Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/125



of the Sioux country, separating their hunting grounds from those of the Sac, Fox and Iowa Indians, on the south. It began at the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, extending westward to its fork in Winneshiek County, thence west to the Red Cedar in Black Hawk County, thence west to the east fork of the Des Moines in Humboldt County, then in a direct line west to the lower fork of the Big Sioux in Plymouth County, following that river to its junction with the Missouri.

In 1828 the Sioux and Winnebagoes, then in alliance, sent an invitation to the Sac and Fox chiefs near Dubuque to meet them in council and forever bury the hatchet. The Fox chiefs, unsuspicious of treachery, started toward the place of meeting. On the second evening as they were in camp for the night on the east shore of the Mississippi near the mouth of the Wisconsin River, they were fired upon by more than a thousand Sioux warriors. Rushing from their hiding place, the treacherous Sioux killed all but two of the Foxes, who plunged into the Mississippi and swam to the west shore, carrying news of the massacre to their village. Stung to desperation by the act of treachery, the Foxes prepared to avenge the murder of their chiefs. A war party was organized, led by the newly elected chief, Ma-que-pra-um. They embarked in canoes and stealthily landed in the vicinity of their enemies, concealed by the dense underbrush. Toward midnight they swam the river and crept up silently upon the sleeping foe. Nerved with the spirit of vengeance, they silently buried their tomahawks in the heads of seventeen Sioux chiefs and warriors and escaped to their canoes without loss of a man. The war between the Sioux and Sacs and Foxes was waged for many years.

THE BLACK HAWK WAR

The followers of Black Hawk always repudiated the treaty of 1804, feeling that they had been wronged; but the white settlers who were swarming around them,