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The below articles appear in the book called "History of Doniphan County,
Kansas". More articles will be entered as I have the time to enter them.
IOWA INDIANS IN LONDON
(Contributed by Geo. J. Remsburg)
In 1844 Chief White Cloud ana a band of his Iowas, then living
in Doniphan County, visited London England. The following account of this
visit, is taken from the Athenaeum of September, 1844: "The migration of
the indian tribes, driven from their ancient hunting grounds, is taking a
new direction, and the place of which to study their habits and customs is
now the Egyptian Hall, in Piccadilly. To the Ojibbeways have succeeded the
Iowas, a body of whom, fourteen in number, warriors, squaws and a papoose,
have arrived at that town residence from their seat on the Upper Missouri,
near the Rocky Mountains of North America, for the purpose of exhibiting
their war and other dances, songs and games, under the arrangement of Mr.
Catlin. They are headed by their principal chief, White Cloud, and their
great medicine man, and this is the first time, it is said, that the head
of a tribe or a "mystery man" has ever left his native prairies for a foreign
land. In personal appearance these men are inferior to their predecessors,
the Ojibbeways, still we warn our country women, after what has passed (several
of the Ojibbeways married English ladies while in London), to be on their
guard against the seductions of "Roman Nose" (No-ho-man-ya). Let them beware
of "Strutting Pigeon" and her sister squaws, who are, we understand, very
formidable looking persons. One of them is called "Oke-we-me" the Female
Bear, that walks on the back of another, and the name is we think, very
significant of what an English lady may expect in the wigwam of an Indian
chief. These people are amongst the most warlike of the North American
tribes©more wild and uncouth than any who have made their appearance
in this country, and well worth visiting, for the striking pictures they
exhibited of the rude and savage life of the forest and the prairie.
Little's "Living Age." for October, 1844, said of them: "In consequence
of the great success that attended the exhibition of the Ioway Indians, at
Lord's cricket grounds, it has been resolved to give a series of pictures
of Indian life, still more attractive, at Vauxhall Gardens. The chiefs will
appear on horseback and from the extent of the grounds, they will be enabled
to afford a vivid tableaus of hunting, fighting, shooting, and all the other
pursuits of the native prairie."
Negotiations With the Red Men Which Resulted in Throwing Doniphan County Open to Settlement---Three Tribes Held the Lands in the County Previous to the Signing of the Treaty With the Government in 1854.
__________
Previous to 1854 the lands in Doniphan County were held by three
Indian tribes, the Kickapoos, the Iowas and the Sac and Foxes. It was
not until those tribes had signed a treaty with the government ceding the
lands, that progress could be made in organizing the territory.
The Kickapoos were located on the present site of Wathena and
adjacent country; the Iowas were settled about the Mission, near Highland;
and the Sac and Foxes had three villages on Wolf River. They seemed
contented and at first were reluctant to consider the treaty proposition.
When the clamor to open the Kansas Territory to white settlement
became so widespread in the early fifties, Colonel George W. Mannypenny,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Franklin Pierce, went to the
Nemaha agency, May 2, 1853, to pave the way for the treaty.
At the subsequent gathering of the different chiefs and braves
there was little encouragement given by the Indians regarding the success
if the Commissioner's mission. While some of the older chiefs did not
openly oppose the treaty, there scant remarks were taken to indicate their
disapproval.
It remained for Little Wolf, a sub-chief of the Iowas, to make
the speech which showed where the Indians stood regarding the proposed cession
of their lands. Opening his speech with a few complimentary remarks
concerning the Great White Father, he saw that his utterances were
not received as heartily as he wished by the assembled red men. Little Wolf
was known to be the smartest Indian in the gathering, and he stood well with
all braves.
When Little Wolf saw the Indians ignored his references to the
Great White Father, he uttered a few scathing remarks, stamping his feet
at the same time. The result was spontaneous. The Indians jumped
to their feet and responded all over the room with the customary exclamation,
"How!"
Addressing the commissioner with much animation, and with gestures
characteristic of oratorical Indian chiefs, Little Wolf demanded that the
government should weigh the land and give its equivalent pound for pound
in gold. That speech ended the negotiations, and nothing was done along
the treaty line until the next year.
May 18, 1854, the chiefs of the three tribes were induced to
go to Washington where after considable parleying, the treaty was signed,
the Indians agreeing to accept a much decreased reservation.
Ne-sour-quoit, a leading Fox brave, refused to abide by the terms of
the treaty. He was a remarkable Indian and never drank a drop of fire
water in his life. He ruled his people with an iron hand, but they
loved him in their primitive way. He refused to move to the new reservation,
and went with the Kickapoos. After three years with that tribe annuity
and that of his followers was suspended by the government, and he finally
removed to the reservation near Falls City, Nebraska.
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