Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/215



Thus the third attempt to separate the Mississippi Valley from the eastern States, demonstrated the unswerving fidelity of the pioneers of the West to the new republic of which they were a most important factor, geographically, commercially and politically. No ambitious, plausible schemes of unscrupulous adventurers, or glowing visions of an independent nation, could win their favor or shake their loyalty to the American Union. They wisely preferred to form a part of a mighty nation, rather than become a weak member of petty confederacies.

At the beginning of the War of 1812 the entire white population of the northwest, embracing the territories of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, was estimated at about forty thousand. During the war, British emissaries and officers had succeeded by aid of presents and promises in securing the friendly services and military assistance of many powerful tribes of Indians. The savages were encouraged to rob and massacre settlers on the frontier, so that for several years emigration to the Mississippi Valley practically ceased.

In July, 1814, General William H. Harrison and Lewis Cass, commissioners on part of the United States, negotiated treaties with the Wyandots, Delawares, Senecas, Shawnees and other tribes by which they became allies of the United States during the war with Great Britain. After the close of the war treaties were made with nearly all of the tribes of hostile Indians. About the middle of July, 1815, a large number of Indian chiefs, representing most of the tribes of the northwest, assembled at Portage des Sioux, on the right bank of the Mississippi, a few miles below the mouth of the Missouri, to negotiate treaties with the United States. The Government was represented by Governor William Clark, of Missouri, who was Superintendent of Indian Affairs west of the Mississippi; Governor Ninian Edwards, of Illinois; and Auguste Chouteau, of St. Louis. General Henry Dodge was present with a strong military force to guard against treachery and to