What is the purpose & effects of various treaties between the Native Americans and both federal government and Wisconsin?
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The U.S. Government used nine treaties to remove American Indians from Iowa as seen on this 19th century map.
All of that would change, as history has taught us, through a series of 368 treaties and executive orders used by the U.S. government from 1776 to 1886 to seize more than 1.5 billion acres from America’s indigenous people. Some historians call it the largest land grab in the world, which led to the formation of states like Iowa.
So what were the terms of the treaties? How much money was exchanged? What were the boundaries? How did they shape Iowa?
“The treaty pattern established by British, French and Dutch colonies was used in part because some tribes were more powerful than the U.S. government which was born broke and tired from the battle for independence,” said Eric S. Zimmer, a doctoral candidate specializing in American Indian history at the University of Iowa
The federal government used nine treaties to remove American Indians from Iowa. Historians say that the Sac and Fox, often called the Sauk and Meskwaki, held the largest amount of land in Iowa. (Zimmer claims the tribal group has been incorrectly treated as one tribe for nearly 200 years and should be referred to as Sauk/Meskwaki).
The first treaty that required American Indians to cede land in what is now Iowa was signed on Aug. 4, 1824, in Washington, D.C. Ten members of Sauk/Meskwaki agreed to relinquish their claim to the land they possessed in what is now Missouri. The treaty also included a provision referred to as the Half Breed Tract. It was a small 119,000-acre, triangular area between the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers on the southeastern tip of Iowa where the city of Keokuk is located. It was set aside for use by mixed marriage families — usually white men married to American Indian women. The half-breed citizens could live there, but could not buy or sell any of the land.
This arrangement, however, was short lived. In 1834, Congress repealed the Half Breed Tract portion of the 1824 treaty. White claim jumpers, attracted by Iowa’s rich soil began moving into the area as they ran out of farm land east of the Mississippi River.
The first large American Indian land loss in Iowa was triggered by an 1804 document. That year, William H. Harrison, governor of the Indiana territory, completed a series of agreements with representatives from the Sauk/Meskwaki, Fox, Illinois and Delaware tribes. One provision, signed by five Sauk/Meskwaki representatives, required them to relinquish their holdings east of the Mississippi River when white settlers started moving into the area. This would not happen until the early 1830s when white farmers started moving into the territory near where the city of Rock Island, Ill., is now located.
When white farmers arrived, the Sauk/Meskwaki were asked to leave by the Illinois governor. One faction headed by Black Hawk refused. Indian women, who did the farming, pressured him to stay. They complained that the prairie soil west of the Mississippi River in Iowa was too difficult to break with their hoes.
Another faction headed by Keokuk yielded to government demands and agreed to move west across the Mississippi into Iowa. As a result, the U.S. recognized Keokuk as the de facto chief of the Sauk/Meskwaki.
In his book, “The Upper Mississippi Valley: How the Landscape Shaped our Heritage,” historian William Burke explained “The fraud of the 1804 treaty with the Sac and Fox led to the Black Hawk War in 1832.” The war had a significant impact on the Iowa territory even though the battles were fought in what is now Illinois and Wisconsin.
Patrick J. Jung summarized the impact in his book, “The Black Hawk War of 1832.” He noted, “The cost of the four month Black Hawk War to the United States has been estimated at $8 million in 1990 dollars. (For 2015 that figure would increase to roughly $14.2 million according to westegg.com/inflation website.) The causalities included 72 whites and an estimated 450 to 600 Sac. Less than 1,000 Indians battled against 12,000 U.S. Army regulars and the Illinois militia … This was the last major uprising by Indians east of the Mississippi River.”
All of that would change, as history has taught us, through a series of 368 treaties and executive orders used by the U.S. government from 1776 to 1886 to seize more than 1.5 billion acres from America’s indigenous people. Some historians call it the largest land grab in the world, which led to the formation of states like Iowa.
So what were the terms of the treaties? How much money was exchanged? What were the boundaries? How did they shape Iowa?
“The treaty pattern established by British, French and Dutch colonies was used in part because some tribes were more powerful than the U.S. government which was born broke and tired from the battle for independence,” said Eric S. Zimmer, a doctoral candidate specializing in American Indian history at the University of Iowa
The federal government used nine treaties to remove American Indians from Iowa. Historians say that the Sac and Fox, often called the Sauk and Meskwaki, held the largest amount of land in Iowa. (Zimmer claims the tribal group has been incorrectly treated as one tribe for nearly 200 years and should be referred to as Sauk/Meskwaki).
The first treaty that required American Indians to cede land in what is now Iowa was signed on Aug. 4, 1824, in Washington, D.C. Ten members of Sauk/Meskwaki agreed to relinquish their claim to the land they possessed in what is now Missouri. The treaty also included a provision referred to as the Half Breed Tract. It was a small 119,000-acre, triangular area between the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers on the southeastern tip of Iowa where the city of Keokuk is located. It was set aside for use by mixed marriage families — usually white men married to American Indian women. The half-breed citizens could live there, but could not buy or sell any of the land.
This arrangement, however, was short lived. In 1834, Congress repealed the Half Breed Tract portion of the 1824 treaty. White claim jumpers, attracted by Iowa’s rich soil began moving into the area as they ran out of farm land east of the Mississippi River.
The first large American Indian land loss in Iowa was triggered by an 1804 document. That year, William H. Harrison, governor of the Indiana territory, completed a series of agreements with representatives from the Sauk/Meskwaki, Fox, Illinois and Delaware tribes. One provision, signed by five Sauk/Meskwaki representatives, required them to relinquish their holdings east of the Mississippi River when white settlers started moving into the area. This would not happen until the early 1830s when white farmers started moving into the territory near where the city of Rock Island, Ill., is now located.
When white farmers arrived, the Sauk/Meskwaki were asked to leave by the Illinois governor. One faction headed by Black Hawk refused. Indian women, who did the farming, pressured him to stay. They complained that the prairie soil west of the Mississippi River in Iowa was too difficult to break with their hoes.
Another faction headed by Keokuk yielded to government demands and agreed to move west across the Mississippi into Iowa. As a result, the U.S. recognized Keokuk as the de facto chief of the Sauk/Meskwaki.
In his book, “The Upper Mississippi Valley: How the Landscape Shaped our Heritage,” historian William Burke explained “The fraud of the 1804 treaty with the Sac and Fox led to the Black Hawk War in 1832.” The war had a significant impact on the Iowa territory even though the battles were fought in what is now Illinois and Wisconsin.
Patrick J. Jung summarized the impact in his book, “The Black Hawk War of 1832.” He noted, “The cost of the four month Black Hawk War to the United States has been estimated at $8 million in 1990 dollars. (For 2015 that figure would increase to roughly $14.2 million according to westegg.com/inflation website.) The causalities included 72 whites and an estimated 450 to 600 Sac. Less than 1,000 Indians battled against 12,000 U.S. Army regulars and the Illinois militia … This was the last major uprising by Indians east of the Mississippi River.”
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