The Treaty of St. Louis of 1804 was a treaty concluded by William Henry Harrison on behalf of the United States of America and five Sauk and Meskwaki chiefs led by Quashquame.
The treaty transferred a huge area of land between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers from the Sauk and Meskwaki to the United States. In return, the Sauk and Meskwaki received a lump-sum payment of $2234.50 and an annuity of $1000. This payment was far less than the value of the land. The signatory chiefs were not authorized to cede land by their tribes and probably did not understand the treaty. The Sauk and Meskwaki deeply resented the treaty and considered it invalid. It alienated them from the United States and encouraged them to ally with Britain, contributing to their support for the British during the later War of 1812.
The Sauk and Meskwaki (or Fox) are closely related Algonquian peoples and traditional allies. At the beginning of the 19th century, they inhabited and controlled a territory along the Upper Mississippi River. This territory was roughly bounded by the Wisconsin River in the north, the Missouri River in the south, and the Des Moines River in the west. [1] In modern terms, it consisted of northwestern Illinois, southwestern Wisconsin, and eastern Missouri.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the territory of the Sauk and Meskwaki fell within the borders claimed by the United States. In 1804, it fell within Indiana Territory, whose governor was the politically ambitious William Henry Harrison. President Thomas Jefferson wanted to open Indiana Territory to American settlement. To this end, he instructed Harrison to purchase the lands of the region’s tribes, authorizing him to employ pressure and trickery. [2]
The Sauk and Meskwaki were each governed by a council of chiefs, which had the power to make treaties and sell land for the tribe, subject to custom. [3] Sauk and Meskwaki custom required an elaborate procedure for the sale of land. First, the council had to receive an official invitation to negotiate a treaty to sell land. Second, the council had to announce this invitation to the tribe. Third, the council had to convene to consider the sale. Fourth, if the council decided to negotiate a sale, a “representative sample” of the tribe’s population had to be present at the negotiations to oversee and instruct the negotiators. [4] Custom also required that the women of the tribe be consulted about any decision related to land, since they did most of the farming among both the Sauk and Meskwaki. [5]
In 1802 - 1804, Sauk and Meskwaki hostility toward the United States began to increase. American settlers and hunters began moving into Sauk and Meskwaki territory. The Sauk and Meskwaki had a longtime, low-level conflict with the neighbouring Osage people. The American government began distributing goods to the Osage, but not the Sauk and Meskwaki. It also prevented the Sauk and Meskwaki from raiding the Osage in 1804. The Sauk and Meskwaki likely perceived these policies as support for the Osage. [6] However, the American government probably intended only to halt destabilizing tribal warfare. [7]
In August 1804, Sauk hunters murdered and scalped four American settlers who entered Sauk territory near the Missouri River. The Sauk chiefs denounced the murders, fearful of American retaliation. American officials sent a message to the Sauk demanding that they surrender the murderers for trial and inviting them to negotiate a solution to the murders. [8]
The Sauk tribal council responded by sending a delegation of five chiefs to St. Louis, led by the Sauk chief Quashquame. One or more members of this delegation were Meskwaki. The council instructed the delegation to resolve the issue of the murders. It did not authorize the delegation to sell land. [9]
In exchange for an annual payment of $1,000 in goods to be delivered to the tribe in St. Louis ($600 for the Sacs and $400 for the Fox), the tribes gave up a swath of land stretching from northeast Missouri through almost all of Illinois north of the Illinois River as well as a large section of southern Wisconsin. This treaty was deeply resented by the Sauk, especially Black Hawk, who felt that Quashquame was not authorized to sign treaties. This treaty led to many Sauk siding with the British during the War of 1812.
The specific terms for the boundary were:
Included in this cession were the historic villages along the Rock River (Illinois), particularly Saukenuk. William Henry Harrison, the representative for the United States, was governor of the Indiana territory and of the District of Louisiana, superintendent of Indian Affairs for the said territory and district. The party of Sauk who signed the treaty, led by Quashquame, were not expecting to negotiate land and did not include important tribal leaders who would ordinarily have been in such negotiations. Black Hawk never recognized the treaty as valid and this led him to side with the British against settlers in the area during the War of 1812. The treaty was upheld again in the Treaties of Portage des Sioux in 1815 at the end of the war. Black Hawk eventually led the Black Hawk War to fight its terms.
In his autobiography, Black Hawk recalled:
The Sauk or Sac are a group of Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands culture group, who lived primarily in the region of what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin, when first encountered by the French in 1667. Their autonym is oθaakiiwaki, and their exonym is Ozaagii(-wag) in Ojibwe. The latter name was transliterated into French and English by colonists of those cultures. Today they have three federally recognized tribes, together with the Meskwaki (Fox), located in Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas.
The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (Fox), and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", crossed the Mississippi River, into the U.S. state of Illinois, from Iowa Indian Territory in April 1832. Black Hawk's motives were ambiguous, but he was apparently hoping to reclaim land that was taken over by the United States in the disputed 1804 Treaty of St. Louis.
Keokuk was a leader of the Sauk tribe in central North America, and for decades was one of the most recognized Native American leaders and noted for his accommodation with the U.S. government. Keokuk moved his tribe several times and always acted as an ardent friend of the Americans. His policies were contrary to fellow Sauk leader Black Hawk, who led part of their band to defeat in the Black Hawk War, was later returned by U.S. forces to Keokuk's custody, and who died a decade before Keokuk.
Black Hawk, born Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, was a Sauk leader and warrior who lived in what is now the Midwestern United States. Although he had inherited an important historic sacred bundle from his father, he was not a hereditary civil chief. Black Hawk earned his status as a war chief or captain by his actions: leading raiding and war parties as a young man and then a band of Sauk warriors during the Black Hawk War of 1832.
The Meskwaki, also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, the Meskwaki call themselves Meshkwahkihaki, which means "the Red-Earths", related to their creation story. Historically their homelands were in the Great Lakes region. The tribe coalesced in the St. Lawrence River Valley in present-day Ontario, Canada. Under French colonial pressures, it migrated to the southern side of the Great Lakes to territory that much later was organized by European Americans as the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa.
The Bad Axe Massacre was a massacre of Sauk (Sac) and Fox Indians by United States Army regulars and militia that occurred on August 1–2, 1832. This final scene of the Black Hawk War took place near present-day Victory, Wisconsin, in the United States. It marked the end of the war between white settlers and militia in Illinois and Michigan Territory, and the Sauk and Fox tribes under warrior Black Hawk.
Waukon Decorah, also known as Wakąhaga (Wau-kon-haw-kaw) or "Snake-Skin", was a prominent Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) warrior and orator during the Winnebago War of 1827 and the Black Hawk War of 1832. Although not a hereditary chief, he emerged as a diplomatic leader in Ho-Chunk relations with the United States.
The Black Hawk State Historic Site, in Rock Island, Illinois, is adjacent to the historic site of the village of Saukenuk, the home of a band of Native Americans of the Sauk nation. It includes the John Hauberg Museum of Native American Life. The state park is located on a 150 feet (50 m) bluff overlooking the Rock River in western Illinois. It is most famous for being the birthplace of the Sauk warrior Black Hawk. The disputed cession of this area to the U.S. Government was the catalyst for the Black Hawk War.
The Treaty of Fort Clark was signed at Fort Osage on November 10, 1808, in which the Osage Nation ceded all the land east of the fort in Missouri and Arkansas north of the Arkansas River to the United States. The Fort Clark treaty and the Treaty of St. Louis in which the Sac (tribe) and Fox (tribe) ceded northeastern Missouri along with northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin were the first two major treaties in the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. The affected tribes, upset with the terms, were to side with the British in the War of 1812. Following the settlement of that war, John C. Sullivan for the United States was to survey the ceded land in 1816 (adjusting it 23 miles westward to the mouth of the Kansas River to create the Indian Boundary Line west of which and south of which virtually all tribes were to be removed in the Indian Removal Act in 1830.
The British Band was a mixed-nation group of Native Americans commanded by the Sauk leader Black Hawk, which fought against Illinois and Michigan Territory militias during the 1832 Black Hawk War. The band was composed of about 1,500 men, women, and children from the Sauk, Meskwaki, Fox, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Ottawa nations; about 500 of that number were warriors. Black Hawk had an alliance with the British that dated from the War of 1812, giving them their colloquial name. The band crossed the Mississippi River from Iowa into Illinois in an attempt to reclaim their homeland and in violation of several treaties. Subsequently, both the Illinois and Michigan Territory militia were called up and the Black Hawk War ensued.
Warrior was a privately owned and constructed steamboat that was pressed into service by the U.S. government during the Black Hawk War to assist with military operations. Warrior was constructed and launched in 1832 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by Joseph Throckmorton who also served as the vessel's captain. Once constructed the vessel traveled to St. Louis and into the war zone. Warrior played a key role in the decisive Battle of Bad Axe. Following the war the steamboat continued its service under Throckmorton along the Upper Mississippi River.
A Half-Breed Tract was a segment of land designated in the western states by the United States government in the 19th century specifically for Métis of American Indian and European or European-American ancestry, at the time commonly known as half-breeds. The government set aside such tracts in several parts of the Midwestern prairie region, including in Iowa Territory, Nebraska Territory, Kansas Territory, Minnesota Territory, and Wisconsin Territory.
Wabasha II, also known as Wapahasha, Wapasha, or "The Leaf," succeeded his father as head chief of the Mdewakanton Dakota tribe in the early 1800s. He led the Dakota forces fighting with the British in the War of 1812, but sided with the United States in the Black Hawk War of 1832. Chief Wabasha II signed the Treaties of Prairie du Chien in 1825 and 1830.
Quashquame was a Sauk chief; he was the principal signer of the 1804 treaty that ceded Sauk land to the United States government. He maintained two large villages of Sauk and Meskwaki in the early 19th century near the modern towns of Nauvoo, Illinois and Montrose, Iowa, and a village or camp in Cooper County, Missouri.
Taimah was a Meskwaki (Fox) leader in the early 19th century in present-day Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. He was often called Chief Tama in historical accounts and was one of the signatories of an 1824 treaty in Washington, DC ceding land to the United States.
American Indians of Iowa include numerous Native American tribes and prehistoric cultures that have lived in this territory for thousands of years. There has been movement both within the territory, by prehistoric cultures that descended into historic tribes, and by other historic tribes that migrated into the territory from eastern territories. In some cases they were pushed by development pressure and warfare.
The Treaty of St. Louis is the name of a series of treaties signed between the United States and various Native American tribes from 1804 through 1824. The fourteen treaties were all signed in the St. Louis, Missouri area.
The New Purchase of 1842 is a treaty between the United States and the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes, referred to as the Sac and Fox in the treaty. The Native American tribes ceded land in Iowa west of the Mississippi River and north of the Missouri border.