CHAPTER IV

INDIAN TREATIES AND WARS

VARIOUS POLICIES IN DEALING WITH THE INDIANS-POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES-TREATY OF 1804-PIKE'S EXPEDITION UP THE MISSISSIPPI-FIRST COUNCIL WITH INDIANS IN IOWA-TREATIES OF PEACE AFTER THE WAR OF 1812-TREATY OF 1824-REMOVAL OF THE SACS AND FOXES TO IOWA-THE BLACK HAWK WAR-TREATY

OF 1832-THE "BLACK HAWK PURCHASE"-SUBSEQUENT TREATIES

-REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS THE HALF-BREED TRACT.

By the Treaty of Paris, concluded on April 30, 1803, France sold the entire Province of Louisiana, which included the present State of Iowa, to the United States. But France had no power to extinguish the Indian title to the lands, leaving that problem to be solved by the purchaser. Before the United States could come into complete and formal possession of the territory, it was therefore necessary that some agreement be made with the natives. In this connection it may not be amiss to notice briefly the policies of the several European nations claiming territory in America in dealing with the Indians.

As early as 1529, when Cortez was commissioned captain-general of New Spain, he received instructions from the Spanish authorities. "to give special attention to the conversion of the Indians, and see that none are made slaves or servants." Theoretically, this was the policy of Spain, but when Bishop Ramirez, as acting governor, endeavored to carry out the instructions given to Cortez, he quickly discovered that he was not to be sustained. Spain took the lands of the Indians without compensation, leaving them what the Spanish officials considered enough for a dwelling place, and in numerous instances the Indians were enslaved and compelled to work in the mines or on the plantations.

It seems that France had no settled policy in dealing with the natives. The early French trader cared little for the land. When the French Government, in 1712, granted Antoine Crozat a charter giving him a monopoly of the Louisiana trade, it was expressly provided that the Indians and negroes living in the province were

to receive religious instruction, but no provision was made for extinguishing the claim of the Indians to the soil. In the establishment of the trading posts not much land was needed and the trader and his retinue lived with the Indians as "tenants in common." Sometimes a small tract was cleared near the trading post for the purpose of raising a few vegetables, but the forests were rarely disturbed, leaving the Indian in possession and his hunting grounds unmolested.

With England it was different. The English colonists wanted to establish permanent homes and cultivate the soil. Consequently title to the land was the first consideration. In the early land grants made by the English crown, Parkman says the Indian was "scorned and neglected." In Lord Baltimore's charter to Maryland was the provision giving the grantee authority "to collect troops and wage war on barbarians and other enemies who may make incursions into the settlements, and to pursue, even beyond the limits of their province, and, if God shall grant it, to vanquish and captivate them; and the captives to put to death, or, according to their discretion to

save.'

William Penn's charter to Pennsylvania contained a similar provision. After the settlement of the colonies reached a point where the local authorities were called upon to deal with the question, each colony adopted a policy of its own, but that of Pennsylvania was perhaps the only one based upon the principles of justice.

The people who founded the Government of the United States were either from England, or descendants for the most part of English immigrants, and naturally copied the English policy. Article 9 of the Articles of Confederation-the first organic law of the Federal Government-provided: "That Congress shall have the sole and exclusive right and power to regulate the trade with, and manage the affairs of the Indians."

Under this authority Congress, on September 22, 1783, issued a proclamation forbidding all persons to settle upon the Indian lands. Then came the Constitution, which superseded the Articles of Confederation, and the new organic law also vested the power in Congress to deal with all matters arising out of the Government's relations with the Indians. By the act of March 1, 1793, Congress declared: "That no purchase or grant of lands, or any title or claim 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 object of the founders of the Government in adopting this policy was twofold: First, to prevent adventurers from trespassing upon Indian lands, thereby causing conflicts with the natives; and, second, to establish a system by which titles to lands should be assured for all time to come. Soon after the Federal Constitution went into effect, the Government began making treaties with the Indians. At first these treaties were merely expressions of peace and friendship. but as the white population increased the Government negotiated treaties of cession for the acquisition of more land, and the Indian was gradually pushed farther and farther toward the setting sun.

When the Louisiana Purchase was made the white man was looking with longing eyes at the broad prairies of Illinois, and immediately after the ratification of the Treaty of Paris a clamor arose for the removal of certain Indian tribes, among whom were the Sacs and Foxes, to the new domain. Accordingly, on November 3, 1804, Gen. William H. Harrison, then governor of Indiana Territory, negotiated a treaty at St. Louis with the chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes, by which the confederated tribes ceded their lands east of the Mississippi River to the United States, retaining the privilege of dwelling there until the lands were sold to actual white settlers, after which they were to remove to the west side of the river.

This treaty was subsequently the cause of a great deal of trouble with the Sacs and Foxes. It was then the custom of these tribes to instruct their chiefs or delegates to a treaty council in advance as to what course to pursue, or afterward confirm their action by a vote. It was claimed by some of the Indians that the delegates to the St. Louis Council had no definite instructions to céde the lands east of the Mississippi, and a portion of the allied tribes, led by Chief Black Hawk, refused to confirm their action.

Probably the first council ever held on Iowa soil between a representative of the United States and the Indians was in the latter part of August, 1805. On August 9, 1805, Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, with a sergeant, two corporals and seventeen privates, left St. Louis to explore the Mississippi to its head waters. At the head of the Des Moines Rapids of the Mississippi, where the Town of Montrose is now situated, he held a council with the Indians and addressed them 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."

No attempt was made to conclude a treaty, but at the close of the council Pike distributed among the Indians knives, tobacco and trinkets. Among the Indians who attended this council were some who signed the treaty at St. Louis the preceding November. Pike seems to have been the first American with whom Black Hawk ever came in close contact. Some years afterward the old chief gave the following account of the lieutenant's visit to Rock Island:

"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."

At the beginning of the War of 1812 part of the Sacs and Foxes allied themselves with the British. Those who remained loyal to the United States were induced to remove to the Missouri River and became known as the "Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri." Those who remained in Illinois and Eastern Iowa were called the "Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi," and Black Hawk's band was called the "British Band of Rock River." Shortly after the conclusion of the war a number of treaties were made with the tribes or bands that had fought on the side of England.

On July 19, 1815, at a place called Portage des Sioux, William Clark and Ninian Edwards, commissioners on the part of the United States, concluded a treaty of peace and friendship with the Sioux of Minnesota and Upper Iowa.

At the same place, on September 13, 1815, the same commissioners negotiated a treaty with the Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri, in which the Indians reaffirmed the Treaty of St. Louis of November 3, 1804. and agreed to keep entirely separate from the Sacs of Rock River. The next day the Foxes met the commissioners at Portage des Sioux and entered into a treaty reaffirming the Treaty of St. Louis. They also agreed to deliver the white prisoners in their hands to the commandant at Fort Clark, where Peoria, Illinois, now stands.

On September 16, 1815, the chiefs and head men of the Iowa Indians held a council with the commissioners at Portage des Sioux and signed a treaty of "mutual peace and good will." All the above treaties were ratified by the national administration on December 16, 1815, and the commissioners then undertook the work of negotiating

a treaty with Black Hawk and his band.

But it was not until the

following spring that the chiefs and head men of the band could be persuaded to visit St. Louis for the purpose of holding a council. On May 13, 1816, twenty-two of the leaders of the Rock River Sacs entered into a treaty confirming that of November 3, 1804. One of those who signed, or "touched the goose quill," as the Indians expressed it, was Black Hawk himself, though subsequently he repudiated his action on that occasion.

The next treaty that has any direct bearing upon the history of Lee County was that of August 4, 1824, which was concluded at Washington, D. C., where some of the Sac and Fox chiefs had been taken at the expense of the Government. By this treaty the Sacs and Foxes relinquished all claim to their lands in the State of Missouri. One provision of this treaty was as follows: "It is understood, however, that the small tract of land lying between the rivers Des Moines and Mississippi and the section of the above line (the northern boundary of Missouri) between the Mississippi and Des Moines, is intended for the use of the half-breeds belonging to the Sac and Fox nations, they holding it, however, by the same title and in the same manner that other Indian titles are held."

The treaty was ratified on January 18, 1825, and it established the so-called "Half-Breed Tract," a history of which is given later in this chapter.

About this time some of the tribes in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin got into a violent dispute as to the limits of their respective hunting grounds and the United States undertook the work of a mediator. William Clark and Lewis Cass were appointed commissioners to hold a council and, if possible, establish a line that would settle the controversy. Accordingly, a general council was held at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, on August 19, 1825, in which the Sacs and Foxes, Chippewas, Sioux, Winnebagoes, Ottawas, Pottawatomies and some other tribes participated. The treaty agreed upon fixed a line 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 the said fork to its source; thence 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 River, and down that stream to its junction with the Missouri River."

South of this line was to be the country of the Sacs and Foxes and north of it the other tribes were to have undisputed possession.

Vol. I-4