Abstract
A new treaty, meant to secure peace with and among the Native peoples of the upper Mississippi river valley, and to secure the land of what is now Iowa as a commons open to several Native nations, created two more Half Breed Tracts, in Minnesota and Nebraska, in 1830. There, too, individuals’ land rights were left undefined, although the treaty suggested that the Tracts might be apportioned at some point in the future. While Indian Affairs officials dawdled over a survey of the Iowa Half Breed Tract for its possible, but still unpromised, division into individual holdings, Congress decided to relinquish any US government rights to land in the Iowa Half Breed Tract, opening the way for others to step in and claim land for themselves.
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Notes
- 1.
Dougherty to William Clark, November 1828 (no date given), National Archives, Office of Indian Affairs, Microfilm roll 833. Michael Green ‘“We Dance in Different Directions’: Mesquakie (Fox) Separatism from the Sac and Fox Tribe,” Ethnohistory, vol. 30, no. 3 (Summer 1983) p. 132.
- 2.
McKenney to Clark, April 5, 1830, National Archives, Office of Indian Affairs, Letter Book, vol. 6, p. 444; the petition, recorded by Thomas Forsyth and dated 9 June 1830 at Rock Island, Illinois, is reproduced in Annals of Iowa, Vol. 10, 3rd series (1911–1912), p. 455.
- 3.
Clark and Morgan to Eaton, 11 July 1830, Senate Documents, Vol. 8, 23rd Congress, 1st session, p. 78. Robert Stuart to John H. Eaton, Secretary of War, 9 February 1830, Petitioners’ Exhibit 108, The Iowa Tribe et al. v. United States, Indian Claims Commission Docket 138, McCarter and English Records on US Indian Claims Cases, Box 2, Folder 9, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
- 4.
Lawrence Taliaferro, “Autobiography of Major Taliaferro,” Minnesota Historical Collections, vol. 6, 1894, p. 211. For Michel Barada, see Lewis C. Edwards (ed.)., History of Richardson County, Nebraska; Its People, Industries and Institutions, Indianapolis, 1917, pp. 190–91; Barada was listed as Michael Burdeau in the 1825 Treaty of Friendship with the Otoes and Missourias, 7 Stat. 277, and Michel Berda in the 1830 Treaty of Prairie du Chien, 7 Stat. 328. LeClaire is listed as interpreter for the Sac and Fox in 1830, 7 Stat. 328; see also Harry E. Downer, History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa, Chicago, 1910, p. 395. His holdings on the Iowa Half Breed Tract are detailed in “Decree of Partition,” Annals of Iowa, Third Series, Vol. 14, No 5, (Fall, 1924) p. 460.
- 5.
Taliaferro, “Autobiography,” pp. 211–12.
- 6.
Treaty of Prairie du Chien (15 July 1830), 7 Stat. 328, Article 9.
- 7.
John W. Johnson to Lewis Cass, 29 October 1831, in U.S. Serial Set, 23rd congress, “Correspondence on the Emigration of Indians,” No 512, Vol. 2, pp. 635–636.
- 8.
Johnson to Cass, 29 October 1831.
- 9.
Ibid., John Connolly to Lewis Cass, 2 November 1831, U.S. Serial Set, 23rd congress, “Correspondence on the Emigration of Indians,” No 512, Vol. 2, pp. 639–640.
- 10.
Forsyth to Cass, 15 January 1832 U.S. Serial Set, 23rd Congress, No. 512 vol. 3, p. 22.
- 11.
Clark to Elbert Herring 3 March 1832, p. 242. Clark to Sprigg, 20 January, 1832, instructions, pp. 243–249. Felix St. Vrain to William Clark, 16 May 1831, Correspondence, United States Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, St. Louis, Missouri, Vol. 6. p. 146; Keokuk to William Clark, undated, Claims under 1824 Sac and Fox Treaty, United States Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, St. Louis, Missouri, Vol. 32, p. 10; Elbert Herring to Clark, 9 February 1832, U.S. Serial Set, 23rd Congress, No. 512, vol. 2 p. 760. Clark to Herring, 29 February 1832, Ibid, Vol. 3, pp. 219–220; Clark to Sprigg, 20 January 1832, Ibid., Vol. 3 pp. 242–24.
- 12.
Johnson to Cass, 3 March 1833, U.S. Serial Set, 23rd Congress, No. 512, vol. 4 pp. 557–8. An Act to relinquish reversionary rights of the United States in a certain Indian reservation, 4 Stat., 740 Register of Debates, 23rd Congress, 1st session, (8 April 1834), p. 3539.
References
An Act to relinquish reversionary rights of the United States in a certain Indian reservation, 4 Stat., 740.
Claims under 1824 Sac and Fox Treaty, United States Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, St. Louis, Missouri, Vol. 32.
“Decree of Partition,” Annals of Iowa, Third Series, Vol. 14, No 5, (Fall, 1924) pp. 424–460.
“Petition of the Fox and Sac chiefs,” June 9 1830, Annals of Iowa, Vol. 10, 3rd series (1911–1912), p. 455.
Petitioners’ Exhibit 108, The Iowa Tribe et. al. v. United States, Indian Claims Commission Docket 138.
Register of Debates, 23rd Congress, 1st session.
Treaty of Prairie du Chien (15 July 1830), 7 Stat. 328.
U.S. Serial Set, 23rd Congress, No. 512.
Harry E. Downer, History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa (Chicago: S.J. Clarke, 1910).
Edwards, Lewis, History of Richardson County, Nebraska; Its People, Industries and Institutions (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1917).
Green, Michael, “‘We Dance in Different Directions’: Mesquakie (Fox) Separatism from the Sac and Fox Tribe,” Ethnohistory, vol. 30, no. 3, (Summer 1983), pp. 129–140.
Taliaferro, Lawrence, “Autobiography of Major Taliaferro,” Minnesota Historical Collections, vol. 6 (1894) pp. 189–255.
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Ress, D. (2019). Washington’s Dilemma. In: The Half Breed Tracts in Early National America. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31467-5_4
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