“‘You tell the truth about the treaty at Prairie du Chien. I was there myself; but you tell a little more. After the treaty was concluded at Prairie du Chien, I and four chiefs went to General Clark and Colonel Morgan and said to them, “What will you do with those that strike first?” They told us that the principal men should be delivered. This is what I mean when I say “a little more.” It was then discovered and explained that the word “principal” had not been interpreted.
“‘My old man (pointing to Quash-quah-ing) did not understand. After the affair of last year we went to General Clark and Colonel Morgan and, notwithstanding the attack of the Menominees, they made all good and even. But now, if what they did and what we have now done was put in scales, it would balance. I expect it is because our names are Sacs and Foxes that you make a noise about it. When we do the least thing, you make a great noise about it. Last winter I went to the Missouri. There an Ioway killed an Omaha. Why was he not hung? They were at the treaty. The reason I say so much against you is because our hearts are good. Our chiefs were killed with the pipe of peace and the wampum in their hands. This is all I have to say. As for my chiefs and braves, they will do as they please. I have said all that I have to say; but why do you not let us fight? Your whites are constantly fighting. They are now fighting way east. Why do you not interfere with them? Why do you not let us be as the Great Spirit made us, and let us settle our difficulties?’”
As this speech of Keokuk’s was received by the Indians with applause for its ingenuity, the commanding officer thought it proper to add that such treaties as were made at Prairie du Chien were frequently made between the white nations at the east and enforced.
That it was not because they were Sacs that the present demand was made, but because it was not wished that the Sacs would become liars. That as it regarded the Omahas, whenever they demanded redress for the murder from the United States, it would then be time to interfere. That the affair did not concern the Sacs.
James H. Lockwood, Vol. 2, p. 170, and John H. Fonda, Vol. 5, p. 256, in writing of these events from memory for the Wisconsin Historical Collections, fixed upon the year 1830 for the murders of the Sioux and Kettle’s Foxes, Fonda including the Menominee affair in the same year. A.R. Fulton, in his “Red Men of Iowa,” inferentially used the same year for the three events; all agreed that the three followed in rapid succession. Lockwood has made so many glaring errors in other parts of his narrative that it is easy to believe that he was wrong in placing any of them in 1830. The three affairs did occur with unusual propinquity of succession, but in 1831, as the contemporaneous reports herein given have shown, and which must be believed against memory. L.C. Draper, usually accurate, fell into Lockwood’s mistake in his note to Fonda’s letter, by not taking time to investigate.
CHAPTER XV.
Ne-a-pope’s Mission–Keokuk’s Village–Council–Black Hawk Moves Down Iowa River and up the Mississippi to Rock River–Atkinson Moves up to Fort Armstrong.
With these contentious spirits, Black Hawk, restless Black Hawk, employed his genius, sending out runners to all points of the compass, some going as far as the Gulf of Mexico, to rally round him the confederacy which Tecumseh attempted, but who, with his transcendent genius for organization and war, failed, and so did Black Hawk, much more ingloriously, though assured by his runners of an irresistible force to join him the moment he rose to strike the whites. He had in 1831 sent his lieutenant, Ne-a-pope,[[91]] to the British in Canada to solicit aid. That Indian, inauspiciously returning through the village of Wa-bo-ki-e-shiek, the cross-bred Winnebago prophet, who lived at his village on the left bank of Rock River forty miles from its mouth, told the latter vicious meddler of the object of the Canadian trip. The unscrupulous prophet, delighted at the possibility of making trouble for the whites, performed for Ne-a-pope numerous incantations, received a few visions, and made a prophecy that if Black Hawk would take up the hatchet once more against the whites he would be joined by the Great Spirit and a great army of worldlings, and in no time at all he would vanquish the whites and be restored to his ancient village. It is more than probable that this hocuspocus had great influence with Black Hawk, which, added to Ne-a-pope’s falsehoods, determined Black Hawk to open another campaign against the whites without delay. To begin with, his followers had wantonly wasted their provisions, and even before winter had set in he had inaugurated nightly raids upon the storehouses of the whites, stealing the grain and vegetables there stored with a devilish glee. These raids continued with exasperating frequency and regularity all winter and spring. He even brought himself to believe that he could easily create dissension among the followers of Keokuk and overthrow his power entirely.
Emissaries from the camp of Black Hawk had been busy in Keokuk’s village on the Iowa River,[[92]] and, by insidious industry, murmurs began arising upon all sides. Seizing this supreme moment, while Keokuk’s reputation, influence and life, perhaps, were quivering in the balance, Black Hawk threw off the mask and defiantly marched with his entire force to Keokuk’s village to dispute the supremacy of Keokuk, steal away his warriors and wage war upon the whites.