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         INDIAN OCCUPANCY. When the red men made their homes throughout this section they always selected the most beautiful locations. Living themselves in a state of nature, they have an eye for the beautiful, and therefore dwell where nature is at its best. It is not therefore to be wondered at that the region of country now comprising the county of Louisa was for many years their home, and when the time came for them to take up their line of march toward the setting sun they were loth to go. When the Rock River country in Illinois had to be abandoned, and the red men inhabiting that region were compelled to cross the Mississippi River, they had choice of a vast region in which to make their homes. In all this beautiful land no part was more pleasing to their eye than that portion where the Iowa River pours its volume of waters into the mighty Mississippi. Along the banks of the former stream they could wander to and fro, fishing in its waters, drinking in the beauties of the lovely scene untouched by man, and as it came from the Creator of the universe. Prior to 1832, when the noted Black Hawk with his braves returned to Illinois that he might repossess the country of his birth, he occupied a village where afterward the village of Florence was located.

At the close of the Black Hawk War a large portion of what is now the State of Iowa was ceded by the Indians to the General Government. Keokuk, a noted chief of the Sac and Fox Indians, would not join Black Hawk in war, and for his fidelity to the Government a portion of the territory was reserved to him, known as Keokuk’s Reserve. Louisa County now embraces the principal portion of this reserve. This land remained in possession of Keokuk until 1836, when it was purchased by the General Government. The treaty by which this land was secured was made Sept. 28, 1836, and possession was given in December of the same year.

The following account of the Sac and Fox Indians is from an old volume published about the close of the Black Hawk War:

“The Sacs and Foxes speak the Algonquin language. The language is still spoken by the Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Ottawas, and some other tribes. It is soft and musical in comparison with the harsh guttural Narcoutah of the Sioux, which is peculiar to themselves, having but little affinity to the Algonquin tongues. Their ideas of futurity are somewhat vague and indefinite. They believe in the existence of a Supreme Manitou, or good spirit, and a Malcha Manitou, or evil spirit. They often invoke the favor of the good Manitou for success in war and the hunt, by various sacrifices and offerings. Storm and thunder they view as manifestations of his wrath; and success in war, the hunt, or in deliverance from enemies, of his favor and love. Everything of great power or efficiency, or what is inexplicable, is a “great medicine,” and the medicine men and prophets are next in consideration to chiefs. At the decease of their friends . . .

Pg 591

. . . they paint their faces black, and the time of mourning is governed by the affinity of the kindred. Their ideas of the condition of departed spirits and the ceremony of burial may be deemed interesting. Often, in perambulating their deserted villages, has my attention been arrested, in gazing through the bleached and mutilated slabs made to protect the moldering dust of a noted chief or “brave,” who is frequently placed in a sitting posture, his gun and his war-club placed by his side, moccasins upon his feet, his blanket (or the remnants thereof) wrapped about his body, his beads and wampum suspended from his neck, where he sits ‘like a warrior taking his rest,’ in the deep sleep of death.

“The situation of their villages are, oftentimes, extremely beautiful and picturesque. The rude architecture of their lodges; the droves of Indian ponies galloping over the prairies, and snorting at the approach of white men; the squaws busily engaged in preparing food, or perhaps, ‘toting’ a back-load of faggots that would frighten a New York porter, while their ‘lazy lords’ sit smoking upon the grass, or quietly sleeping in their lodges; the young papooses swarming the river bank, and, with bow and arrow, exercising their infant archery upon every prairie flower or luckless bird; or, perchance, the gaily painted warrior, mounted upon his prancing steed, his feathers streaming to the breeze, as he gallops from village to village with the fleetness of the wind, are objects which, to the traveler unaccustomed to Indian habits and character, are full of intense interest and novelty.

“Sometimes, midway between two villages, or, perhaps, off in the prairie, may be seen a hundred young warriors from each clan, ‘picked men,’ who have won laurels on the battle-field. They have met (per agreement) to exercise their feats in the race or the ancient games, the prize being, perhaps, two or three horses, a rifle, or a war-club; the old warriors or chiefs of each village looking on as judges. Great interest is manifested on these occasions, and the same ambitious emulation for rivalry is exhibited in these children of nature as among those who play their part beneath the gilded domes of the city.

“The dress of the males generally consists of leggings, fitting closely from the loins to the ankles, usually of smoke-tanned deerskin, and often of blue and sometimes red cloth, trimmed with fringe and beads in a variety of fantastic forms. They wear a white and, frequently, a scarlet-colored blanket thrown over the shoulders. Their moccasins are of deerskin, often trimmed with extreme taste, with beads and porcupine quills. Their head-dress is of various fashions, oftentimes indescribable. A chief or warrior’s head-dress consists of a profusion of scarlet-colored hair, and long black beards of the wild turkey connected to the scalplock, and not infrequently a silver band or a richly beaded turban. Their ears are strung with rings and trinkets, their arms with bracelets of brass, tin, silver and steel, and their necks are often strung with a profusion of wampum. A tolerably correct idea may be formed of the riches and taste of a young Indian by the number of strings of wampum around his neck. This may be considered their legal tender, as no treaty was ever formed or pipe of friendship smoked betwixt different Indian tribes without an exchange of wampum.

“No Indians exult more than the Sacs and Foxes in a triumphant skirmish with their enemies, and none more proudly exhibit their bloody trophies. They frequently have several scalps suspended on a spear or connected with their dress. As an evidence of the value they place upon these emblems of merciless victory, I will relate an incident of my attempt to get one of a veteran Sac brave. I had witnessed him for several days passing my window on a little pony, proudly waving his boquet of scalps, connected with beads, ribbons and eagle’s feathers, tied with a rattlesnake-skin upon a spear. Having a desire to obtain one, after three days’ unsuccessful negotiation, during which time I offered him money, calico, beads, powder and tobacco, he finally consented to part with it for one box, i. e. $1,000.

“They place great reliance in dreams, and the intrepid warrior who awakes in the morning from a night of troublesome dreams is dejected and melancholy. Sometimes they imagine that an evil spirit or sorcerer has inflicted a spell, after the manner of witches of former times. Keokuk had an aged squaw killed because she had inflicted a spell upon some of his children.”