, with
broad shoulders and of commanding appearance. As a
warrior and chief he
had a wide reputation among his own and the
neighboring tribes. A
writer who knew him says: "He was inflexible in
matters relating to
right and wrong, and never consulted expediency. He
never made war
through malice or to gratify a personal grievance, but
to protect his
people from the encroachments of the white man.
He loved his
country and was a patriot."
Keokuk (the Watchful Fox) was born near Rock Island,
Illinois, in 1788.
It is said that his mother was a French half-breed. He
was therefore
not a chief by heredity, but arose to that position
through his
diplomacy. When a young man he was admitted to the Sac
Council as a
member and subsequently was made the tribal guest
keeper. One of his
biographers says : "He was ambitious and while always
involved in
intrigue never exposed himself to his enemies, but
cunningly played one
faction against the other for his personal advantage."
At the time of the Black Hawk war he was the leader of
the peace party
and managed to convert a majority of the men of the
tribe to his view,
leaving Black Hawk with a force entirely too small to
hope for success.
While the war was in progress some of Keokuk's
warriors became
dissatisfied with the peace policy and began making
preparations to
take the field. A war dance was held, in which Keokuk
took part,
apparently moved with the spirit of discontent that
pervaded the tribe.
At the conclusion of the dance a council was held to
make preparations
for war. Keokuk addressed that council as follows:
"Warriors: I am your chief. It is my duty to lead you
to war if you are
determined to go. But, remember, the United States is
a great nation.
Unless we conquer them we must perish. I will lead you
to war against
the white men on one condition. That is we shall first
put all our old
men, our women and children to death, to save them
from a lingering
death by starvation, 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."
This speech checked the warlike sentiment among the
Indians and the
expedition some of them had been planning was
abandoned. It was
characteristic of Keokuk's methods in dealing with
weighty problems. In
the negotiations growing out of the Black Hawk war he
played so deftly
into the hands of the Government officials that he was
declared by the
United States to be the head chief of the Sac and Fox
allied tribes.
Keokuk was fond of debate, in which he was always
cool, deliberate and
logical, sometimes growing intense and energetic in
his earnestness. In
the negotiations at Washington, D. C, he won the
regard of the Sacs,
Foxes and white men alike, when in a debate he
vanquished the Sioux and
other northern tribes and established the claim of the
Sacs and Foxes
to the territory now comprising the State of Iowa. He
was a man of far
more than ordinary ability, and though he disliked the
Foxes he managed
to retain his power as chief until after the removal
of the Indians to
Kansas in 1845. His death occurred in Kansas in the
spring of 1848, and
there is a rumor that he was poisoned by a member of
the tribe, because
he was charged with dishonestly appropriating money
received from the
Government for the Indians. In 1883 his remains were
brought to Keokuk,
Iowa, and interred in Rand Park. A monument was
erected over his grave
by the Keokuk Chapter, Daughters of the American
Revolution, and the
inscriptions on this monument practically tell the
story of his life.
The monument is a handsome bronze statue of the old
chief, mounted upon
a pedestal of limestone and facing the river. On the
east side of the
pedestal is a marble slab that was taken from his
grave in Kansas,
bearing the inscription: "Sacred to the memory of
Keokuch a
distinguished Sac Chief Born at Rock Island in 1788
Died in April
1848."
On the west side of the pedestal is another marble
slab which bears the
following inscription: "This monument is erected by
popular
subscription in memory of the SAC CHIEF, KEOKUK, for
whom the city is
named. In 1883 ms remains, together with the marble
slab on the reverse
side of this die, were brought from Franklin County,
Kansas, where he
died and was buried. His grave was located about three
and one-half
miles southeast of the Village of Pomona, Franklin
County, Kansas, on
the S. E. y 4 of the N. W. y A of section 16, township
17, range 18,
east of the 6th principal meridian and was covered by
the slab above
mentioned. His remains with other matter of historical
value are
deposited in the base of this structure."
The tablets on the north and south sides are of
bronze. On the north
side the inscription reads as follows:
To the Memory of the Pioneers who entered Iowa by
Keokuk the Gate
City and either settling in our State or passing
farther west travelled
over the well-worn road known as the Mormon Trail.
With this tablet the
Daughters of the American Revolution of Iowa
officially open the
marking of that early and important Pioneer Highway.
They crossed the
prairies as of old the Pilgrims crossed the sea; To
make the West as
they the East The homestead of the free. Erected
October, twenty-second
Nineteen Hundred and Thirteen."
The inscription on the south tablet is of a historic
nature and refers
to an incident in the life of Keokuk. It is as
follows:
"Keokuk's Speech in 1812 which made him a war chief:
'I have heard with
sorrow that you have determined to leave our village
and cross the
Mississippi, merely because you have been told that
the Americans were
coming in this direction. Would you leave our
village, desert our
homes and fly before an enemy approaches? Would you
leave all, even the
graves of our fathers, to the mercy of an enemy,
without trying to
defend them? Give me charge of your warriors and I
will defend the
village while you sleep.'
"This bronze statue of Keokuk was erected by popular
subscription,
through the efforts of the Keokuk Chapter, Daughters
of the American
Revolution. Unveiled October 22, 19 1 3.
Committee
Susie Smythe Collier, Chm.
Jane Ewing Blood
Anne B. Davis
Lorene Curtis Diver
Lida Hiller Lapsley
Winona Evans Reeves
Minnie Beardsley Newcomb
Marcia Jenkins Sawyer."
There was one chief of the Sacs and Foxes, who
although he never lived
in Lee County, is deserving of notice. That was
Matanequa, the last war
chief of the allied tribes. He was born at Dubuque in
1810 and was a
typical Indian, both in intellect and physique. Like
Keokuk, he was not
a chief by heredity, but won that distinction by his
bravery and
executive ability. He was one of the five sent out in
1857 to find a
place in Iowa for his band. In July of that year he
and his four
associates purchased eighty acres of land from a Tama
County pioneer,
to which they removed their men, women and children.
From time to time
other purchases were made until the band owned about
three thousand
acres. Matanequa was the last survivor of the five
who selected the
location. His death occurred on October 4, 1897, and
he was held in
such high esteem by the white people of Tama County
that many men
closed their places of business to attend the funeral.
He was known as
the "Warwick of the Musquakies," from the fact that
while he made
chiefs he was never king himself.
Chief Keokuk Monument in
the town of Keokuk
In this chapter the object has been to give the
history in brief of the
principal tribes that once inhabited Southeastern
Iowa, as well as
character sketches of their principal chiefs. In
another chapter will
be found an account of the treaties by which the white
man gained
possession of the territory.
Source: History
of
Lee County,
Iowa, by Dr. S. W. Moorhead and Nelson C.
Roberts, 1914
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