September 21, 1832 – All of the land – 6 million acres – the Sauk & Fox tribes had been “removed to” on the west side of the Mississippi is now purchased by the U.S. government – in what is called The Black Hawk Purchase.
Following the Black Hawk War of 1832, the United States government stepped in, for treaty-making purposes, combining the many Sauk and Fox tribes of the Mississippi River Valley into a single group known as the Sauk (Sac) & Fox Confederacy. This “treaty” became known as the Black Hawk Purchase, and with its signing, came yet another forced migration (1832-1833) of the Sauk and Fox people, moving them onto unclaimed western land, which today is rich farmland located alongside the Des Moines, Skunk, English, Iowa and Cedar Rivers in east-central Iowa.
Making lemonade out of lemons, the Meskwaki chiefs led their people to relocate their communities onto familiar summer hunting grounds located near the Iowa River – in today’s Johnson County. The largest community, headed by Poweshiek, was about five miles south of today’s Iowa City. Just north of Poweshiek’s camp was another village led by Wapashashiek, while a third village, led by Totokonock, was twelve miles south of Iowa City on Sand Road at the mouth of the English River, just west of today’s Lone Tree.
READ MORE ABOUT THIS IOWA STORY HERE.
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