Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/150



Che-me-use (Johney Green) was the chief of the Pottawattamies, who first returned to the Iowa River. In 1859 Maw-nae-wah-ne-kah, a Fox chief with some of his tribe joined the Pottawattamies on the Iowa River. Here they lived peaceably, cultivating small patches of land, hunting, fishing and trapping for several years. In 1866 a special agent was appointed by the government who paid them a share of the annuities due their tribes. Two thousand dollars of the annuity fund was invested in the purchase of land, and additions to it were made from time to time until several hundred acres were acquired. These lands lie in Tama County, within a few miles of Toledo, in the valley of the Iowa River and on the line of the Chicago and Northwestern railroad. In 1880 the tribe numbered three hundred and thirty-five people and they had accumulated personal property to the value of about $20,000. They make frequent excursions into other portions of the State in small parties for the purpose of hunting, fishing and begging. They have made very little improvement in erecting their dwellings and in their costumes, adhering to the customs of their ancestors.

THE WINNEBAGOES

This tribe belongs to the Dakota group and is mentioned by French writers as early as 1669. They appear to have been the first of the Dakotas to migrate eastward, crossing the Mississippi River from Iowa at a remote period. When first known to the French they were a powerful tribe and hostile to the Algonquins. Early in the seventeenth century the tribes of the Northwest formed an alliance against the Winnebagoes and in a battle five hundred of the latter were slain. In 1766 Carver found them on the Rock River. They and the Iowas are thought to be the only Dakotas that migrated to the east. Meeting the Algonquin tribes of Pottawattamies, Chippeways, Sacs, Foxes, Mascoutines and Ottawas, they finally formed