pg 23

It would be interesting, but apart from our purpose, to follow the further travels of Marquette and Joliet. Their friendly reception by the Illinois Indians caused Marquette to desire to establish a mission among them, but his life was cut short in a little less than two years, and this work fell into other hands. At the time of Marquette's visit, the Illinois were divided into several villages, some of which were many miles away and west from those visited by Marquette. The Illinois are described as of a mild and tractable disposition, though extremely warlike. They were skilled in the use of the bow and arrow, and in Marquette's time they already had guns, but used them chiefly to terrify by their noise and smoke other further western tribes who had little knowledge of firearms. They practiced polygamy and were very jealous of all their wives. They lived on wild game, such as deer, elk, buffalo, turkeys and prairie chickens and they raised corn, beans, and sometimes melons. Their villages consisted of cabins quite large, which were lined and floored with rush mats. They used wooden dishes and made excellent spoons from the bones of the buffalo. It is probable they roamed over a large extent of country on both sides of the Mississippi. As a result of their assassination of Pontiac in 1769, a war of extermination was commenced against the Illinois by Pontiac's followers, chief of whom were the Sacs and Foxes, and it is said that by the beginning of the nineteenth century the tribe of Illinois was almost exterminated.

Another tribe which once roamed over our prairies and inhabited our forests was that of the Ioways. It is supposed that a descendant of Manhaugan, about 1680 founded a village near the mouth of the Iowa river. Soon after, we hear of the Ioways with the Winnebagoes on Lake Michigan, and later, along Blue Earth river. In 1775 some of this tribe were found on the Ohio river during Dunmore's war, but the main body seem to have come down the Rock river with the Winnebagoes about this same time, passing thence down the Mississippi, probably on both sides of it to the mouth of the Des Moines, and up that river across Iowa to the Missouri.

There has come down an interesting story of the chivalry of this tribe which is worth preserving. About 1819 it seems that a member of the Sac tribe had treacherously killed an Ioway. Some time afterward, Black Hawk having discovered the murderer, decided to deliver him to the Ioways for punishment,...

pg 24

... but the murderer being sick, his brother offered to go in his place. Black Hawk, with a few of his braves, took the voluntary prisoner to the vicinity of the Ioway village, said to be near Iowaville, and the prisoner went forward alone to receive his punishment, chanting his death song as he entered the hostile village. Black Hawk returned, and on his way back was astonished to be overtaken at his first encampment by the prisoner, whom he had just escorted to the village and whom he supposed by that time had met a murderer's fate. It seems that the Iowas were greatly struck with the magnanimity of the Sac who had volunteered to suffer torture and death in the place of his sick brother, and, after many threats of execution, had not only released him but had given him two horses, one for himself and one for his sick brother.

Soon after the date of this incident, Black Hawk, having learned that the Ioways were about to march against his village on Rock river, made a forced march, and reached their village and attacked them while they were celebrating their return from a hunt. The victory of the Sacs and Foxes was complete and resulted in the transfer of the sovereignty of this region from the Ioways to the Sacs and Foxes.

But we of Louisa county are more interested in the history of the Sacs and Foxes than of any other tribe, because they were here when the first white men came to stake their claims.

Dr. Pickard, from whose lecture on "Iowa Indians" we have borrowed quite freely, says that there is an authentic tradition that these two tribes were at the mouth of the St. Lawrence river one hundred years before the coming of the French. After a long time and having pursued different routes, it seems that these tribes came together in the region of Green Bay. At that time it seems that the Foxes were called Outagamies, and in 1712 they joined the English Iroquois in an attack upon the French at Detroit, but were defeated and driven by the French over the Wisconsin river. As the result of conflicts with the Ottaways and Chippeways on the north, and the Sioux on the west, they moved southward and in about 1734 they crossed the Mississippi river above Dubuque and established themselves in that region. It was probably not long after this that they began to use the region about the mouth of the Iowa river as hunting grounds, for we find that in 1795 they were down as far as Montrose, and a half breed of the Sacs and Foxes had planted an apple orchard there. It was about this time that the beautiful and fertile hunting grounds of these Indians began to be coveted for the home of the white man, and in pondering over the various wars and treaties by which the aborigines have lost their ancient homes, while we may sympathize with their fate and drop a tear upon the grave of a departed race, we must remember that this land was not in any proper sense owned by these Indian tribes, nor did they themselves so regard it.

Speaking of this question, Roosevelt, in his "Winning of the West," says:

"It cannot be too often insisted that they did not own the land; or, at least, that their ownership was merely such as that claimed often by our own white hunters. If the Indians really owned Kentucky in 1775, then in 1776 it was the property of Boone and his associates; and to dispossess one party was as great a wrong as to disposes the other. To recognize the Indian ownership of the limitless prairies and forests of this continent—that is, to consider the...

pg 25

... dozen squalid savages who hunted at long intervals over a territory of a thousand square miles as owning it outright—necessarily implies a similar recognition of the claims of every white hunter, squatter, horse-thief, or wandering cattleman."

The best authorities estimate that the total number of Indians in the United States did not exceed at any time during the nineteenth century, more than about three hundred and fifteen thousand; and, if we count five persons to a family, this would give to each Indian family a principality of about forty-eight square miles, or over thirty thousand acres; and, applying this arithmetic to the present limits of the state of Iowa, we would have had a little over five thousand Indians, where we now have more than two and a quarter millions of whites. The truth is that the only title known to the Indian was that of possession, and that this passed from day to day and from tribe to tribe, according to the fortunes of war, or the necessities of the chase. The best and clearest statement upon this subject is found in an oration delivered by John Quincy Adams, in December, 1802, and as his theory and arguments seem to have been followed by our statesmen in their dealings with the Indians, we add a brief quotation from that address:

"There are moralists who have questioned the right of Europeans to intrude upon the possessions of the aborigines in any case and under any limitations whatsoever. But have they naturally considered the whole subject? The Indian right of possession itself stands, with regard to the greatest part of the country, upon a questionable foundation. Their cultivated fields, their constructed habitations, a space of ample sufficiency for their subsistence, and whatever they had annexed to themselves by personal labor, was undoubtedly by the laws of nature theirs. But what is the right of a hunstman to the forest of a thousand miles over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey? Shall the liberal bounties of Providence to the race of man be monopolized by one of ten thousand for whom they were created? Shall the exuberant bosom of the common mother, amply adequate to the nourishment of millions, be claimed exclusively by a few hundreds of her offspring? Shall the lordly savage not only disdain the virtues and enjoyments of civilization himself, but shall he control the civilization of a world? Shall he forbid the wilderness to blossom like the rose? Shall he forbid the oaks of the forest to fall before the axe of industry and rise again transformed into the habitation of ease and elegance? Shall he doom an immense region of the globe to perpetual desolation, and to hear the howlings of the tiger and the wolf silence forever the voice of human gladness? Shall the fields and the valleys which a beneficent God has framed to teem with the life of innumerable multitudes be condemned to everlasting barrenness? Shall the mighty rivers, poured out by the hands of nature as channels of communication between numerous nations, roll their waters in sullen silence and eternal solitude to the deep? Have hundreds of commodious harbors, a thousand leagues of coast, and a boundless ocean been spread in the front of this land, and shall every purpose of utility to which they could apply be prohibited by the tenant of the woods? No, generous philanthrophists! Heaven has not been thus inconsistent in the works of its hands. Heaven has not thus placed at irreconcilable strife its moral laws with its physical creation."

pg 26

... Indeed, the Indians themselves claimed that they did not understand the meaning of the word boundaries, and Mahaska is said to have told Governor Clark, at Prairie du Chien, that he claimed no land in particular.

The first of the Indian treaties that affected the lands of the middle west was made at St. Louis in 1804, by which the Sacs and Foxes were supposed to have ceded to the United States the greater part of their possessions in Illinois, with the right on the part of the Indians to hunt upon all the ceded lands until they were wanted for actual settlement. The Black Hawk war was the direct result of this latter provision, because under it the Indians were not obliged to immediately vacate the land which they had ceded to the government. Within the limits of this cession was the principal village of the Sacs, which was also the home of Black Hawk. In 1816, another treaty was made with these same Indians, which confirmed the treaty of 1804, but Black Hawk did not sign either one of these treaties, and seems to have kept many of the Foxes from assenting to the treaty of 1804, claiming that it was not binding, because negotiated by chiefs who were not authorized to make it, but who had been sent to St. Louis merely to secure the release of some Indian prisoners. Black Hawk and his adherents, who were known as the British band, continued to become more and more dissatisfied with the treaty of 1804, and with the loss of the lands which they had so long occupied and which held the graves of so many of their ancestors. Keokuk and Black Hawk did not agree upon this subject, Keokuk being willing to abide by the treaty and to vacate the lands included in it; and in about 1829, Keokuk with many of the Sacs, crossed the Mississippi river and settled in this region. Keokuk, Wapello and Poweshiek planted villages on or near the Muscatine slough and the Iowa river. It is probable that Keokuk's first village was located about six miles southwest of Muscatine on the high ground on the west bank of that part of Muscatine slough which has been called Keokuk's lake. At least this is the statement made by Hon. J. P. Walton in the Annals of Iowa, Vol. 2, Page 56. Mr. Walton says that this village occupied nearly fifty acres and that at the time he wrote (1895). there were parties yet living in that vicinity who had seen the framework of the buildings in the Indian village. He also says that this village was probably vacated in the year 1834, but if he means to say that Keokuk had his home there until 1834, he is probably mistaken, because we shall find, when we come to the treaty of 1832 for the "Black Hawk Purchase," that that document locates Keokuk's principal village as being on the west bank of the Iowa river, about twelve miles from its mouth, which would indicate that in 1832 Keokuk was living down the Iowa river, about six miles below Wapello, not far from the old village of Florence.

Wapello undoubtedly settled on the Iowa river, but just at what point his first village was located, it is difficult to say. There is a well recognized site of an old Indian village, on the east bank of the Iowa river a short distance north of Harrison hill, and it is thought this was the first place of residence in this county chosen by Wapello. At the time Lieutenant Lea made his trip through this country in 1835 he seems to have learned that Wapello had a village on the west bank of the Iowa river just north of the present city of Wapello, and probably on the northern part of the land now owned by Mr. E. M. Friend, or a little west of it. Poweshiek settled a little further to the ...

pg 27

... north; possibly his first settlement was not far from the station of Bard. But it is certain that he had a village at the forks of the Iowa and Cedar rivers, which was named Kiskkakosh, and that shortly after establishing this village he moved again further up the river. About this same time another Indian chief, Tama, crossed over from Illinois and established a village on Flint creek, in Des Moines county. But Black Hawk, though repeatedly asked by the officers and the agents of the government to do so, refused to leave the Rock river country. He still harped upon the fact that the treaty of 1804 was not binding, and also claimed that lands could not be sold. He said: "My reason teaches me that land cannot be sold. Nothing can be sold but such things as can be carried away."

At that time Andrew Jackson was president and few men understood the Indian problem better than he. It had undoubtedly long been a favorite idea with Jackson that the Indians should be moved west of the Mississippi river whether they were willing or not, but of course he preferred that they should go peaceably. Jackson's attention had been forcibly drawn to this subject by the attempt of the Cherokee Indians to establish a national government upon the lands they occupied within the state of Georgia. Jackson declared that if the Indians chose to remain within the limits of the various states they could do so only upon condition that they subject themselves to state laws. In that event of course they were to be protected in the enjoyment of "those possessions which they had improved by their industry, because," said Jackson, "it seems visionary to me to suppose that claims can be allowed on tracts of country on which they (the Indians) have neither dwelt nor made improvements, merely because they have seen them from the mountains, or passed them in the chase." In 1830 with the authority of congress, Jackson ordered the Indians removed from the lands which they ceded in 1804.

But Black Hawk hated the Americans anyway, and had no notion of receding from the position he had already taken, viz., that the treaty of 1804 did not consent that the land on which his village stood should be ceded to the United States. It detracts much from the glamour that some writers have sought to throw around the character of Black Hawk to know that he could not have been sincere in this claim, because he had, on three separate and solemn occasions, viz: in 1819, 1822 and 1825, "touched the quill" and assented to treaties which reaffirmed that of 1804. Black Hawk's worst adviser was undoubtedly the half Winnebago and half Sac, known as White Cloud, or the Prophet. He was a crafty and reckless mischief maker, who exercised great influence because of his supposed sacred character, and because of his earnest and persuasive speech. Dr. Thwaites, in his essay on the "Black Hawk War," upon which we have drawn freely, gives an interesting account of the Prophet's dress.

”In the matter of dress he must at times have been picturesque. An eye witness, who was in attendance on a Potawatomi council wherein the wizard was urging the cause of Black Hawk, describes him as dressed in a faultless white buckskin suit, fringed at the seams; wearing a towering head dress of the same material, capped with a bunch of fine eagle feathers; each ankle girt with a wreath of small sleighbells which jingled at every step, while in his nose and ears were ponderous gold rings gently tinkling one against the other as he shook his ponderous head in the warmth of harangue."

The prophet ...

pg 28

... and the British agent at Maiden, and many others, coincided with Black Hawk, giving him just the advice he wanted.

In the spring of 1830 Black Hawk and his band, after an unsuccessful hunt, came back "to find their town almost completely shattered, many of the graves ploughed over, and the whites more abusive than ever," and encroaching more and more upon the lands at the mouth of Rock river. Things went from bad to worse, when, in the spring of 1831, Black Hawk was officially informed of the order from Washington for him to go to the west side of the Mississippi. It was then, according to Galland's "Iowa Emigrant," that Black Hawk gathered his band around him and made them this speech, which is characteristic of the man, and seems to fully state his view of his grievances:

"Warriors: Sixty summers or more have gone since our fathers sat down here, and our mothers erected their lodges on this spot. On these pastures our horses have fattened; our wives and daughters have cultivated the cornfields, and planted beans and melons and squashes; from these rivers our young men have obtained an abundance of fish. Here, too, you have been protected from your old enemy, the Sioux, by the mighty Mississippi. And here are the bones of our warriors and chiefs and orators. But alas! what do I hear? The birds that have long gladdened these groves with their melody now sing a melancholy song! They say, 'The red man must leave his home, to make room for the white man.' The Long Knives want it for their speculation and greed. They want to live in our houses, plant corn in our fields, and plough up our graves! They want to fatten their hogs on our dead, not yet mouldered in their graves! We are ordered to remove to the west bank of the Mississippi; there to erect other houses, and open new fields, of which we shall soon be robbed again by these pale faces! They tell us that our great father, the chief of the Long Knives, has commanded us, his red children, to give this, our greatest town, our greatest graveyard, and our best home, to his white children! I do not believe it. It cannot be true; it is impossible that so great a chief should compel us to seek new homes, and prepare new cornfields, and that, too, in a country where our women and children will be in danger of being murdered by our enemies. No! No! Our great father, the chief of the Long Knives, will never do this. I have heard these silly tales for seven winters, that we were , to be driven from our homes. You know we offered the Long Knives a large tract of country abounding with lead on the west side of the Mississippi, if they would relinquish their claim to this little spot. We will, therefore, repair our houses which the pale faced vagabonds have torn down and burnt, and we will plant our corn; and if these white intruders annoy us, we will tell them to depart. We will offer them no violence, except in self-defense. We will not kill their cattle, or destroy any of their property, but their scutah zvapo (whiskey) we will search for and destroy, throwing it out upon the earth, wherever we find it. We have asked permission of the intruders to cultivate our own fields, around which they have erected wooden walls. They refuse, and forbid us the privilege of climbing over. We will throw down these walls, and, as these pale-faces seem unwilling to live in the community with us, let them, and not us, depart. The land is ours, not theirs. We inherited it from our fathers; we have never sold it. If some drunken dogs of our people sold lands they did not own, our rights remain. We have no chiefs who are authoriz-...

pg 29

... ed to sell our cornfields, our homes, or the bones of our dead. The great chief of the Long Knives, I believe, is too wise and good to approve acts of robbery and injustice, though I have found true the statement of my British friends in Canada, that the 'Long Knives will always claim the land where they are permitted to make a track with their foot, or mark a tree.' I will not, however, believe that the great chief, who is pleased to call himself our 'Father,' will send his warriors against his children for no other cause than contending to cultivate their own fields, and occupy their own houses. No! I will not believe it, until I see his army. Not until then will I forsake the graves of my ancestors, and the home of my youth!"

In his biography Black Hawk also complains, doubtless with truth, that white people had brought whiskey into the village, and cheated the Indians without mercy. He says that in the case of one man who continued this "fradulent practice" openly, he took some of his young braves, went to the man's house, and broke in the head of his whiskey barrel.

At length, confronted by General Gaines, in command of several hundred regulars, and sixteen hundred Illinois volunteers under Governor John Reynolds, Black Hawk crossed over to the west side of the Mississippi river, signed another treaty agreeing never again to go on the east side without the permission of the government, and, as it was then too late to raise a crop, he and his followers spent the remainder of the season wandering about, brooding over their wrongs. The following winter he was engaged in making up his war party, much of the time being spent about Fort Madison, and much of the time in this county. The Black Hawk war, like many other notable things, undoubtedly had its beginning in this county.

Dr. Thwaites says:

"On the 6th of April, 1832, Black Hawk and Neapope, with about five hundred warriors (chiefly Sauks), their squaws and children, and all their possessions, crossed the Mississippi at Yellow Banks, below the mouth of the Rock, and invaded the state of Illinois."

And William L. Toole, one of our earliest and foremost pioneers, in the January, 1868, number of the "Annals of Iowa," speaking of the Indian trail down the Iowa from Poweshiek's village to Wapello village, then to the village of Chief Keokuk, and then across on the north side of the river to the ancient mounds at Toolesboro, says: "And on this trail the warriors of those villages passed to the Masso-Sepo (Indian for Mississippi) with their ponies, and across it to the upper sand-bank (New Boston), some going in canoes down the Iowa, taking their arms, ammunition, etc., preparatory to the war of 1832."

Still another authority for the statement that the starting point for Black Hawk's war expedition was in this county, is John B. Newhall, in his "Emigrants Guide." In speaking of Florence, which was once a flourishing and promising hamlet, supposed to have been located on the very spot where "Keokuk's principal village" stood in 1832, Mr. Newhall says:

"Florence is unrivalled in beauty of location. It has one of the best ferries upon the Iowa, and is surrounded by a densely populated settlement. Here the renowned chief, Black Hawk, resided until the Indian hostilities of 1832; and here, 'Beneath this green turf, by the riv'let of sands,' repose the bones of his ancestors, where they have rested in peace .for centuries. It was for this sacred spot that he...

pg 30

... gave the warwhoop, and rallied forth his countrymen to the last deadly conflict, in defense of their homes, and the graves.

'Where sleep their warriors, where rival chieftains lay,
And mighty tribes swept from the face of day.'

"But they were conquered, and this illustrious chief was doomed to wander a stranger in the land of his forefathers. His lodge was still standing at the time the country was surveyed. The writer lingers with peculiar interest upon this spot, having been among the first (white men) to set landmarks of civilization upon the 'Keokuk Reserve,' having laid off the town of Florence, and being associated in the ownership of this celebrated 'Indian council house' from its transfer from the Indians. We kept it nearly two years in good state of preservation, and strangers from far and near came to look upon this last monument of Black Hawk. But in an evil hour the sacrilegious work of innovation had taken its unsparing sway, and the thoughtless denizens razed it to the earth for the more profitable culture of a cornfield."

We may also cite Jesse Williams' "Iowa," published in 1840; referring to Township 73 North, Range 2 West, which contains both Toolesboro and Florence; he says:


"This Township is one of the most noted in the territory. Here the celebrated Indian Chief Black Hawk resided until the Indian hostilities of 1832,—and it is here where the bones of his ancestors have rested in peace for centuries,—and it was for this spot, this sacred spot, that he gave the warwhoops and rallied forth his countrymen to the last deadly struggle in defense of this, the home of their ancestors. His home was still standing at the time when the surveys were made; it stood on the south bank of the Iowa in Section 20. The village of Florence was located on the south fraction of Section 20."

The only value of the above quotations from Newhall and Williams is that they associate Black Hawk with the vicinity of Florence in 1832; the rest is too extravagant to be within the limits of poetic license. To Black Hawk, the resting place of his ancestors was at the mouth of Rock river, in Illinois; and even had Florence been the "sacred spot," it and all the land around it, as well as nearly all of Iowa, was in the undisputed possession of the Indians, and it required neither war nor warwhoop to insure them in their possession.

The early opening of this territory to settlement by the whites, is due to Black Hawk's foolhardy war, for had he remained peaceful, he could have spent his life here. And Keokuk evidently so understood the situation, for he did all in his power to prevent the war.

One memorable occurrence said to have happened at Keokuk's village, illustrates both the eloquence and the influence of Keokuk. Emissaries sent by the Prophet had made inflammatory speeches to the Indians, had supplied them with whiskey, and had excited them to such a pitch of frenzy that they declared for war, and demanded that he, their chief, should lead them. Keokuk arose slowly, folded his blanket across his breast, and said:


"Braves, I am your chief, to rule you as a father at home, and to lead you to war, if you are determined to go; but in this war there is only one course. The United States is a great power; and unless we conquer, we must perish. I will lead you on one condition only, that we put our old men and the women...

pg 31


... and children to death, and resolve when we cross the Mississippi never to return, but perish among the graves of our fathers."

This speech had the effect of bringing the clamorous braves to a realization of the madness of their course, with the result that few of Keokuk's followers joined in the Black Hawk war. Black Hawk and his war party received some accessions east of the Mississippi, and, after perpetrating a few outrages and meeting with some temporary success, they suffered a most signal defeat at Bad Axe, Wisconsin—a defeat almost as disgraceful to the whites for its wanton butchery, as it was disastrous to the. Indians.

The battle of Bad Axe occurred August 2, 1832, and as a result of it, and of the subsequent capture of Black Hawk, a great council was held, to which the chiefs who had joined with Black Hawk were summoned. This council met September 21, 1832, at Rock Island. The United States was represented by General Winfield Scott, and Governor John Reynolds, of Illinois, and the Indians were represented by the Sac chiefs Keokuk, or "he who has been everywhere," Pa-she-pa-ho, or "the stabber," Wawk-kum-mee, or "clear water," and O-sow-wish-kan-no, or "yellow bird," and by the Fox chiefs Wau-pel-la, or "he who is painted white," Tay-wee-man, or "medicine man," Pow-sheek, or "the roused bear," Kaw-kaw-kee, or "the crow," Mau-que-tee, or "the bald eagle," and others of both tribes, there being in all the names of nine Sacs and twenty Foxes attached to the treaty, all of them signing by their marks.

We quote the main parts of this treaty:


"Articles of a treaty of peace, friendship, and cession, concluded at Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, Illinois, between the United States of America, by their commissioners, Major General Winfield Scott, of the United States Army, and His Excellency John Reynolds, governor of the state of Illinois, and the confederated tribes of Sac and Fox Indians, represented in general council, by the undersigned chiefs, head men and warriors.
"Whereas, under certain lawless and desperate leaders, a formidable band, constituting a large portion of the Sac and Fox nation, left their country in April last, and. in violation of treaties, commenced an unprovoked war upon unsuspecting and defenceless citizens of the United States, sparing neither age nor sex; and whereas, the United States, at a great expense of treasure, have subdued the said hostile band, killing or capturing all its principal chiefs and warriors; the said states, partly as indemnity for the expenses incurred, and partly to secure the future safety and tranquillity of the invaded frontier, demand of the said tribes, to the use of the United States, a cession of a tract of the Sac and Fox country, bordering on said frontier, more than proportional to the numbers of the hostile band who have been so conquered and subdued.

"Article 1.       Accordingly, the confederated tribes of Sacs and Foxes hereby cede to the United States forever, all the lands to which the said tribes have title or claim (with the exception of the reservation hereinafter made), included within the following bounds, to wit: 'Beginning on the Mississippi river, at the point where the Sac and Fox northern boundary line, as established by the second article of the treaty of Prairie du Chien, of the fifteenth of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty, strikes said river; thence, up said ...

pg 32


... boundary line to a point fifty miles from the Mississippi, measured on said line; thence, in a right line to the nearest point on the Red Cedar of the Ioway, forty miles from the Mississippi river; thence, in a right line to a point in the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri, fifty miles, measured on said boundary, from the Mississippi river; thence, by the last mentioned boundary to the Mississippi river, and by the western shore of said river to the place of beginning. And the said confederated tribes of Sacs and Foxes hereby stipulate and agree to remove from the lands herein ceded to the United States, on or before the first day of June next; and, in order to prevent any future misunderstanding, it is expressly understood, that no band or party of the Sac or Fox tribe shall reside, plant, fish, or hunt, on any portion of the ceded country after the period just mentioned.

"Article 2.       Out of the cession made in the preceding article, the United States agree to a reservation for the use of the said confederated tribes, of a tract of land containing four hundred square miles, to be laid off under the direction of the President of the United States, from the boundary line crossing the Ioway river in such manner that nearly an equal portion of the reservation may be on both sides of said river, and extending downwards, so as to include Ke-o-kuck's principal village on its right bank, which village is about twelve miles from the Mississippi river.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Article 7.       Trusting to the good faith of the neutral bands of Sacs and Foxes, the United States have already delivered up to those bands the great mass of prisoners made in the course of the war by the United States, and promise to use their influence to procure the delivery of other Sacs and Foxes, who may still be prisoners in the hands of a band of Sioux Indians, the friends of the United States; but the following named prisoners of war, now in confinement, who were chiefs and head men, shall be held as hostages for the future good conduct of the late hostile bands, during the pleasure of the President of the United States, viz: Muk-ka-ta-mish-a-ka-kaik (or Black Hawk) and his two sons; Wau-ba-kee-shik (the Prophet) his brother and two sons; Napope, We-sheet Ioway, Pamaho, and Cha-kee-pa-shi-pa-ho (the little stabbing chief).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Article 10.       The United States, besides the presents, delivered at the signing of this treaty, wishing to give a striking evidence of their mercy and liberality, will immediately cause to be issued to the said confederated tribes, principally for the use of the Sac and Fox women and children, whose husbands, fathers and brothers, have been killed in the late war, and generally for the use of the whole confederated tribes, articles of subsistence, as follows: thirtyfive beef cattle; twelve bushels of salt; thirty barrels of pork, and fifty barrels of flour; and cause to be delivered for the same purposes, in the month of April next, at the mouth of the lower Ioway, six thousand barrels of maize or Indian corn.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Article 12.       This treaty shall take effect and be obligatory on the contracting parties, as soon as the same shall be ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof. ...

pg 33


... "Done at Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, Illinois, this twenty-first day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and of the independence of the United States the fifty-seventh."

The land acquired by this treaty was sometimes called "Scott's Purchase," and sometimes called "The Black Hawk Purchase," and this latter name is the one by which it is best known.

Black Hawk was present at the treaty, but being a prisoner, and held as a hostage, he was not permitted to have any part in it, except that he was humiliated by being placed in charge of Keokuk, his great rival, who was made chief by Scott and Reynolds. The following letter, written by the commissioners on the part of the United States at the time, was resurrected in the Interior Department, and will be interesting in connection with this treaty.

   Rock Island, September 22, 1832.


"Sir: AS commissioners on the part of the United States, who have negotiated treaties with the Winnebago Nation and the confederated tribes of Sacs and Foxes, we have promised medals to certain Indians as follows: Tohaly Winnebago, half Sioux, belonging to the Winnebagoes under General Street's Agency (the Indian who took Black Hawk, and the Prophet) a medal of the second size; to the Stabbing Chief, a Sac, and to Wapella, a Fox, a medal, each, of the first or largest size.

"We will beg you to send the three medals promised as above, to the Agents of these Nations, respectively, to be presented in the name, and in behalf of the United States.

"The medals left by you, with one of the commissioners, have been disposed of as follows: One of the largest size to the principal chief, Canomance, a Winnebago of General Street's Agency; one of the third size to the son of the Crow, or Blind, a Winnebago, of the Rock River Agency, who served gallantly with General Dodge, in the late campaign; one of the largest size to Keo-kuck, a Sac, whom we made a Chief, in the name of the President of the United States, and with the approbation of the confederated tribes; one of the second size to Ma-ton-e-qua, a Fox chief, and one each, of the smallest size to Pe-ache-noa, and Wah-ko-mu, two young Sac chiefs, and Ma-qua-pa-che-to, a young Fox chief.

"The box of Indian goods, containing red and blue cloth, blankets, shirts, handkerchiefs, knives, and paints, and the keg of tobacco left by you with the same commissioner, have been distributed, with many other presents purchased here, among the tribes with which we have held treaties. "We have the honor to be, with great respect,

"Yr mo obt,
      "(Signature) Winfield Scott,
                         "John Reynolds,
"General William Clark, Superintendent of Indian, Affairs."

We had considerable curiosity to learn the particulars as to the fulfillment, on the part of the government of the 10th article of the treaty, providing for the delivery of the six thousand bushels of corn at the mouth of the "lower Ioway" in April, 1833, as it would certainly be the first official transaction Vol. 1-2, ...

pg 34

... within the limits of Louisa county. The following letter is all that we have been able to get, but it is interesting as showing that before "we-uns" began to raise corn, it cost a dollar a bushel delivered here by boat.

“Superintendence of Indian Affairs,
   St. Louis, July 30, 1833.

"Sir: My bill of exchange of this date, favr of Henry S. Coxe, Esq., Cash., of the Branch Bank of the United States at this place, or order, for Six Thousand Dollars, is on account of the purchase of corn for the Sacs and Foxes, under the tenth article of their Treaty of 21st Sept., 1832, and under appropriation of 2nd March, 1833,—and which when paid will be chargeable to me on that account.
"I have the honor to be
"With high respect,
"Your most ob' ser't,
               “Wm. Clark
”The Hon. Lewis Cass, Secretary of War."

The reader will already have formed some idea of Black Hawk and Keokuk, but perhaps a few additional words in regard to them and also a brief sketch of Wapello would be appropriate. Black Hawk was born at the Sac village near Rock river, in 1767, and although not a chief either by heredity or election, he became in time the acknowledged head of his people. He was possessed of considerable ambition and seemed to be always looking for a grievance. He was jealous of Keokuk and Wapello and usually found an opportunity to dispute with them when any important question was to be decided. He may have been honest in many of his opinions but was easily influenced, especially in unwise directions. He took part under Tecumseh with the British in the war of 1812 and he was always a British sympathizer. With his heart broken and as the result of the war, and his dethronement in favor of Keokuk, Black Hawk died in October, 1838, near the Des Moines river, in Davis county, Iowa. It is said that in the following year an Illinois physician rifled his grave and that upon complaint being made by Black Hawk's followers, the skeleton was delivered to Governor Lucas at Burlington, and was burned on the night of January 16, 1853, while deposited in an office in Burlington, pending its removal to Iowa City.

Keokuk, as we have already seen, belonged to the peace party. He was a friend to the Americans and was opposed to the mad counsels of Black Hawk. He seemed to have some of the gifts of a statesman and diplomatist. He was a large man, of rather fine figure, with dignified and graceful manners, with a powerful voice and a rather prepossessing countenance. He was fond of a good horse and liked to make a great show, and it is said that he possessed the finest horse in the west at the time George Catlin visited his village on the Des Moines river and painted his portrait. He seemed to have the ability to organize and to discipline his men and to hold them in subjection. It is said that Keokuk was not a full blooded Indian, but that his mother's name was La Lott, a half breed Indian woman. The authority for this statement occurs in a pamphlet entitled "The Old Settlers," published in Keokuk, in December, 1876. In this pamphlet is a copy of a letter to General William Clark, superintendent of Indian Affairs,...

pg 35

... at St. Louis, dated June 9, 1830, written by Thomas Forsythe, Indian agent, on behalf of six Indian chiefs, among whom were Tiamah and Keokuk. The body of the letter refers to the possession of the "half breed lands" under the treaty of August 4, 1824, and in a postscript, "La Lott, a half breed," is referred to as Keokuk's mother, and a request is made that she have a share in the half breed lands.

Keokuk lived in this county down about the site of the old village of Florence for a few years, immediately following the Black Hawk war, and moved from there to lands on the Des Moines river, probably a short time before the cession by the Indians of what is known as the "Keokuk reservation," to which reference will be made hereafter.

Wapello, or Waupella, or Wapella, as the name is variously written, was a prominent Fox, or Musquakie Indian. We quote an interesting account of him from Mr. Newhall's work:


"He was among the delegation that visited Washington in 1837 and made a very favorable impression by his dignified and correct deportment on that occasion. In stature, he is more heavily built than the majority of the Indians, and has the appearance of great muscular strength. His village has been (until the purchase of the Keokuk reserve in 1836) upon the banks of the Iowa, the present town of which still retains his name, being the seat of justice of Louisa county. Wapella has been much in war. I think he informed me last summer (1840), that he had been in battle thirty different times, principally with the Sioux. One of his greatest battles was on the head waters of the Des Moines, a few years ago, where he led a party, and commenced an attack upon three Sioux villages, took many scalps, and brought away several prisoners.

"I met him at Washington in 1837; he instantly recognized me, and giving me a hearty shake of the hand, said he was very glad to meet with a che-mo-comon (white man) whom he had known beyond the 'big Sepo' (Mississippi). Having some curiosity to witness their diplomacy while negotiating with government for the sale of their land, I attended several of their councils. I noticed on these occasions, Wapella fully recognized the authority of Keokuck. 'My father,' says Wapella, addressing the secretary of war, 'you have heard what my chief had to say; his tongue is ours—what he says, we all say.'

"Perhaps I cannot better conclude this sketch of Wapella than by quoting his speech in reply to Governor Everett, at the Boston state house in 1837, and which I extract from 'Biographical Sketches of the Indians.'

"After Keokuck had addressed the governor and members of the legislature, Wapella made the following speech: 'I am very happy to meet my friends in the land of my forefathers. When a boy I recollect my grandfather told me of this place, where the white man used to take our fathers by the hand. I am very happy that this land has induced so many men to come upon it. By that, I think they get a good living on it and I am pleased that they content themselves to stay upon it. I am always glad to give the white man my hand, and call him brother. Perhaps you have heard that my tribe is respected by all others, and is the oldest among the tribes. I have shaken hands with a great many different tribes of people. I am very much gratified that I have lived to come and talk to the white men in this house, where my father talked, which I heard of so many years ago. I will go home and tell all I have seen and it shall never be forgotten by my children.'

pg 34


"Wapella's department and bearing towards strangers is marked by much true dignity and politeness. Having visited his village last summer he manifested much satisfaction that I had called upon him. When I informed him that I had come to see his people and his village to write a description of it in a book, he seemed highly gratified and wished to know if I would send him one. It was with some difficulty that he could, at first, appreciate a visit so disinterested, that a motive merely to gratify curiosity could have brought me to this country. When fully convinced that such was the fact he appreciated it as a high honor. He said that white men generally came and questioned them about selling more of their country, which appeared to annoy him, and said his people did not wish to sell any more land. He was quite communicative and made many inquiries about Washington and Boston. He said Boston was a 'nisheshing' place, and then showed me his silver medal, presented by the city of Boston in 1837. He thought Governor Everett was a great 'brave' and a great 'medicine man' and that he had a big 'wickeup' on a high hill (the state house), and on the prairie (common) below, he had all his 'warriors' out with their big guns when he was there. He said he should be very glad to see the great 'brave' from Boston at his wickeup and he hoped the Great or Good Spirit would bless him and all his warriors. He wished me to give his compliments to him (Governor Everett) if I should ever see him again, for, said he, 'my heart is good towards him.'"

We find considerable interesting information about Wapella in the "Annals of Iowa," Vol. 2, Page. 636, and glean that in 1816 or later he ruled over one of the old Indian villages near the mouth of Rock river and that in 1829, when he moved to the west side of the Mississippi, he established himself on Muscatine slough. In 1836, about the time of the Keokuk reserve treaty, he moved to a point near Ottumwa, where he died in March, 1842. Just prior to his death he had started on a trip to visit the scenes and haunts of his former years, but was taken sick and died near the forks of the Skunk river. At his own request he was buried near the grave of his old friend, General Joseph M. Street, at what is known as the old Sac and Fox Agency.

---