AN UNBLEMISHED LAND

About a hundred miles south of the mouth of the Wisconsin, they observed on the western shore what appeared to be a human footpath. Leaving their companions to guard their canoes, and supplies the leaders disembarked unarmed. Following the path for five or six miles over a fine rolling prairie, they came to an Indian village on the banks of a river. A short distance farther they found two more villages.

As they approached the first village, four warriors advanced with uplifted peace pipes. They led the strangers to the wigwam of the chief who made a speech of welcome.

Father Marquette understood this chief as well, for these Indians were also Algonkians. They belonged to the Illini or Illinois confederation of tribes. This particular tribe were Peorias, who had crossed the Mississippi to escape the prowling bands of Iroquois, who were their dreaded enemies.

After smoking their peace pipe with these friendly Indians the visitors were given a tour of their village and other nearby villages and treated to a feast.

The next day, they were escorted by a throng of Indians back to the river. Father Marquette and Joliette continued on their journey after being the first White men to set foot in what is now Iowa.

Father Marquette and Louis Joliette completed what they had set out to do. They found out that the Mississippi River did indeed flow into the Gulf of Mexico.

French missions and settlements soon arose along the Illinois River. Not so in Iowa. More than a century and a half passed before there were any permanent white settlements in Iowa. But there were occasional white visitors, a number of fur traders, and a few individual settlers.

After the French and Indian War, and especially after Pontiac’s Rebellion, the relations between the Algonkain Indians and the English was greatly improved. The English now wanted the Indians left in possession of as large areas of land as possible for hunting grounds. This would make it difficult for the Americans to buy land from them or make any agreement with them at all.

After the American Revolution, American settlers pushed farther and farther westward, and relations between settlers and the Indians steadily worsened.

Most of the white men who came pushing West in the surge of settling this country hadn’t heard what the early explorers said, and they didn’t know a desert when they saw one. So the white man settled in, in spite of legitimate Indian claims. That’s why a series of treaties with Indians had to be written to permit white men to come to Iowa. But the treaties only legalized an established fact; they just got the Indians to agree to what had already happened.

The Sioux held their claim to Iowa land longer than any other Indians. In 1851 the Sioux sold their Iowa land to the United States.

The white man now owned all of Iowa. A total of nearly three million dollars had been paid to the Indians. In addition they were given reservations in other parts of the country. As a ward of the United States they enjoyed other advantages as well.

Whether the Sacs and Fox and other Indians were paid enough, or if they were treated unfairly when required to sell their land is difficult to say. When it is noted that the Sacs and Fox and some of the others had taken the land from other tribes, it may be said that the transaction was fair.

The Indians sold their lands, but left the State reluctantly. A few even stayed in Iowa. Others returned from time to time to visit or hunt. None of these visiting Indians ever caused the white settlers in our area any serious trouble.