History of Fayette County, Iowa,

A history of the County, its Cities, Towns Etc.

Illustrated.

Western Historical Company,

Successors to H. F. Kett & Co.

1878

Page 307

EARLY SETTLEMENT TO PRESENT TIMES.

Prior to June, 1833, the entire State of Iowa was in the undisputed possession of the Indians -- Sacs and Foxes mainly-- while north of their territory, in what is now Minnesota, were the hunting grounds of the Sioux. Between those nations, a state of constant warfare existed. Boundry lines were unknown to the savages, and bloody conflicts between these hostile and war-like tribes were frequent as they made incursions upon each other's territory. In its effort to secure peace among the savage tribes of the Northwest, the Government of the United States, represented by William Clark and Lewis Cass, negotiated a treaty on the 19th of August, 1825, with the Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes. Mennominees, Winnebagoes, etc. in which it was stipulated and agreed that the United States should run a line between the Sioux on the north, and the Sacs and Foxes on the south, commencing at the mouth of the Upper Iowa River ascinding said river to its west fork, thence up that fork to its source, thence crossing the fork of the Red Cedar River on a direct line to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines, thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calumet, and down that stream to the Missouri.   THE NEUTRAL GROUND. The Indians, However, did not very scruputously observed this imaginary line, and, by Articles 2 and 3 of the treaty of July 15, 1830, ratified Feb. 24, 1831 (see U.S. Statutes, Vol. 7, page 329), the Sac and Fox band of Indians ceded a strip of country twenty miles wide.on the south, and the Madawakanton, Wapakoota, Wahpetonand Sissiton bands of Sioux, twenty miles on the