Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/143



loaded with presents and it was a long time before their tribe knew that they had conveyed to the whites more than fifty-one million acres of their choicest lands, including their homes of more than a hundred years. Pashepaho had won great fame as a warrior, having been the leader of the Sacs and Foxes in their long war with the Iowas. He was the commander in the last great battle in the Des Moines Valley, which nearly annihilated their old time enemies. He led an unsuccessful attack upon Fort Madison soon after its establishment. He was easily won over to the peace party by the wily Keokuk and joined the “Sly Fox” in the treaty of 1832, by which they sold the “Black Hawk Purchase” to the United States. He, like Keokuk, became a drunkard and moved with his tribe to Kansas.

Poweshiek, whose name signified “Roused Bear,” was, after the Black Hawk war, head chief of the Fox tribe. His rank was superior to that of either Appanoose or Wapello. His village in 1837 was near the Iowa River, not far from where Iowa City stands. He was born on Iowa soil about the year 1797. He was a large, powerful man, weighing more than two hundred and fifty pounds. He was a noble specimen of his race, a man of great energy, a wise counselor and the soul of honor. He was grateful for favors and always truthful. In 1838 he led a party to select a location for a Sac and Fox agency on the Des Moines, in company with General Joseph M. Street, the Indian agent. When his tribe moved west he made his home near the mouth of the Raccoon River, in the vicinity of the future capital of Iowa. From there he went south with his people to Grand River and in 1846 reluctantly conducted them to their distant reservation in Kansas. A remnant of his tribe, dissatisfied with the Kansas reservation, after a short time returned to their old homes in Iowa. An Iowa county perpetuates the memory of Poweshiek.

Wapello, which signifies “prince,” was a head chief of