CHAPTER III
PERIOD OF PREPARATIONTHE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN--EARLY EXPLORATIONS IN AMERICA--STRENGTHENING SPANISH CLAIMS--WORK OF THE ENGLISH--FRENCH EXPLORATIONS--MARQUETTE AND JOLIET--LA SALLE'S EXPEDITIONS--SETTLEMENT OF LOUISIANA-- CONFLICTING INTERESTS--FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR--CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST--NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER--THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE--TREATY OF PARIS--EXPLORING THE NEW PURCHASE--ACQUISITION OF THE INDIAN LANDS--TREATY OF 1804--THE NEUTRAL GROUND-- TREATY OF 1830--TREATY OF 1832--TREATY OF 1842--TREATY OF TRAVERSE DES SIOUX.
Civilization is the product of a gradual evolution. Worth and Mitchell counties, like all the political divisions or subdivisions of the civilized nations of the world, are the outgrowth of a series of events dating back for many years. Bastiat, the eminent French writer on political economy, once wrote an essay entitled "The Seen and the Unseen," the object of which was to show how necessary it is to be able to reason from the effect (the Seen) back to the cause (the Unseen). The theories advanced in that essay will apply to history as well as to economics. The people of Worth and Mitchell counties see now on every hand the evidences of progress; the great State of Iowa, with its busy commercial centers, its fertile fields and miles of railroads; the thriving towns in their counties, with their banks and public buildings; but do they ever pause to consider the forces which brought about the present state of development? Long before the counties, as such, were ever thought of, the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus was the first link in a chain of events that culminated in the establishment of an American Republic and the division of the interior of North America into states and counties. In order that the reader may understand how Iowa and its counties were called into existence by this process of evolution, it is deemed advisable to give a general account of the events that preceded and led up to their establishment.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS Spain was the first European nation to lay claim to the New World. In 1493, the year following the first voyage ,of Columbus to America, the pope granted to the King and Queen of Spain "all countries inhabited by infidels." The extent of the continent discovered the year before was not then known, but Spain was a Catholic nation, the whole of what is now the United States was inhabited by Indians who did not know the religion of the Catholic Church and therefore came within the classification of "infidels." Hence, in a vague way, the papal grant included the present State of Iowa.
Three years later Henry VII of England granted to John Cabot and his sons a patent of discovery, possession and trade "to all lands they may discover and lay claim to it in the name of the English crown." During the next four years the Cabots, acting under this patent, explored the Atlantic Coast and made discoveries upon which England at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century claimed practically all the central portion of North America.
Farther northward the French Government, through the. discoveries of Jacques Cartier, laid claim to the valley of the St. Lawrence River and the country about the Great Lakes, from which base they pushed their explorations westward toward the sources of the Mississippi River and southward into the valley of the Ohio.
Thus, at the very beginning of American history, three great European nations were actively engaged in making explorations and establishing dominion over certain portions of the Western Hemisphere. Following the usage of nations, each claimed title to the lands "by right of discovery." It is not surprising that in course of time a controversy arose among these three great powers as to which was the rightful possessor of the soil.
STRENGTHENING SPANISH CLAIMS In November, 1519, Hernando Cortez landed in Mexico with a strong force of Spanish soldiery, captured Montezuma, the Mexican "Emperor," and after a two year's war succeeded in establishing Spanish supremacy. It was not long until Cortez fell into disfavor with the Spanish authorities at Madrid, but possession of the country was retained and Mexico was given the name of New-Spain. Military governors failed to give satisfaction in controlling the affairs of the conquered province and in 1535 Antonio de Mendoza was appointed viceroy, with almost unlimited powers. He was known as the "good viceroy." By his diplomacy he succeeded in establishing friendly relations with the native inhabitants and did much toward advancing their interests. Under Mendoza and his successors many of the Indians were converted to the Catholic faith and exploration and settlement were pushed northward into California, New Mexico and Texas.
The grant of the pope to infidel countries was further strengthened in 1540-42 by the expedition of Hernando de Soto into the interior of the continent. De Soto was born in Spain about 1896 and had been connected with some of the early expeditions to Peru, in which services he demonstrated his qualifications to command. Charles I appointed him Governor of Florida and Cuba in the spring of 1538 and one of his first official acts was to issue orders for the fortification of the harbor of Havana. About a year later he was ordered by his royal master to explore the interior of Florida. With about one thousand men he left Havana on May 12, 1539, and the following month marched his little army into the interior. At a place called Tascaluza he met a large force of hostile Indians and a battle ensued which lasted for several hours, resulting in the defeat of the savages. The Spanish loss was seventy killed and a number wounded, among whom was De Soto himself. The battle delayed the movement of the expedition until the wounded were sufficiently recovered to resume the march. Like all early Spanish explorers, de Soto's chief object was to discover rich mines of the precious metals. After wandering about through the forests till the spring of 1541 he came to the Mississippi River, not far from the present city of Memphis, Tennessee. He then tried to reach the Spanish settlements in Mexico, but was stricken with fever and died in the wilderness, his body being buried in the river he had discovered. A few of his men finally managed to reach Florida and gave an account of the country through which they had passed. Upon their report Spain claimed "all the land bordering upon the Grande River and the Gulf of Mexico."
WORK OF THE ENGLISH While Spain was operating in the West Indies and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the English were by no means idle. In 1620 the British crown, ignoring Spain's papal grant and the claims based upon the explorations of De Soto, issued to the Plymouth Company a charter which included "all lands between the fortieth and forty-eighth parallels of north latitude from sea to sea." The entire State of Iowa was included in this grant. Eight years later (1628) the Massachusetts Bay Company received a charter from the English Government to a strip of land one hundred miles wide, "extending from sea to sea." Had the lands of the Massachusetts Bay Company been surveyed the northern boundary of this one-hundred-mile strip would have crossed the Mississippi River not far from the present city of McGregor and the southern not far from Davenport.
Thus it was that Iowa, or at least a portion of it, was early claimed by both Spain and England "by right of discovery," though no representative of either country had ever set foot upon the soil. No efforts were made by either Spain or England to extend settlement into the interior. The Spaniards were so intent upon discovering rich gold and silver mines that no attention was paid to found" ing permanent settlements, while the English were apparently content with their little colonies at Jamestown, Virginia and in New England,
FRENCH EXPLORATIONS In the matter of extending her explorations and planting colonies, France was perhaps more aggressive than England and Spain put together. Port Royal was settled in 1604 and Quebec was founded by Samuel Champlain in 1608. As early as 1611 Jesuit missionaries from the French settlements in Canada were among the Indian tribes along the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. In 1616 a French explorer named Le Carron visited the country of the Iroquois sand Huron Indians. The reports of Le Carron and the missionaries showed the possibilities of opening up a profitable trade with the natives, especially in furs, and French explorations were extended still farther westward. In 1634 Jean Nicollet, agent of the "Company of One Hundred," which was authorized by the King of France to engage in the Indian trade, explored the western shore of Lake Michigan about Green Bay and went as far west as the Fox River country, in what is now the State of Wisconsin. He is said to have been the first white man to make a report upon the region west of the Great Lakes.
Early in the year 1665 Claude Allouez, one of the most zealous of Jesuit missionaries, visited the Indians in the vicinity of what is now known as Ashland Bay, on the southern shore of Lake Superior. In the fall of the same year he held a council with representatives of several of the western tribes at the Chippewa Village, not far from Ashland Bay. At this council Chippewa, Sioux, Sac, Fox, Potawatomi and Illini chiefs were present. To them and their people Allouez promised the protection of the great French father and paved the way for a profitable trade. Here Allouez also learned from some of the Sioux and Illini chiefs of a great river farther to the westward, "called by them the Mesa-sip-pi, which they said no white man had yet seen (they knew nothing of De Soto's discovery of the river more than twenty years before), and along which fur-bearing animals abounded."
Three years later Father Allouez and Claude Dablon, a Jesuit associate, founded the mission of St. Mary's, the oldest white settlement within the present State of Michigan. The French authorities in Canada, influenced by the reports of Nicollet and the missionaries, sent Nicholas Perrot as the accredited agent of the French Government into the country to arrange for a grand council with the Indians. The council was held at St. Mary's in May, 1671. Before the close of that year Father Jacques Marquette, one of the most influential of the Jesuit fathers in America, founded the mission at Point St. Ignace for the benefit of the Huron Indians. For many years this mission was regarded as the key to the great unexplored West, and its founder was destined to play an important part in the early history of the country.
MARQUETTE AND JOLIET Father Marquette had heard the reports concerning the great river to the westward and was filled with a desire to discover it, but was deterred from making any attempt in that direction until after Perrot's council in 1671, which placed the French and Indian upon a more friendly footing. Even then he was delayed for nearly two years with his preparations and in obtaining the consent of the Canadian officials. In the spring of 1673, armed with the proper credentials, he went to Michilimackinac to complete his arrangements for the voyage. It is said the friendly Indians, who had formed an attachment for the missionary, tried to dissuade him from the undertaking by telling him that the Indians living along the great river were cruel and bloodthirsty, and that the stream itself was the abode of terrible monsters that could easily swallow a canoe loaded with men.
Such stories had no effect upon the intrepid priest, unless it was to make him the more determined, and on May 13, 1673, accompanied by Louis Joliet, an explorer and trader, and five voyageurs, with two large canoes, the little expedition left the mission. Passing up the Green Bay to the mouth of the Fox River, they ascended that stream to the portage, crossed over to the Wisconsin River, down which they floated until June 17, 1673, when their canoes shot out upon the broad bosom of the Mississippi. That bright June morning white men beheld for the first time the bluffs of Iowa, near the present city of McGregor. Turning their canoes down stream they descended the great Father of Waters until the 25th, when they landed on the west bank, "sixty leagues below the mouth of the Wisconsin River," where they noticed footprints in the soft earth. Sixty, leagues below the mouth of the Wisconsin would throw this landing place about twelve miles above the present city of Keokuk, Iowa. There is little doubt that Marquette and Joliet and their voyageurs were the first white men to set foot on Iowa soil.
When Marquette and Joliet saw the footprints they decided to follow them and learn something of the natives. Leaving the voyageurs to guard the canoes and supplies, they followed the trail for several miles, when they came to an Indian village and noticed two other villages in the vicinity. The Indians informed the two Frenchmen that they belonged to the Illini tribe and that the name of their village, as well as the river upon which it was located, was "Moingona." After a visit of several days among the Indians Marquette and Joliet were accompanied back to the river by the chiefs and a large party of braves. As they were about to reembark, one of the chiefs addressed Marquette as follows:
"I thank the black-gowned chief for taking so much pains to come and visit us. Never before has the earth been so beautiful nor the sun so bright. Never has the river been so calm and free from rocks, which your canoe has removed. Never has the tobacco had so fine a flavor, nor our corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it today. Ask the Great Spirit to give us life and health, and be you pleased to come and dwell among us."
One of the chiefs then presented Marquette with an elaborately decorated calumet, or peace pipe, as a token of the tribe's good wishes, after which the canoes were pushed out into the stream and the voyage was continued. They descended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Arkansas River, where they met with a tribe of Indians whose language they could not understand, when they turned back up the river. They reached the French settlement at Michilimackinac after an absence of some four months, during which time they had traveled about two thousand five hundred miles. Joliet was a good topographer and he prepared a map of the country through which they had passed. The reports of their voyage when presented to the French Governor of Canada, made the knowledge of the Mississippi's existence a certainty and steps were soon afterward taken to claim the country it drained in the name of France.
LA SALLE'S EXPEDITIONS In 1674 Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was granted the seigneury of Fort Frontenac, where the city of Kingston, Canada, is now situated, and on May 12, 1678, Louis XIV, then King of France, granted him a permit to continue the explorations of Marquette and Joliet, "find a port for the King's ships in the Gulf of Mexico, discover the western parts of New France, and find a way to penetrate Mexico."
La Salle's ambition was to follow the Mississippi from its source to its mouth. Late in the year 1678 he made his first attempt to reach and descend the river, but it ended in failure, chiefly because his preparations had not been made with sufficient care. Affairs at Fort Frontenac then claimed his attention until December, 1681, when he started upon what proved to be his successful expedition. He was accompanied by his lieutenant, Henri de Tonti; Jacques de la Metarie, a notary; Jean Michel, who was a surgeon; Father Zenobe Membre, a Recollet missionary; and a "number of Frenchmen bearing arms." It is not necessary here to follow this little expedition through all its vicissitudes and hardships in the dead of winter in a wild, unexplored country. Suffice it to say that on April 8, 1682, La Salle and Tonti passed through two of the channels at the mouth of the Mississippi, both reaching the Gulf of Mexico. -The next day La Salle formally took possession of "all the country drained by the great river and its tributaries in the name of France, and conferred upon the territory the name of Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV, the French King." Under this claim, which was afterwards acknowledged by the European powers, Iowa became a dependency of France.
In the meantime La Salle had sent Father Louis Hennepin in 1680 on an expedition from the mouth of the Illinois River to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. In April of that year Hennepin reached the Falls of St. Anthony, where the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, now stands, and on April 8, 1689, Nicholas Perrot took formal possession of the upper Mississippi Valley. He built a trading post on a river which he named the St. Nicholas.
SETTLEMENT OF LOUISIANA Before the close of the year 1682, immediately after La Salle reached the mouth of the Mississippi, small trading posts were established by the French at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, the oldest settlements on the river. Soon after the beginning of the Eighteenth, France decided to send colonists to Louisiana. Consequently, in 1712, a charter was granted to Antoine Crozat, a wealthy merchant of Paris, giving him exclusive control of the Louisiana trade under certain conditions, one of which was that he should send a given number of colonists to the province within three years. When Crozat's agents arrived in America to carry out his orders they found the Spanish ports closed against his vessels, for Spain, while recognizing France's claims to the province, as based upon the explorations of La Salle, was jealous of French ambitions. At the end of five years, tired of combating this Spanish opposition and the many other difficulties encountered, Crozat surrendered his charter.
About that time John Law organized the Mississippi Company as a branch of the Bank of France. This company succeeded Crozat in the control of the Louisiana trade and in 1718 Law sent some eight hundred colonists to the province. The next year Philipe Renault went up the Mississippi to the Illinois country with about two hundred immigrants, his object being to establish posts and open up a trade with the Indians. Law was a good promoter, but lacking in executive ability to carry out his ideas. In 1720 his whole scheme collapsed, and so disastrous was the failure that his company is known in history as the "Mississippi Bubble." For a few years he tried to reorganize it, but finally on April 10, 1732, he surrendered his charter and Louisiana again became a crown province of France. The white population at that time did not exceed three hundred and fifty.
CONFLICTING INTERESTS In the meantime the English had been gradually pushing the frontier of their civilization farther toward the West. On May 2, 1670, the Hudson's Bay Company was chartered in London, being the first of the great trading associations. Within a short time its trappers and traders were operating among the Indian tribes of the interior, in spite of the French claim to the Mississippi Valley and oblivious to French protests against their trespasses. Its agents were generally English or Scotch, though a few Frenchmen entered the employ of the company. Many of the representatives and employees of the Hudson's Bay Company intermarried with the Indians, which placed them upon a more friendly footing with the natives. A. F. Chamberlain, of Clark University, says: "The method of the great fur companies, which had no dreams of empire over a solid white population, rather favored amalgamation with the Indians as the best means of exploiting the country in a material way. Manitoba, Minnesota and Wisconsin owe much of their early development to the trader and the mixed blood."
What is true of Manitoba, Minnesota and Wisconsin is also true in a lesser degree of every northwestern state. Agents of the Northwest, Missouri and American fur companies, as well as the free trappers and traders, intermarried freely with the Indians. The rivalry between the French and English traders soon brought on a conflict of interests that embroiled their mother countries. In 1712 the English traders incited the Fox Indians to hostilities against the French. Again in 1730 the English and Dutch traders joined in an effort to drive the French out of the country by inciting some of the Indian tribes to acts of hostility. The first open rupture between France and England did not come, however, until 1753. when the French began building a line of forts from the Great Lakes down the Ohio Valley to prevent the English from extending their settlements west of the Allegheny Mountains. One of these forts was located upon land claimed by Virginia and the governor of that colony sent George Washington, then only twenty-one years of age, to demand of the French commandant an explanation of this invasion of English territory while the nations were at peace. The reply was insolent and unsatisfactory, and in 1754, Washington, who had been promoted to lieutenant-colonel in the Virginia militia, was sent with a detachment of troops into the disputed territory.
A few years prior to this time a charter had been granted by the British Government to an association called the Ohio Company, including a grant to a large tract of land on the Great Miami River and the right to trade with the Indians. In 1750 the Ohio Company built a fort and established a trading post near the site of the present city of Piqua, Ohio. Regarding this as an encroachment upon French territory the Canadian authorities sent a detachment of French soldiers and Indians to break up the post. The Ohio Company then began a new post at the head of the Ohio River, where the city of Pittsburgh now stands, but again they were driven out by the French. Part of Washington's instructions in 1754 was to "complete the fort already commenced by the Ohio Company at the forks of the Ohio, and to capture, kill or drive out all who attempted to interfere with the English posts."
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR The order given to Washington naturally aroused the indignation of the French people and in May, 1756, that nation formally declared war against Great Britain. The conflict which followed is known in European history as the Seven Year's war and in America as the French and Indian war. This war was concluded by the Treaty of Fontainebleau on November 3, 1762, by which France ceded to Great Britain all that part of Louisiana lying east of the Mississippi River, "except the city of New Orleans and the island upon which it is situated." The Treaty of Fontainebleau was ratified by the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763, at which time it was announced that, by an agreement previously made in secret, "The city and island of New Orleans, and all that part of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi, including the whole country to the headwaters of the great river and west to the Rocky Mountains," was ceded to Spain. Thus ended France's jurisdiction in that part of North America now included in the United States and Iowa became a Spanish possession. Most of the French people living in New Orleans and west of the Mississippi River remained in the province as Spanish subjects and took an active part in business and public affairs. East of the Mississippi a different feeling prevailed. Many of the French in that region refused to acknowledge allegiance to Great Britain and removed to the west side of the river.
CLARKS'S CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST During the twelve years following the French and Indian war the British established several military posts in the territory acquired from France by the treaties of Fontainebleau and Paris. The most important of these posts were the ones at Detroit, Michigan; Vincennes, Indiana; and Kaskaskia and Cahokia, Illinois. Then came the Revolutionary war, which again changed the map of Central North America. At the beginning of the Revolution, Detroit had about two hundred houses, Vincennes and Kaskaskia about eighty each, and Cahokia about fifty. As soon as it became certain that the English colonies were to be involved in a war with the mother country, a large number of the French who had gone over to the Spanish possessions recrossed the Mississippi and joined the colonists in their struggle for independence.
Virginia then claimed a large expanse of country extending westward and including the British posts in what are now Indiana and Illinois. In 1778 the Legislature of that colony, upon the recommendation of Gov. Patrick Henry, authorized an expedition under Gen. George Rogers Clark for the reduction of the posts upon Virginia territory. The expedition was successful and all the British establishments in the Northwest except the one at Detroit, fell into the hands of the Americans. One of the most thrilling campaigns of the war for independence was Clark's conquest of the Northwest.
At first glance it may seem that this expedition of Clark's had little or no effect upon the fate of the country now included in the State of Iowa. But this is another case of the "Seen and the Unseen." It must be borne in mind that the capture of the British posts by General Clark resulted in the western boundary of the United States being fixed at the Mississippi River by the Treaty of 1783, which ended the Revolutionary war and established the independence of the American colonies. Had it not been for Clark's successful campaign, the territory of the United States would in all probability have been confined to the thirteen original colonies, in which case the history of the great Mississippi Valley can only be conjectured. By extending the limits of the republic westward to the great Father of Waters the way was opened for the acquisition of the country west of that river, and in time Iowa became one of the sovereign states of the American Union.
NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI Soon after the independence of the United States was established the new nation became involved in a controversy with the Spanish authorities of Louisiana over the free navigation of the Mississippi River. The final settlement of this controversy had a direct and important influence upon that part of the country now comprising the State of Iowa. By the Treaty of September 3, 1783, which ended the Revolution, the western boundary of the States was fixed at the Mississippi, though the lower course of that river passed through Spanish territory. Having possession of the outlet, the Spanish assumed control of the navigation of the whole river. Posts were established at various places along the stream and every boat descending was compelled to land at such posts and submit to arbitrary revenue charges. As the Mississippi constituted the natural outlet for a large part of the commerce of the United States it was a humiliation to the American citizen to see it controlled by a foreign power. Moreover, the system of revenue duties inaugurated by the Spanish authorities materially decreased the profits of the American trader. After much discussion and diplomatic correspondence, the question was finally settled, temporarily at least, by the Treaty of Madrid, which was concluded on October 27, 1795. One article of the treaty provided that "The Mississippi River, from its source to the gulf, for its entire width, shall be free to American trade and commerce, and the people of the United States shall be permitted, for three years, to use the port of New Orleans as a port of deposit, without payment of duty."
During the three years that the Americans were allowed the free use of the port of New Orleans the commerce of the states bordering on the Mississippi River showed a marked increase in volume. At the expiration of that period Spain manifested a disposition to return to the old order and the free navigation of the river again became a subject of vital importance to the people of the United States. President Adams and his cabinet pointed out to the Spanish officials that the language of the Treaty of Madrid was such that the three years' provision applied only to the use of the port of New Orleans and not to the navigation of the river. While the question was under discussion the secret Treaty of San Ildefonse, between France and Spain, was concluded on October 1, 1800, by which Spain agreed to cede Louisiana back to France, under certain conditions. The recession of Louisiana to France changed the whole situation, inasmuch as the United States must now negotiate with France for the free navigation of the Mississippi.
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
The French Revolution brought into prominence two of the most noted characters in European history, Napoleon and Talleyrand. These two great Frenchmen, feeling deeply the loss of their country's American possessions, soon began planning for the rebuilding of a colonial empire, one of the chief features of which was the recovery of Louisiana. At the time Don Carlos IV was King of Spain, but Channing says: "The actual rulers in Spain were Dona Maria Luisa de Parma, his queen, and Don Manuel Godoy, el Principe de la Paz, which title writers of English habitually translate 'Prince of Peace.' "
Godoy, who had been influential in the formation and adoption of the Treaty of Madrid in 1795, which gave the United States the free navigation of the Mississippi, knew that he was not liked by Napoleon and Talleyrand. Therefore, when they began overtures for the transfer of Louisiana back to France, he resigned from the Spanish ministry, leaving the king without his most efficient advisor. In exchange for Louisiana Napoleon and Talleyrand offered an Italian kingdom of at least one million inhabitants for the Duke de Parma, prince presumptive, who was at once son-in-law and nephew of the ruling monarchs. The State of Tuscany was selected and its transfer to Spain was the condition imposed by the secret Treaty of San Ildefonse.
The secret treaty was confirmed by the Treaty of Madrid (March 21, 1801), a copy of which was sent to President Jefferson by Rufus King, then the United States Minister to England. It reached the White House on May 26, 1801. In August following, Robert R. Livingston went to France as United States Minister and immediately upon his arrival asked Talleyrand, then the French Prime Minister, if the Province of Louisiana had been receded to France. Talleyrand replied in the negative and in one sense of the word he was justified in doing so, as the Treaty of Madrid was not signed by the King of Spain until October, 1802. When President Jefferson received the copy of the treaty sent by Mr. King he wrote to James Monroe: "There is considerable reason to apprehend that Spain cedes Louisiana and the Floridas to France. To my mind this policy is very unwise for both France and Spain, and very ominous to us."
During the next twelve months President Jefferson and his cabinet officers were kept in a state of suspense as to the status of Louisiana, and little progress was made toward a satisfactory adjustment of the navigation matter. On April 18, 1802, the president wrote to Mr. Livingston at Paris, advising him that the American people were anxiously watching France's movements with regard to Louisiana. In his letter he summed up the situation as follows: 1. The natural feeling of the American people toward France was one of friendship. 2. Whatever nation possessed New Orleans and controlled the lower reaches of the river became the natural enemy of American progress, and therefore of the American people. 3. Spain was then well disposed toward the United States and as long as she remained in possession of New Orleans the people of this country would be satisfied with conditions. 4. On the other hand, France possessed an energy and restlessness of character which would be the cause of eternal friction between that country and the United States. In concluding his letter he said:
"The day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low water mark. It seals the union of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive (control) of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation. The first cannon which shall be fired in Europe will be the signal for tearing up any settlement she may have made, and for holding the two continents of America in sequestration for the common purpose of the united British and American nations."
Jefferson did not desire an alliance with England, but was firm in the conviction that French possession of Louisiana would force the United States to adopt such a course. In November, 1802, news reached Washington that the Spanish authorities at New Orleans had suddenly and without warning withdrawn the right of deposit at that port. The country - particularly in view of the new settlements in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys - was ablaze with indignation. The federalists, Jefferson's political opponents, tried to force the administration into some policy that would give them a political advantage, but their efforts were futile. Says Channing: "Never in all his long and varied career did Jefferson's foxlike discretion stand him in better stead. Instead of following public clamor, he calmly formulated a policy and carried it through to a most successful termination."
In his message to Congress at the opening of the session in 1802, the President merely stated that the change in ownership of Louisiana would necessarily make a change in our foreign relations, but did not intimate what the nature of that change would be. On January 7, 1803, the lower house of Congress, acting upon the President's recommendation, adopted the following resolution: "Resolved, That it is the unalterable determination of the United States to maintain the boundaries and rights of navigation and commerce through the Mississippi River, as established by existing treaties."
On the 13th of the same month, Mr. Jefferson wrote to James Monroe that the federalists were trying to force the United States into war in order to get into power. About the same time he wrote to Mr. Livingston that if France considered Louisiana indispensable to her interests, she might still be willing to cede to the United States the Island of Orleans and the Floridas. Or, if not willing to cede the island, she might be induced to grant the right of deposit at New Orleans and the free navigation of the Mississippi, as it had previously been under the Spanish regime, and directed him to open negotiations with that end in view. A few days after writing this letter, thinking the cession could probably be more easily accomplished by sending an emissary direct from the United States for that purpose, he appointed James Monroe as minister plenipotentiary, to co-operate with Minister Livingston. The senate promptly confirmed Mr. Monroe's appointment and Congress placed at his disposal the sum of $2,000,000 to be used by him and Mr. Livingston to pay for the island.
It may be well to note, in this connection, that the ultimate success of Livingston and Monroe was no doubt furthered by a letter written about this time by Pichon, the French Minister to the United States, to Talleyrand, in which he advised the French Prime Minister that the people of the United States were thoroughly aroused over the suspension of the right of deposit, and that the administration might be forced by public opinion into an alliance with Great Britain. War between England and France had just been renewed and Napoleon, realizing the superior strength of the British navy, saw that it would be a difficult undertaking to hold Louisiana if an alliance should be made between England and the United States. He had a force of troops under General Victor ready to send to New Orleans, but learned that an English fleet was lying in wait for Victor's departure and countermanded the order. In the meantime Livingston had opened negotiations for the cession of the Island of Orleans and West Florida, believing the Floridas were included in the Treaty of San Ildefonse. On April n, 1803, Napoleon placed the entire matter of the cession in the hands of the Marquis de Marbois, minister of the French treasury, and the same day Talleyrand startled Livingston by asking if the United States would not like to own the entire Province of Louisiana. Livingston gave a negative reply, but Talleyrand insisted that Louisiana would be worth nothing to France without the City and Island of New Orleans and asked the American minister to make an offer for the whole province. Another conference was held the next morning and that afternoon Mr. Monroe arrived in Paris. That night the two American envoys spent several hours in consultation, the result of which was that Mr. Livingston was selected to conduct the negotiations.
Several days were then spent in discussing the matter, Marbois at first asking 125,000,000 francs ($25,000,000) for the whole province, though it afterward cropped out that Napoleon had directed him to accept 50,000,000 francs, provided a better price could not be obtained. The price finally agreed upon was 80,000,000 francs, three-fourths of that amount to go directly to the French treasury""and the remainder to be used in settling claims of American citizens against the French Government. The next step was to embody the terms in a formal treaty. As this treaty gave to the United States a territory of nearly nine hundred thousand square miles, in which was1 situated the present State of Iowa, it is here given in full. It is known as the
TREATY OF PARIS
"The President of the United States of America and the First Consul of the French Republic, in the name of the French people, desiring to remove all sources of misunderstanding relative to objects of discussion mentioned in the second and fifth articles of the convention of the 8th Vendemaire, an 9 (30 September, 1800), relative to the rights claimed by the United States, in virtue of the treaty concluded at Madrid, the 27th of October, 1795, between his Catholic Majesty and the United States, and willing to strengthen the union and friendship which at the time of said convention was happily re-established between the two nations, have respectfully named their plenipotentiaries, to wit: The President of the United States of America, by and with the advice of the senate of the said states, Robert R. Livingston, minister plenipotentiary of the United States, and James Monroe, minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary of the said states, near the Government of the French Republic; and the First Consul, in the name of the French people, the French citizen, Barbe Marbois, minister of the public treasury, who, after having exchanged their full powers, have agreed to the following articles:
"Article I. Whereas, by the article the third of the treaty concluded at San Ildefonse, the 9th Vendemaire an 9 (October 1, 1800), between the First Consul of the French Republic and his Catholic Majesty, it was agreed as follows: 'His Catholic Majesty promises and engages on his part to retrocede to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations herein relative to his royal highness, the Duke of Parma, the Colony or Province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it; and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other states,' and, "Whereas, in pursuance of the treaty, particularly of the third article, the French Republic has an incontestible title to the domain and possession of the said territory; the First Consul of the French Republic, desiring to give to the United States a strong proof of his friendship, doth hereby cede to the United States, in the name of the French Republic, forever, in full sovereignty, the said territory, with all its rights and appurtenances, as fully and in the same manner as they have been acquired by the French Republic in virtue of the above mentioned treaty, concluded with his Catholic Majesty.
"Article II. In the cession made by the preceding article, are included the adjacent islands belonging to Louisiana, all public lots and squares, vacant lands, and all public buildings, fortifications, barracks and other edifices which are not private property. The archives, papers and documents relative to the domain and sovereignty of Louisiana and its dependencies, will be left in the possession of the commissioners of the United States, and copies will be afterward given in due form to the magistrates and municipal officers of such of the said papers and documents as may be necessary to them.
"Article III. The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States; and in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and the religion which they profess.
"Article IV. There shall be sent by the Governor of France a commissary to Louisiana, to the end that he do every act necessary, as well to receive from the officers of his Catholic Majesty the said country and its dependencies in the name of the French Republic, if it has not already been done, and to transmit it in the name of the French Republic to the commissary or agent of the United States.
"Article V. Immediately after the ratification of the present treaty by the President of the United States, and in case that of the First Consul shall have been previously obtained, the commissary of the French Republic shall remit all the military posts of New Orleans and other posts of the ceded territory, to the commissary or commissaries named by the President of the United States to take possession: the troops, whether of France or Spain, who may be there, shall cease to occupy any military post from the time of taking possession, and shall be embarked as soon as possible, in the course of three months after the ratification of this treaty.
"Article VI. The United States promises to execute such treaties and articles as may have been agreed between Spain and the tribes and nations of Indians, until by mutual consent of the United States and the said tribes or nations, other suitable articles shall have been agreed upon.
"Article VII. As it is reciprocally advantageous to the commerce of France and the United, States to encourage the communication of both nations, for a limited time, in the country ceded by the present treaty, until general arrangements relative to the commerce of both may be agreed upon, it has been agreed between the contracting parties, that the French ships coming directly from France or any of her colonies loaded only with the produce or manufactures of Spain and her colonies, shall be admitted during the space of twelve years in the ports of New Orleans, and all other ports of entry within the ceded territory, in the same manner as the ships of the United States coming directly from France or Spain, or any of their colonies, without being subject to any other or greater duty on merchandise, or other or greater tonnage than those paid by the citizens of the United States. "During the space of time above mentioned, no other nation shall have a right to the same privileges in the ports of the ceded territory; the twelve years shall commence three months after the exchange of ratifications, if it shall take place in France, or three months after it shall have been notified at Paris to the French Government, if it shall take place in the United States; it is, however, well understood, that the object of this article is to favor the manufactures, commerce, freight and navigation of France and Spain, so far as relates to the importations that the French and Spanish shall make into the ports of the United States, without in any sort affecting the regulations that the United States may make concerning the exportation of the produce and merchandise of the United States, or any right they may have to make such regulations.
"Article VIII. In future, and forever after the expiration of the twelve years, the ships of France shall be treated upon the footing of the most favored nations in the ports above mentioned.
"Article IX. The particular convention signed this day by the respective ministers, having for its object to provide for the payment of debts due to the citizens of the United States by the French Republic prior to the 30th day of September, 1800 (8th Vendemaire, 9), is approved and to have its execution in the same manner as if it had been inserted in the present treaty, and it shall be ratified in the same form and at the same time, so that the one shall not be ratified distinct from the other. "Another particular convention signed at the same time as the present treaty, relative to a definite rule between the contracting parties, is in like manner approved and will be ratified in the same form and at the same time, and jointly.
"Article X. The present treaty shall be ratified in good and due form, and the ratification shall be exchanged in the space of six months after the date of the signatures of the ministers plenipotentiary, or sooner if possible. In faith whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries having signed these articles in the French and English languages, declaring, nevertheless, that the present treaty was originally agreed to in the French language; and have thereunto set their seals."Done at Paris, the tenth day of Floreal, in the eleventh year of the French Republic, and the 3Oth of April, 1803.
"robert R. livingston (L. S.)
"james monroe (L. S.)
"bariie marbois (L. S.)"
The original cost of the entire territory ceded by the Treaty of Paris was about 3 cents per acre, but McMaster says: "Up to June, 1880, the total cost of Louisiana was $27,267,621." Out of the country acquired by the treaty have been erected the following states: Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, about one-third of Colorado, nearly all of Montana, three-fourths of Wyoming, and Oklahoma. In the purchase of this vast region, Livingston and Monroe exceeded their authority, and for a time President Jefferson was inclined to the belief that an amendment to the Federal Constitution—an "act of indemnity" he called it would be necessary to make the transaction legal. But when he saw the general acquiescence of the people he abandoned the idea. In his message to Congress on October 17, 1803, he said:
"The enlightened Government of France saw, with just discernment, the importance to both nations of such liberal arrangement as might best and permanently promote the peace, interests and friendship of both; and the property and sovereignty of all Louisiana, which had been restored to them, have, on certain conditions, been transferred to the United States by instruments bearing the date of 30th of April, last. When these shall have received the constitutional sanction of the Senate, they will without delay be communicated to the representatives for the exercise of their functions, as to those conditions which are within the powers vested in the Constitution by Congress."
Three days after the delivery of this message, the treaty was ratified by the Senate. It was ratified by the House of Representatives on October 25, 1803. Mr. Jefferson appointed William C. C. Claiborne, Governor of Mississippi, and Gen. James Wilkinson, commissioners, in accordance with Article IV of the treaty, to receive the province from Pierre Laussat, the French commissary. The transfer was formally made and the Stars and Stripes were raised at New Orleans on December 20, 1803. Thus the domain of the United States was extended westward to the summit of the Rocky Mountains and Iowa became a part of the territory of the American Republic.
EXPLORING THE NEW PURCHASE
Not long after the cession of Louisiana to the United States, President Jefferson began making plans to send an expedition up the Missouri River to discover its sources, and to ascertain whether a water route to the Pacific Coast was practicable. As it was late in the year 1803 before the Treaty of Paris was ratified, the expedition was postponed until the following spring. The president selected as leaders of the expedition Capts. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of the regular army. Both were natives of Virginia and the latter was a brother of Gen. George Rogers Clark. On May 14, 1804, they left the mouth of the Missouri River and ascended that stream. Their company consisted of fourteen regular soldiers, nine young men from Kentucky, two French voyageurs or boatmen, an Indian interpreter, a hunter and a negro servant belonging to Captain Clark. Their main vessel was a keel-boat fiftyfive feet long, with twenty-two oars and drawing three feet of water. It had a cabin, in which were kept the most valuable articles, and a large square sail to be used when the wind was favorable. They also had two pirogues, fitted with six and seven oars respectively. Two horses were led along the bank, to be used in hunting game.
On July 22d the expedition came to "a high and shaded situation" on the east side of the river, where they established a camp, "intending to make the requisite observations, and to send for the neighboring tribes for the purpose of making known to them the recent change in government and the wish of the United States to cultivate their friendship." The best authorities agree in locating this camp near the line between Mills and Pottawattomie counties, Iowa. On September 8, 1806, they occupied this camp again on their return trip.
Lewis and Clark landed at several places in Iowa, but found only a few Indians on the east side of the river. The names they gave to some of the streams that empty into the Missouri still remain.
No attempt was made to conclude a treaty, but at the close of the council Pike distributed among the Indians knives, tobacco and trinkets of various kinds. Among the Indians who were present at this council were some who had signed the Treaty of St. Louis the preceding November. Lieutenant Pike seems to have been the first American with whom Chief Black Hawk came in close contact. Some years later the old chief gave the following account of the lieutenant's visit to the Sac and Fox village on the Rock River:
"A boat came up the river with a young chief and a small party of soldiers. We heard of them soon after they passed Salt River. Some of our young braves watched them every day, to see what sort of people were on board. The boat at last arrived at Rock River and the young chief came on shore with his interpreter, made a speech and gave us some presents. We in turn gave them meat and such other provisions as we could spare. We were well pleased with the young chief. He gave us good advice and said our American father would treat us well."The expeditions of Lewis and Clark and Lieutenant Pike touched only the borders of Iowa. The first authentic account of the region now comprising northwestern Iowa was that contained in the official report of J. N. Nicollet, who was appointed by the secretary of war on April 7, 1838, to make a map of the hydro-graphic basin of the upper Mississippi River. Associated with Nicollet in this work was John C. Fremont, then a young engineer in the service of the United States, but who afterwards won fame as the "Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains," the first candidate of the republican party for the presidency, and as a general in the Union army in the Civil war.
ACQUISITION OF THE INDIAN LANDS On August 9, 1805, Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike left St. Louis with a sergeant, two corporals and seventeen privates, to explore the upper Mississippi River. In the latter part of that month he held a council with the Indians near the present town of Montrose, in Lee County, Iowa. On that occasion Pike addressed the assembled chiefs as follows: "Your great father, the President of the United States, in his desire to become better acquainted with the conditions and wants of the different nations of red people in our newly acquired territory of Louisiana, has ordered the general to send a number of warriors in various directions to take our red brothers by the hand and make such inquiries as will give your great father the information required."
Although the treaty of September 3, 1783, which ended the Revolutionary war, extended the territory of the United States westward to the Mississippi; and the Treaty of Paris (April 30, 1803), sold the Province of Louisiana to the United States, thereby extending the western boundary to the Rocky Mountains, neither treaty had the power to extinguish the Indian title to the lands. That problem was left to the Federal Government for solution.
Article IX of the "Articles of Confederation" the first organic law of the American Republic gave Congress "the sole and exclusive right and power to regulate the trade with, and manage the affairs of the Indians." Under the authority conferred by this article, Congress issued the order of September 22, 1783, forbidding all persons to settle upon the Indian domain. The Articles of Confederation were superseded by the Constitution, which likewise gave to Congress the exclusive power to regulate Indian affairs. By the Act of March 1, 1793, Congress declared: "That no purchase or grant of lands, or any claim or title thereto, from any Indians, or nation or tribe of Indians, within the bounds of the United States, shall be of any validity, in law or equity, unless the same be made by a treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution."
The first treaties between the United States and the Indian tribes were merely agreements of peace and friendship, but as the white population increased treaties for the acquisition of lands were negotiated by the Government and the continuation of this policy gradually crowded the red man farther and farther westward before the advance of civilization.
TREATY OF 1804 At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century the white man was already looking with longing eyes upon the broad prairies of Illinois where lived the Sacs and Foxes and some other tribes. When the Louisiana Purchase was made a clamor arose for the removal of the Indians in Illinois to the new domain west of the Mississippi. Gen. William II. Harrison, then governor of the Indiana Territory, negotiated a treaty at St. Louis on November 4, 1804, by which the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States their lands east of the Mississippi, but retained the privilege of dwelling thereon until the lands were actually sold to white settlers, when they were to remove to the west side of the river. At that time it was the custom of the confederated tribes to give instructions to their chiefs, or delegates to a treaty convention as to what course should be pursued, or, in the absence of such instructions, afterward confirm the action of the delegates by a vote in council.
One faction of the Sacs and Foxes claimed that the delegates to St. Louis had no instructions to sell the lands east of the river, and a considerable number, under the leadership of Black Hawk, refused to confirm the sale. The opposition to the St. Louis Treaty was largely responsible for the alliance of Black Hawk and his band with the British in the War of 1812. After that war treaties of peace were made with several of the tribes that had fought against the United States. Black Hawk and his followers were the last to enter into such a treaty. On May 13, 1816, at St. Louis, a number of Sac and Fox chiefs and head men were induced to sign a treaty confirming that of 1804. One of the twenty-two chiefs who then "touched the goose quill" was Black Hawk, who, although he never denied signing the treaty, afterward repudiated the agreement.
It required considerable diplomacy on the part of the United States to induce Black Hawk and his followers to remove to the west side of the Mississippi, but in 1830 they crossed over into Iowa "under protest." Not satisfied with his new home, he recrossed the river in the spring of 1831, with a number of his braves and their families, and took possession of their former cornfields on the Rock River. General Gaines was sent with a force of troops to expel the Indians and Black Hawk was solemnly admonished not to repeat the offense. Despite the warning, the old chief, influenced by a bad medicine-man named Wa-bo-bie-shiek, again crossed over into Illinois in 1832. Again troops were sent against him and the conflict which followed is known as the Black Hawk war, which ended in the defeat of the Indians in the Battle of Bad Axe, August 2, 1832. Black Hawk and his two sons were captured and held for some time as prisoners of war.
THE NEUTRAL GROUND Going back a few years, it is necessary to notice a treaty which, though no lands were ceded by it for white settlement, played a conspicuous part in the subsequent history of Iowa. About 1825 the Sioux on the north and the Sacs and Foxes on the south became involved in a dispute over the limits of their respective hunting grounds and the United States undertook to settle the controversy. William Lewis and Lewis Cass were appointed commissioners to hold a council and endeavor to fix a line that would define the boundaries of the different tribes. The council was held at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, August 19, 1825, the chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes, Sioux, Winnebago, Chippewa, Ottawa, Potawatomi and some other minor tribes taking part. A boundary line was finally agreed upon as follows:
"Beginning at the mouth of the upper Iowa River, on the west bank of the Mississippi, and ascending said Iowa River to its west fork; thence up said fork to its source; then crossing the fork of the Red Cedar River in a direct line to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines River; thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calumet (Big Sioux) River, and down that stream to its junction with the Missouri River."
South of this line was to be the hunting grounds of the Sacs and Foxes, while the country north of it was to be the common property of the other tribes that agreed to the treaty. It soon became apparent that the imaginary line thus established was not sufficient to keep the contending tribes from trespassing upon each other's domain. Another council was therefore called to meet at Prairie du Chien on July 15, 1830. In the treaty negotiated at this council the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of land twenty miles wide along the northern border of their hunting grounds, extending from the Mississippi to the Des Moines, and immediately north of and adjoining this strip the northern tribes ceded a tract twenty miles wide between the same rivers. The forty-mile strip thus formed was known as the "Neutral Ground," which included a portion of Worth and Mitchell counties. It remained neutral until 1841, when it was given to the Winnebago Indians for a reservation. A few years later that tribe ceded it to the United States.
TREATY OF 1830 At the council of July 15, 1830, which established the Neutral Ground, the chiefs and head men of the Sac and Fox Confederacy entered into a treaty with the representatives of the United States, in which the allied tribes ceded to the United States a tract of land described as follows:
"Beginning at the upper fork of the Demoine River and passing the sources of the Little Sioux and Floyd rivers to the. fork of the first creek which falls into the Big Sioux or Calumet River on the east side; thence down said creek and the Calumet River to the Missouri River; thence down said Missouri River to the Missouri state line above the Kansas River; thence along said line from the northwest corner of the state to the highlands between the waters falling into the Missouri and Demoine rivers, passing to said highlands along the dividing ridge between the forks of the Grand River; thence along said highlands or ridge dividing the waters of the Missouri from those of the Demoine to a point opposite the source of the Boyer River, and thence in a direct line to the upper fork of the Demoine, the place of beginning."
The lands so ceded were not opened to white settlement, the treaty expressly stipulating that "the lands ceded and relinquished by this treaty are to be assigned and allotted under the direction of the President of the United States to the tribes now living thereon, or to such other tribes as the president may locate thereon for hunting and other purposes.
TREATY OF 1832 While Black Hawk and his two sons were held as prisoners of war, the United States negotiated the Treaty of September 21, 1832, with the Sac and Fox chiefs under the leadership of Keokuk, in which these tribes ceded to the United States "all lands to which said tribes have any title or claim included within the following boundaries, to wit:
"Beginning on the Mississippi River at the point where the Sac and Fox northern boundary line, as established by Article 2 of the treaty of July 15, 1830, strikes said river; thence up said 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 Ioway, forty miles from the Mississippi; thence in a right line to a point in the northern boundary of the State of Missouri, fifty miles, measured on said line, 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."
The ceded territory obtained by this treaty embraces about six million acres. It was taken by the United States as an indemnity for the expenses of the Black Hawk war, and for that reason it has been called the "Black Hawk Purchase." It included the present counties of Cedar, Clinton, Delaware, Des Moines, Dubuque, Henry, Jackson, Jones, Lee, Louisa, Muscatine and Scott, and portions of Buchanan, Clayton, Fayette, Jefferson, Johnson, Linn, Van Buren and Washington. The Black Hawk Purchase was the first Iowa land obtained from the Indians for white settlement.TREATY OF 1842
The irregular western boundary of the Black Hawk Purchase soon led to disputes between the Indians and the settlers. To adjust these differences of opinion some of the Sac and Fox chiefs were persuaded to visit Washington, where, on October 21, 1837, they ceded to the United States an additional tract of 1,250,000 acres for the purpose of straightening the western boundary. Upon making the survey it was discovered that the ceded territory was not enough to make a straight line, and again the Indians accused the white settlers of encroaching upon their lands. Negotiations were therefore commenced for additional land to straighten the boundary, and some of the wiser chiefs saw that it was only a matter of time until the Indians would have to relinquish all their Iowa lands to the white men. Keokuk, Wapello and Poweshiek especially advised a treaty peaceably ceding their lands to the United States, rather than to wait until they should be taken by force. Through their influence a council was called to meet at the Sac and Fox agency (now Agency City) in what is now Wapello County. John Chambers, then governor of Iowa Territory, was appointed commissioner on behalf of the United States to negotiate the treaty.
The council was held in a large tent set up for the purpose near the agency. Governor Chambers, dressed in the uniform of an army officer, made a short speech stating the object for which the council had been called, Keokuk, clad in all his native finery and bedecked with ornaments, responded. After that there was "much talk," as almost every chief present had something to say. On October 11, 1842, a treaty was concluded by which the allied tribes agreed to cede all their remaining lands in Iowa, but reserved the right to occupy for three years from the date of signing the treaty "all that part of the land above ceded which lies west of a line running due north and south from the Painted or Red Rocks on the White Breast fork of the Des Moines River, which rocks will be found about eight miles in a straight line from the junction of the White Breast and Des Moines."
The red sandstone cliffs, called by the Indians the Painted Rocks, are situated on the Des Moines River in the northwestern part of Marion County, near the town called Red Rock. The line described in the treaty forms the boundary between Appanoose and Wayne counties, on the southern border of the state, and passes thence northward between Lucas and Monroe, through Marion, Jasper, Marshall and Hardin counties to the northern limit of the cession. East of this line the land was opened to settlement on May 1, 1843, and west of it on October 11, 1845.
TREATY OF TRAVERSE DES SIOUX By the treaties concluded at the Indian agency on the Missouri River on June 5 and 17, 1846, the Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa tribes relinquished their claims to "all lands to which they have claim of any kind whatsoever, and especially the tracts or parcels of land ceded to them by the Treaty of Chicago, and subsequent thereto, and now in whole or in part possessed by their people, lying and being north and east of the Missouri River and embraced in the limits of the Territory of Iowa."
With the conclusion of those two treaties all that portion of the State of Iowa south of the country claimed by the Sioux became the property of the white men. It remained, however, for the Government to extinguish the Sioux title to Northwestern Iowa before taking full possession. This was done by the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux on July 23, 1851, when the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands ceded to the United States "all their lands in the State of Iowa, and also all their lands in the Territory of Minnesota lying east of the following line, to wit: Beginning at the junction of the Buffalo River with the Red River of the North; thence along the western bank of the said Red River of the North to the mouth of the Sioux Wood River; thence along the western bank of the said Sioux Wood River to Lake Traverse; thence along the western shore of said lake to the southern extremity thereof ; thence in a direct line to the junction of Kampesa Lake with the Tchan-kas-ka-da-ta or Sioux River; thence along the western bank of said river to its point of intersection with the northern line of the State of Iowa, including all the islands and said rivers and lake."
The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux was agreed to by the Mdewakanton band in a treaty concluded at Mendota, Minn., on August 5, 1851, and by the Wahpekute band a little later. Thus the great State of Iowa became the complete and undisputed domain of the white man.
Transcribed by Gordon Felland on 8/9/2018