of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 6-10
THE INDIAN AND HIS FATE. It is conceded by historians who have given the subject deep thought and careful research that this country was inhabited by a race of human beings distinct from the red man. But that is beyond the province of this work. The men and women who opened up the state of Iowa and the county of Muscatine to civilization had only the red man to dispute their coming and obstruct their progress; and in that regard something should be recorded in these pages.
So far as the writer can ascertain, the Indians were the first inhabitants of Iowa. For more than one hundred years after Marquette and Joliet had trod the virgin soil of Iowa and admired its fertile plains, not a single settlement had been made or attempted; nor even a trading post established. The whole country remained in the undisputed possession of the native tribes. These tribes fought among themselves and against each other for supremacy and the choicest hunting grounds became the reward for the strongest and most valiant of them.
When Marquette visited this country in 1673, the Illini were a powerful people and occupied a large portion of the state, but when the country was again visited by the whites, not a remnant of that once powerful tribe remained on the west side of the Mississippi, and Iowa was principally in the possession of the Sacs and Foxes, a warlike tribe which, originally two distinct nations residing in New York and on the waters of the St. Lawrence, had gradually fought their way westward and united, probably after the Foxes had been driven out of the Fox river country in 1846 and crossed the Mississippi. The death of Pontiac, a famous Sac chieftain, was made the pretext for war against the Illini, and a fierce and bloody struggle ensued, which continued until the Illini were nearly destroyed, and their possessions went into the hands of their victorious foes. The Iowas also occupied a portion of the state for a time, in common with the Sacs, but they, too, were nearly destroyed by the Sacs and Foxes and in the "Beautiful Land," these natives met their equally warlike and bloodthirsty enemies, the Northern Sioux, with whom they maintained a constant warfare for the possession of the country for a great many years.
In 1803 when, under the administration of Thomas Jefferson, then president of the United States, Louisiana was purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France, the Sacs, Foxes and Iowas possessed the entire state of Iowa and the two former tribes also occupied most of Illinois. The Sacs had four principal villages, where most of them resided. Their largest and most important town, from which emanated most of the obstacles encountered by the government in the extinguishment of Indian titles to land in this region, was on the Rock river, near Rock Island; another was on the east bank of the Mississippi, near the mouth of Henderson river; the third was at the head of the Des Moines rapids, near the present site of Montrose; and the fourth was near the mouth of the Upper Iowa. The Foxes had three principal villages. One was on the west side of the Mississippi, six miles above the rapids of Rock river; another was about twelve miles from the river, in the rear of the Dubuque lead mines; and the third was on Turkey river.
The Iowas, at one time identified with the Sacs of Rock river, had withdrawn from them and become a separate tribe. Their principal village was on the Des Moines river, in Van Buren county, on the site where Iowaville now stands. Here the last great battle between the Sacs and Foxes and Iowas was fought, in which Black Hawk, then a young man, commanded one division of the attacking forces. The following account of the battle has been given:
"Contrary to long established cutstom of Indian attack, this battle was commenced in the daytime, the attending circumstances justifying this departure from the well settled usages of Indian warfare. The battlefield was a level river bottom, about four miles in length and two miles wide near the middle, narrowing to a point at either end. The main area of this bottom rises perhaps twenty feet above the river, leaving a narrow strip of low bottom along the shore covered with trees that belted the prairie on the river side with a thick forest, and the immediate bank of the river was fringed with a dense growth of willows. Near the lower end of this prairie, near the river bank, was situated the Iowa village. About two miles above it and near the middle of the prairie iS a mound, covered at the time with a small clump of trees and underbrush growing on its summit. In the rear of this little elevation, or mound, lay a belt of wet prairie, covered at that time with a dense growth of rank, coarse grass. Bordering this wet prairie on the north, the country rises abruptly into elevated broken river bluffs, covered with a heavy forest for miles in extent and in places thickly clustered with undergrowth, affording convenient shelter for the stealthy approach of an enemy.
"Through this forest the Sac and Fox war party made their way in the night and secreted themselves in the tall grass spoken of above, intending to remain in ambush during the day and make such observations as this near proximity to their intended victims might afford, to aid them in their contemplated attack on the town during the following night. From this situation their spies could take a full survey of the village and watch every movement of the inhabitants, by which means they were soon convinced that the Iowas had no suspicion of their presence.
"At the foot of the mound above mentioned the Iowas had their race course, where they diverted themselves with the excitement of horse racing and schooled their young warriors in cavalry evolutions. In these exercises mock battles were fought and the Indian tactics of attack and defense carefully inculcated, by which means a skill in horsemanship was acquired that is rarely excelled. Unfortunately for them, this day was selected for their equestrian sports and, wholly unconscious of the proximity of their foes, the warriors repaired to the race ground, leaving most of their arms in the village, and their old men, women and children unprotected.
"Pash-a-popo, who was chief in command of the Sacs and Foxes, perceived at once this state of things afforded for a complete surprise of his now doomed victims, and ordered Black Hawk to file off with his young warriors through the tall grass and gain the cover of the timber along the river bank, and with the utmost speed reach the village and commence the battle, while he remained with his division in the ambush to make a simultaneous attack on the unarmed men whose attention was engrossed with the excitement of the races. The plan was skillfully laid and dexterously executed. Black Hawk with his forces reached the village undiscovered, and made a furious onslaught upon the defenseless inhabitants by firing one general volley into their midst and completing the slaughter with the tomahawk and scalping knife, aided by the devouring flames with which they enveloped the village as soon as the firebrand could be spread from lodge to lodge.
"On the instant of the report of firearms at the village, the forces under Pash-a-popo leaped from their couchant position in the grass and sprang, tiger-like, upon the unarmed Iowas in the midst of their racing sports. The first impulse of the latter naturally led them to make the utmost speed toward their arms in the village, and protect, if possible, their wives and children from the attack of their merciless assailants. The distance from the place of attack on the prairie was two miles, and a great number fell in their flight by the bullets and tomahawks of their enemies, who pressed them closely with a running fire the whole way and the survivors only reached their town to witness the horrors of its destruction. Their whole village was in flames and the dearest objects of their lives lay in slaughtered heaps amidst the devouring element, and the agonizing groans of the dying, mingled with the hideously exulting shouts of the enemy, filled their hearts with maddening despair. Their wives and children who had been spared the general massacre were prisoners, and their weapons in the hands of the victorious savages; all that could be done was to draw off their shattered and defenseless forces, and save as many lives as possible by a retreat across the Des Moines river, which they effected in the best possible manner, and took a position among the Soap Creek hills."
The Sioux located their hunting grounds north of the Sacs and Foxes. They were a fierce and warlike nation and often disputed possession in savage and fiendish warfare. The possessions of these tribes were mostly located in Minnesota but extended over a portion of northern and western Iowa to the Missouri river. Their descent from the north upon the hunting grounds of Iowa frequently brought them into collision with the Sacs and Foxes and after many a sanguine conflict, a boundary line was established between them by the government of the United States, in a treaty held at Prairie du Chien in 1825. Instead of settling the difficulties, this caused them to quarrel all the more, in consequence of alleged trespasses upon each other's side of the line. So bitter and unrelenting became these contests that in 1830 the government purchased of their respective tribes of the Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux, a strip of land twenty miles wide on both sides of the line, thus throwing them forty miles apart by creating a "neutral ground," and commanded them to cease their hostilities. They were, however, allowed to fish on the ground unmolested, provided they did not interfere with each other on United States territory.
Soon after the acquisition of Louisiana the United States government adopted measures for the exploration of the new territory, having in view the conciliation of the numerous tribes of Indians by whom it was possessed, and also the selection of proper sites for the establishment of military posts and trading stations. The Army of the West, General Wilkinson commanding, had its headquarters at St. Louis. From this post Captains Lewis and Clarke, with a sufficient force, were detailed to explore the unknown sources of the Missouri, and Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike to ascend to the headwaters of the Mississippi. Lieutenant Pike, with one sergeant, two corporals and seventeen privates, left the military camp near St. Louis, in a keel boat, with four months' rations, August 9, 1805. On the 20th of the same month the expedition arrived within the present limits of the state of Iowa, at the foot of the Des Moines rapids, where Pike met William Ewing, who had just been appointed Indian agent at this point; a French interpreter, four chiefs, fifteen Sac and Fox warriors. At the head of the rapids, where Montrose is now situated, Pike held a council with the Indians, in which he addressed them substantially as follows:
"Your great father, the president of the United States, wishes to be more acquainted with the situation and wants of the different nations of red people in our newly acquired territory of Louisiana and has ordered the General to send a number of his warriors in different directions to take them by the hand and make such inquiries as might afford the satisfaction required."
At the close of the council he presented the red men with some knives, tobacco and whiskey. On the 23d of August he arrived at what is supposed from his description, to be the site of the present city of Burlington, which he selected as the location for a military post. He describes the place as "being on a hill, forty miles above the River de Moyne rapids, on the west side of the river, in latitude about forty degrees twenty-one minutes north. The channel of the river runs on that shore. The hill in front is about sixty feet perpendicular, and nearly level at the top. About four hundred yards in the rear is a small prairie, fit for gardening, and immediately under the hill is a limestone spring, sufficient for the consumption of a whole regiment." In addition to this description, which corresponds to Burlington, the spot is laid down on his map at a bend in the river a short distance below the mouth of the Henderson, which pours its waters into the Mississippi from Illinois. The fort was built at Fort Madison but from the distance, latitude, description and map furnished by Pike, it could not have been the place selected by him, while all the circumstances corroborate the opinion that the spot he selected was the place where Burlington is now located, called by the early voyagers on the Mississippi "Flint Hills." In company with one of his men Pike went on shore on a hunting expedition and following a stream which they supposed to be a part of the Mississippi they were led away from their course. Owing to the intense heat and tall grass, his two favorite dogs, which he had taken with him, became exhausted, and he left them on the prairie, supposing they would follow him as soon as they should get rested, and went on to overtake his boat. After reaching the river he waited for some time for his canine friends but they did not come, and as he deemed it inexpedient to detain the boat longer, two of his men volunteered to go in pursuit of them. He then continued on his way up the river, expecting the men would soon overtake him. They lost their way, however, and for six days were without food, except a few morsels gathered from the stream. They might have perished had they not accidentally met a trader from St. Louis, who induced two Indians to take them up the river, overtaking the boat at Dubuque. At the latter place Pike was cordially received by Julien Dubuque, a Frenchman, who held a mining claim under a grant from Spain. He had an old field piece and fired a salute in honor of the advent of the first American who had visited that part of the territory. He was not, however, disposed to publish the wealth of his mines and the young, and evidently inquisitive, officer obtained but little information in that regard.
Upon leaving this place Pike pursued his way up the river but as he passed beyond the limits of the present state of Iowa, a detailed history of his explorations does not properly belong to this volume. It is sufficient to say that on the site of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, he held a council with the Sioux, September 23d, and obtained from them a grant of one hundred thousand acres of land.
Before the territory of Iowa could be opened to settlement by the whites it was first necessary that the Indian title should be extinguished and the aborigines removed. The territory had been purchased by the United States but was still occupied by the Indians, who claimed title to the soil by right of possession. In order to accomplish this purpose, large sums of money were expended, warring tribes had to be appeased by treaty stipulations and oppression by the whites discouraged.
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