The Iowas, and Sacs and Fox Indians occupy a reservation of 32,000 acres in the south-eastern corner of the State, extending over into Kansas. In 1879 the Iowas numbered about 250, and the Sacs and Fox 100.
The Iowas are a tribe of the Dakota family, and were called Pahucha -- dirty nose, -- and by some, Grey Eyes, or Iowas. Marquette, in 1673, lays them down as the Pahoutet, living back of the Des Moines River, and consisting of eight clans - the Eagle, Wolf, Bear and Buffalo, which are still in existence, and the Pigeon, Elk, Beaver and Snake, now extinct, - each clan being distinguished by a peculiar way of cutting the hair. The Iowas, numbering 992 in 1824, were removed. by treaty of September 17, 1836, and placed on the Missouri, above Wolf River, but a part broke off the next year and became vagrants, living by theft and hunting on grounds of other tribes. A Presbyterian mission and labor school earnestly maintained from 1835 to 1866, failed to save this people, and in 1846 they had declined to 706. By treaty of March 6, 1861, the tribe, reduced to 305 souls, ceded all but a reservation of 16,000 acres; in 1869 they agreed to sell this and remove, but retracted, giving part to the Sacs, who actually sold their reservation. In 1872 they numbered 225, and were quite favorable to the school, which had sixty-three pupils. They dress in civilized garb, have a number of good frame and log houses, and cultivate several hundred acres of land, while the value of their stock is about $8,000. The United States holds $57,500 in trust for them, the interest of which is paid annually to heads of families.
The Sacs and Fox have long been united, forming one band. In 1822 they lived on the Mississippi River, near Fort Armstrong, and are spoken of as being expert hunters and canoemen. They cultivated corn, beans and melons. and a few were employed in the lead mines near Galena, Ill. Treaties were made on August 4, 1824, and July 15, 1830, in which they ceded lands. They were to some extent involved in the BLACK HAWK war of 1831, at the close of which the two tribes made a treaty at Ft. Armstrong with General Scott and Governor Reynolds, ceding lands for an annuity of $20,000 for twenty years, and by a subsequent treaty at Rock Island, a part reserved in the last embracing 256,000 acres, for $192,000. They then settled on the Des Moines River, Iowa, on an irregular square tract about 140 miles each way; the Foxes at this time numbering 2,446. Government removed them again by treaty in 1842, and in 1849 they were chiefly on the Osage. Since then in spite of the Government's efforts to civilize and improve them, they have declined in numbers very rapidly, rejecting with a steady persistency missionaries and schools. The united Sacs and Fox in 1822 numbered 8,000, but were reduced in 1874 to 1,135, of whom 500 were in the Indian Territory, 338 in Iowa, 200 in Kansas, and ninety-seven on their reservation of 16,000 acres in the southeastern part of Nebraska, adjoining that of the Iowas. They have an annuity of $10,506.
In the days of Major Pike, who in 1805-6-7, explored, by order of the government of the United States, the western territories of North America, the Sacs numbered 700 warriors and 750 women, they had four villages, and hunted on the Mississippi and its confluents from the Illinois to the Iowa River, and on the western plains that bordered on the Missouri. They were at peace with the Sioux, Osages, Potawotomies ,Menomenes or Folles Avoines, Iowas, and other Missourian tribes, and were almost consolidated with the Foxes, with whose aid they nearly exterminated the Illinois, Cahokias, Kaskaskias, and Peorians. Their principal enemies were the Ojibwas. They raised a considerable quantity of maize, beans, and melons, and were celebrated for cunning in war rather than for courage.
From the same source we learn that the Ottagamies, called by the French Les Renards, numbered 400 warriors and 500 women; they had three villages near the confluence of the Turkey River with the Mississippi, hunted on both sides of the Mississippi from the Iowa stream below the Prairie du Chien to a river of that name above the same village, and annually sold many hundred bushels of maize. Conjointly with the Sacs the Foxes protected the Iowas, and the three people, since the first treaty of the two former with the United States, claimed the land from the entrance of the Jauflione on the western side of the Mississippi, up the latter river to the Iowa above the Prairie du Chien, and westward to the Missouri. In 1807 they had ceded their lands lying south of the Mississippi to the United States, reserving to themselves however the privileges of hunting and residing on them.
The Winnebagoes, Winnipegs (turbid water), or Ochangras, numbered in 1807, 450 warriors and 500 women, and had seven villages on the Wisconsin, Rock, and Fox Rivers, and Green Bay: their proximity enabled the tribe to muster in force within four days. They then hunted on the Rock River, and the eastern side of the Mississippi, from Rock River to the Prairie du Chien, on Lake Michigan, on Black River, and in the countries between Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior .Lieutenant Pike is convinced, “from a tradition among themselves, and their speaking the same language as the Ottoes of the Platte River,” that they are a tribe who about 150 years before his time had fled from the oppression of the Mexican Spaniards, and had become clients of the Sioux .They have ever been distinguished for ferocity and treachery.