USA > Iowa > An illustrated history of the state of Iowa, being a complete civil, political, and military history of the state, from its first exploration down to 1875; > Part 5
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This treaty never gave satisfaction to the Sacs and Foxes, and some of the chiefs afterwards decided that the five chiefs who met and held this treaty with Gen. Harrison, at St. Louis, had no right to dispose of the lands belonging to the nation. The most prominent among those who were displeased with the provisions of the treaty, was Black Hawk (or Muk-ka-ta-mischa-ca-kaig). Black Hawk was not by birth a chief, but by his bold daring
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and warlike skill, made himself one of the principal chiefs in the nation ; and his intimate connection with the early history of Iowa makes it a matter of interest to give a short notice of his life. Black Hawk was a Sac by birth, and was born at their village on Rock river in 1767. His father's name was Pyesa, and held the office among his people of carrying the medicine bag. At the age of fifteen he distinguished himself by wounding an enemy, and was put in the rank of the braves. In a war which his nation had with the Osages, he gathered a party of seven men and attacked a party of over a hundred of the enemy, killed one of them and retreated without injury. From this exploit his valor was such, though not twenty years of age, he marched against the Osage village on the Missouri with a party of one hundred and eighty braves, but finding it deserted, most of his party being disappointed, left him and returned home; but he with five of his men, followed their trail and after several days pursuit took the scalp, of a man or a boy and made a safe retreat. In 1786 Black Hawk with two hundred braves again set off to avenge the repeated outrages of the Osages upon his nation. He met with a number of the enemy, equal to his own, and a fierce battle ensued. The Osages lost nearly a hundred men, while there were only thirteen of his own party killed. In this battle, Black Hawk claims to have killed five of the enemy with his own hand. This battle stopped for a while the intrusions of the Osages, and Black Hawk turned his attention to redressing the wrongs which the Cherokees had committed in killing some of their women and children. He met the Cherokees below St. Louis on the Merrimack river who in number had the largest force ; but Black Hawk attacked them, and compelled them to retreat with a loss of twenty-eight men. The Sacs only lost seven, but among this number was Pyesa, Black Hawk's father. Owing to this misfortune, for several years he ceased from all warlike operations, and spent his time in hunting and fishing.
In 1800 he made another excursion against the Osages, at the head of about five hundred men selected from the Sac, Fox, and Iowa bands. In this attack he destroyed about forty lodges and killed many of the warriors of the enemy, five of whom were slain by himself. In 1802 he terminated a war which had been
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carried on against the Chippawas, Kaskaskias and Osages, during which six or seven battles were fought, and more than one hun- dred of the enemy slain. Black Hawk had been in the habit of making frequent visits to St. Louis to see the Spanish governor, by whom he had been kindly received. In 1804 he made one of his accustomed visits, and represented that he found many sad and gloomy faces there, because the United States were about to take possession of the town and country. He says: "soon after the Americans came, I took my band and went to take leave of our father. The Americans came to see him also. Seeing them ap- proach, we passed out at one door as they entered at another, and immediately started in our canoes for our village at Rock river, not liking the change any more than our friends appeared to at St. Louis. On arriving at our village, we gave the news that strange people had arrived at St. Louis, and that we should never see our Spanish father again. This information made all of our people sorry."
From his own account, it would seem that Black Hawk was not pleased with the Americans taking possession of the country, and was inclined to look upon them with distrust before the na- tion by their chiefs held the treaty of 1804; and he always con- tended that his people were wronged by the Americans in this treaty ; and that the chiefs who were sent to St. Louis to have a talk with their great father, Gen. Harrison, were not an authorized to sell their lands ; that they were sent for the purpose of trying to get one of their people released, who was confined in the prison at St. Louis for killing a white man. A great portion of the Indians at the head of whom was Keokuk (the watchful Fox), felt disposed to sanction the treaty of 1804 and to cultivate friendly feelings towards the United States ; while Black Hawk and his party, jealous of the encroachments of the whites upon their hunting grounds, took the opposite course, and their feelings of hostility were increased by the machinations of the British. In the war of 1812 the United States requested the Indians not to interfere in the quarrel with Great Britain, but to quietly pursue the chase and provide for their families, which request was strictly adhered to by Keokuk and his party; but Black Hawk and his friends were persuaded by kind words and presents from the
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British to engage in their cause against the Americans. Black Hawk remained in the service about a year, and was engaged in several battles, but does not seem to have achieved any signal honors.
In the month of August, 1813, he was engaged in the attack upon Fort Stephenson, at that time under the command of Maj. Croghan. The repulse given to the combined British and Indian forces disheartened Black Hawk, and he and about twenty of his band left the service and returned home to their village on the Rock river.
Shortly after his return an adopted son of Black Hawk was killed by some frontiersmen, and his body badly mutilated. Deeply touched by the mournful fate of the young man, his venge- ance was aroused. He soon collected a band and prepared to carry on an offensive warfare upon the frontiers. They descended the river in canoes to where Fort Madison had stood, and found it abandoned and burnt. They continued their course down the river till they came near " Cap au Gris " where they killed one of the United States rangers, but were driven away by troops from Fort Howard. The Indians, about thirty in number, rallied in the woods and on the 24th of May 1814, a severe battle was fought between Black Hawk and his party and the troops, known as the "Sink Hole " battle. The Americans lost seven killed, three wounded of the troops, and one citizen killed and two mortally wounded. Five of the Indians were killed and a large number wounded. After the conclusion of the war of 1812, Black Hawk resided at Rock River, but they were not inclined to bury the tomahawk up to as late as the spring of 1816, but com- mitted many depredations on the frontiers. In 1814 he and his party made an attack upon some boats ascending the Mississippi with stores and provisions for the garrison at Prairie du Chien, in which one boat was captured and several of the crew killed. On the 13th of May 1816, twenty-one chiefs and Black Hawk met at St. Louis, at which time and place a treaty was made and duly signed and an adjustment of difficulties was made.
The history of Black Hawk will be continued hereafter, with an account of what is known as to Black Hawk war.
CHAPTER VII.
EXPLORATION.
Expedition of Gen. Pike-A Sketch of his Travels - His Interview with Dubuque- Gen. Pike effects Treaties with the Indians - Early Indian Complications.
WE WILL now resume the early history of Iowa. After the treaty made at St Louis in 1804 by Gov. Harrison on the part of the United States, and the Sac and Fox nations, and after acquir- ing Louisiana, the government of the United States took measures to explore the newly acquired territory. There was a military post established t St. Louis under the command of Gen. James Wilkinson, to whom the subordinate officers made their reports. Merriweather Lewis, then captain in the first regiment of infantry, and Car's. C. Clark were selected by the President to explore the unknown sources of the Missouri, and General (then major) Z. M. Pike was chosen to trace the Mississippi to its head waters. Gen. Pike started on his tour from his encampment near St. Louis on the 9th of August, 1805, with one sergeant, two corporals and seventeen privates, in a keel boat seventy feet long, with pro- visions for four months, and on the 20th of August arrived within the present limits of Iowa, at the foot of the Des Moines rapids. At this place he was met by Wm. Ewing, who had been appointed by the government an agent to reside among the Indians, to teach the science of agriculture, with a French intereprter, four chiefs and fifteen men of the Sac tribe who assisted him crossing the rapids. At the head of these rapids, on or near the spot where Montrose is built, was a large village of the Sacs. This village must then have been recently established, for in 1673, when Joliet and Marquette first'descended the Mississippi, they found no Indian settlement on the river ; but there was a large settle- ment of another tribe (the Illinois) of the aborigines, a short dis- tance below on the Des Moines.
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At the rapids, Gen. Pike called all the chiefs to his camp, and had a talk with them, stating that their Great Father, the Presi- dent, wished to be more intimately acquainted with the different nations of red men and their wants, and that he and his warriors were sent to take them by the hand, etc., also that he was author- ized to choose a station for their trading establishment, closing his talk by a presentation of some knives, tobacco and whisky. The chiefs thanked him for his presents, and said that for the sit- uation of the trading house, they could not determine, being but a part of the nation. At the close of the council, Pike with his party pursued his journey up the river, and by the 23d of August he must have been near where the city of Burlington is located, if not on the very site, which place he selected as the location for a fort. On the 24th with one of his men, he went ashore to hunt, and following upa stream which they supposed was the Mississippi, they were led out of their intended course, and got lost on the prairie. Pike retraced his steps to the boat, but two of the soldiers were six days without anything to eat but muscles, which they gathered from the stream, and would prob- ably have perished had they not accidentally fallen in with a trader on his way to St. Louis, who gave them aid, and with the assistance of a couple of Indians and a canoe, they overtook the boat at the mines of Dubuque on the 1st of September, 1805. On Gen. Pike's arrival, Mr. Dubuque fired a salute with a field piece, and received his guests with every mark of attention, but he was very reserved in giving them information about the coun- try, or the extent of the mines.
Gen. Pike, being attacked with a fever, was unable to explore the country in person, and propounded Mr. D. a series of ques- tions, to which he gave replies. The following statements were given : That the grant of lands of the mines was by the Span- iards, and a copy thereof filed at the office of Mr. Sonland ; that the mines in extent were twenty-eight or twenty-seven leagues long, and from one to three broad ; that from 20,000 to 40,000 pounds of lead were made yearly, and that the mineral yielded seventy-five per cent. of lead, and was made into pigs. At this place Pike met the celebrated war chief, Black Hawk, on his return with his warriors from an invasion into the country of the
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EXPLORATION.
Sauteurs, who made a very "flowery speech on the occasion," which Pike answered in a few words, accompanied by a small present. Proceeding up the river, they arrived at Prairie du Chien on the 4th, and in his narrative Pike gives an account of the place, as it appeared at the time ; and passing upwards on his journey, they came to the upper Iowa river, where Wabasha (or La Fieulle) sent down six of his men to invite the General to partake of a feast at his lodge. Arriving at the village they were received with a military salute by the Indians which was re- turned from the boat. After a speech from the chief, expressing welcome, Gen. Pike replied, stating the object of his visit, that his government was about to establish a military post among them, and to send officers and agents into their country to attend to their wants, and above all, to try and make peace with the Sioux and Sauteurs, and that he intended on his return, to bring down with him some of the chiefs of the two nations for the pur- pose of bringing to a close the long and bloody war which had existed between the two nations, etc. After partaking of their hospitalities, Pike presented the chief with some tobacco and other presents, and then resumed his voyage up the river. On the 22d of September, they arrived at the mouth of St. Peters river, where they were received and treated in a similar manner as at the former place. On the 23d a council of the Indians was held, and Pike addressed the council, requesting that peace should be made with the Sauteurs, and that a tract of land should be given, on which to establish a military post. It will be remem- bered that this section of territory was included in the territory of Louisiana, as the adjoining territory, west of the Mississippi, now the state of Iowa. The speech of Gen. Pike was replied to by Fils de Pinchard, and the head chief, Le Petit Corbean. They gave the grant of land asked for, amounting to 100,000 acres, and promised him any chief he might bring down from the nation above, but would give no positive assurance that they would make peace with the Sauteurs. On the 26th of September, the party left St. Peters and made a stop 233 miles higher up the river, near a small stream called Pine creek, and erected a fort in which to leave a portion of his men and a part of the stores. From thence they proceeded up the river, a portion of them with
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canoes, and the others with sleds on the land, stopping at a trad- ing post on Lake de Sable in latitude 47º, and on the 1st of February, 1806, arrived at the head waters of the Mississippi. Here Pike held a council with the Indians, and on his return south, on the 18th of February, took with him two chiefs to St. Lonis, at which place he arrived on the 30th of April. During the period of the war between the United States and Great Brit- ain, from 1812 to 1815, the Sac and Fox nations were divided in sentiment, which cansed them to have different locations for their villages. Those friendly to the United States had moved over to the west side of the Mississippi, and one band of the Sacs had located themselves on the Missouri, while those who were friendly to the British, occupied their old village at Rock Island. Of this band Black Hawk was the most prominent character.
At the conclusion of the war, and in accordance with their agreement in the treaty of Ghent, the United States took immedi- ate measures to establish friendly relations with the Indian tribes, and for this purpose, Wm. Clark, governor of Missouri territory, Ninian Edwards, governor of Illinois territory, and Aug. Choteau, Esq., of Missouri, were appointed commissioners to treat with the several Indian tribes interested. The commissioners had a coun- cil at Portage Des Sioux, and on the 13th of September, 1815, concluded a treaty with the Indians who resided on the Missouri river and were friendly disposed to the Americans; and on the 14th of September concluded a treaty with a band of Foxes who had been friendly to the British, in which it was agreed, that all injuries and acts of hostility were to be forgiven, and peace estab- lished between them. The Indians were to give up all prisoners in their hands to be delivered up to their respective nations ; and this tribe also recognized and confirmed the treaty of 1804.
Another treaty was made on the 13th of May, 1816, but not ratified and proclaimed until the following year. This band of Indians were at the mercy of the United States ; for by the treaty at Ghent, they could not expect any support from the British gov- ernment ; and the neighboring Indians, as well as some of their own nation, had made peace with the United States, and refused to give them any help, and not having numbers sufficient to con- tend with so powerful an enemy, they were forced to submit to
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EXPLORATION.
any terms which might be imposed upon them. Under these cir- cumstances, Black Hawk and twenty-one of his party were induced to sign a treaty, in the preamble of which their many faults were enumerated, and the magnanimity of the United States portrayed in glowing colors ; and in the first article they were made to give their "unconditional assent to recognize, reëstablish, and confirm the treaty between the United States of America and the united tribes of the Sacs and Foxes, which was concluded at St. Louis on the third day of November, 1804, as well as all other contracts and agreements heretofore made between the said tribes and the United States." The United States agreed to restore them to the same footing on which they stood before the war, provided they would restore all the property they had plundered since they were notified of the ratification of the treaty at Ghent, and in case they did not deliver up the property aforesaid, or any part of it, by the first day of the following July, then the United States were to be exonerated from paying their proportion of the annui- ties as provided by the treaty of 1804. Thus was a friendly rela- tion between the whole Sac and Fox nation and the United States established. Soon after the treaty of 1816 the United States built Fort Armstrong on Rock Island, but a few miles from Black Hawk's village. This act of the government was considered by the Indians as another violation of the treaty of 1804.
In the fall of 1820, Black Hawk and some of his band made a visit to their British Father at Malden, and received many pres- ents from him. These visits were frequently made, and probably did not result in cultivating any friendly feeling towards the United States.
CHAPTER VIII.
HALF-BREEDS-MINING-INDIAN TROUBLES.
The Provision for Half-breeds -The Half-breed Tract of Land - Congress- ional Act Enabling the Half-breeds to sell their Lands - Sac and Fox Outbreaks -Conflict between Miners and Indians.
AFTER the United States acquired the Louisiana purchase from France, and the former government had taken possession of the country, several persons who went into the Indian country as traders. or were in some other way connected with the Indian agencies, took to themselves squaws or wives, and had children, which were generally designated as " half-breeds." These children as they grew up, not fully adopting the habits of Indian life, were cared for by their nation in this treaty with the United States. In a treaty made on the 4th of August, 1824, by Wm. Clark, the United States Indian agent residing at St. Louis, with the Indians, the Sac and Fox tribes of Indians, by their deputies in council assembled, agreed to sell to the United States for a valuable con- sideration, all their title to the northern part of the state of Mis- souri, from the Mississippi to the western boundary of that state. By the same treaty, 119,000 acres were reserved for the use of the half-breeds of the Sac and Fox nations. It occupied the strip of country between the Mississippi, and south of a line drawn from a point on the Des Moines river, about one mile below Farming- ton, east to the Mississippi, and at the lower end of Fort Madison, including Keokuk, and all the land between said line and the junction of the rivers. This reservation embraced some of the most valuable lands in the state, and lying in the south part of Lee county. After the Black Hawk purchase, and the surround- ing country became settled, the whites were very anxious to acquire and settle these lands. Some ten years after the reserva- tion of this tract of land to the half-breeds, when the Indians had
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
ceded their contiguous lands, and with them had migrated many half-breeds, leaving a few females who had married white men, and a few drunken vagrants to annoy the whites who were begin- ning to occupy the half-breed tract as well as the ceded lands, and when no semblance of a half-breed community existed, congress, in view of these circumstances, on the 13th of June, 1834, passed an act releasing to the half-breeds the " fee in reservation and the right of preemption, severed their joint tenancy, invested them individually, their heirs and assigns as tenants in common, with the allodial fee simple, and prescribed the rules of alienation and descent which were to be in accordance with the laws of Missouri, the same as any other citizen of the state."
Soon after the half-breeds were permitted to dispose of their lands, a great many persons became interested in this tract by purchases from different half-breeds. These gentlemen formed themselves into a company, obtained an act of the legislature for their special benefit, and on the 22d of October, 1836, entered into articles of association, the object of which was to purchase a part of certain lands known as the half-breed tract, and that the title to the same should be invested in trustees. This company became extensive owners of the tract referred to, for out of the one hundred and one shares into which the tract was divided, they were the owners of forty-one shares ; as the treaty making this reservation to the half-breeds did not designate the number or names of the parties who were embraced in the reserve, it became a disputed question as to who were the rightful owners of the land, and whether those who had made purchases had good titles, and if so, how much of this tract they were entitled to by their purchase ; and to settle these disputed rights, on the 16th of Jan- nary, 1838, there was an act passed by the Wisconsin legislature then sitting at Burlington, Iowa, " for the purpose of settling the rights of certain claimants to land in the south part of Lee county." The law and the action of the commissioners were un- satisfactory, and without going into particulars, it is only neces- sary to say, that the subject of the ownership of these lands came before the legislature of Iowa, and the different courts in the terri- tory and state, and the United States courts, and was the cause of much litigation. In the spring of 1855, the supreme court of the
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United States made a decision, making what is commonly known as the decree title to Keokuk and the whole half-breed Sac and Fox reservation, indisputable, firm and effectual forever.
The ensuing summer (1820). the propriety of the whole nation removing to the west side of the Mississippi was urged upon them by the agent at Fort Armstrong. The principal of the Fox chiefs, as well as Keokuk, favored the removal, and urged the Indians to go; but some of them were opposed to going, and called upon Black Hawk for his advice. He took the ground that their lands had not been rightfully purchased ; that the Americans had no right to insist on their removal, and as a matter of policy, he was opposed to it. From this time till the close of the Black Hawk war, Black Hawk seems to have been the master spirit among those hostile to the United States, and Keokuk that of the friend- ly party.
After the death of Julien Dubuque, which took place in 1810, the lead mines on the west side of the Mississippi were not worked to any extent, till after the purchase of these mines from the In- dians. The Indians did not feel disposed, nor had they the abil- ity to work these mines successfully, and to prevent the whites from intruding, they always guarded the mining district with great care. They would not allow the whites to visit the grounds, even to look at the place where Dubuque had worked, and much less admit mining to be done or settlements made. But early in the spring of 1830, an incident happened which gave the whites from the east side of the river an opportunity to explore the min- ing country. The hostilities which had long existed between the Sac and Fox nations and their allies were kept up, notwithstand- ing all the efforts that had been made by the government author. ities to keep them at peace, and they were constantly committing depredations upon one another whenever an opportunity presented. Early in the spring of 1830, a party of ten or twelve Sac and Fox chiefs with a small party, started for Prairie du Chien to have a talk with the United States' commissioner : but when they as- cended the river as far as Cassville Island, they were attacked by a large party of Sioux and Menomonies, and the whole party ex. cept two were killed on the spot, and these subscquently died of wounds received. The receipt of the intelligence of this slaugh-
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