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Historical evidence reveals the fact that at
one time the northern part of Winneshiek county formed a small part of the
vast hunting grounds of the
Sioux Indians, and that the southern portion
was given over to the Sauk and
Foxe. In a council held at Prairie du
Chien, August 19, 1825, a boundary line was established between the Sioux,
on the north, and the Sauk and Foxe, on the south. The principal object
of this treaty was to make peace between these contending tribes as to the
limits of their respective hunting grounds in Iowa.
This boundary line began at the month of the Upper Iowa river and followed
the stream, which traverses Winneshiek county, to its source. In order to
decrease still further the encounters between the Sauks and Foxes, on the
one hand, and the Sioux, on the other, the United States secured, at a
council held at Prairie du Chien July 15, 183o, a strip of territory
twenty miles wide on each side of the boundary line already established
and extending from the Mississippi to the east fork of the Des Moines.
This strip, forty miles in width, was termed the "Neutral Ground." The
tribes on either side were to hunt and fish on it unmolested, a privilege
they ceased to enjoy when this territory was ceded to the Winnebagoes. In
this way the tract of land now known as Winneshiek county became a part of
the Neutral Ground.
September 15, 1832, the Winnebagoes ceded to the United
States their lands south of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, east of the
Mississippi. The government on its part, by this treaty granted to the
Winnebagoes "to be held as other Indian lands are held, that part of the
tract of country on the west side of the Mississippi river known as the
Neutral Ground, embraced within the following limits." The boundaries
specified confined the Winnebagoes to that portion of the Neutral Ground
extending forty miles west of the Mississippi. By the terms of this treaty
they were to be paid $10,000 annually for twenty-seven years, beginning in
September, 1833.
November 1, 1837, a treaty was concluded with the
Winnebagoes at Washington, by the provisions of which they ceded to the
United States the remainder of their lands on the east side and certain
interests on the west side of the Mississippi river, and agreed to remove
to a portion of the Neutral Ground in Northeastern Iowa, set aside for
them in the previous treaty of September 15, 1832. This treaty of 1837 was
loudly proclaimed by the tribe to be a fraud. It was stated that the
delegation which visited Washington in that year had no authority to
execute such an instrument. Chiefs, also, who were of this party all made
the same declaration.
The first attempt to remove the Winnebagoes was made in
1840, when a considerable number were induced to move to the Turkey river.
That year a portion of the Fifth and Eighth regiments of U. S. infantry
came to Portage, Wis., to conduct their removal. Antoine Grignon and
others were connected with this force as interpreters.
Two large boats were provided to transport the Indians
down the Wisconsin river to Prairie du Chien. Captain Sumner, who later
was a commanding officer at Fort Atkinson, secured 250 Winnebagoes in
southern Wisconsin. These were also taken to Prairie du Chien. They first
disliked the idea of going on to the Neutral Ground, because on the south
were the Sauk and Foxe, and on the north were the Sioux, and with these
tribes they were not on friendly terms.
Considerable resentment was felt by
the Sauk and Foxe towards the Winnebagoes for having delivered Black
Hawk over to the whites, although previous to this occasion the
Winnebagoes had been in intimate relationship with these tribes. However,
they soon grew to love the Iowa reservation.
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