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ALLEN TALKS TO ROTARIANS ABOUT INDIANSSacs, Foxes and lowas Were Native to State of Iowa16,000 ACRES OF LANDSection Near Tama One of The Most Fertile in The StateSpeaking at the meeting of the Rotary club last Thursday, Leonard Allen gave an interesting address on the Sac and Fox Indians.Adding that he was born and reared at Tama, Iowa, near the Indian reservation, he said, “I do not know what your reactions are when someone mentions the Indians, but to me the Indian means a lot and holds a very dear place in my heart. When you really get to know them they are not much different from the rest of us.’'Mr. Allen declared that in 1805 the estimate of the number of Indians in Iowa was 8,000, consisting of the lowas, for which our state is named, the Sac and Fox tribe. In the year 1832, Chief Keokuk and other wariors of the Sac and Fox tribes met with General Scott, then governor of Illinois, to arrange for 000,000 acres of Indian land along the western bank of the Mississippi river. The terms of the transfer were that the U. S. government was to pay them $20,000 a year for 30 years, 40 kegs of tobacco for 30 years and 40 barrels of salt for 30 years, besides furnishing them with a blacksmith for this time.Shortly after the signing of the treaty the Sac and Fox moved into the Des Moines Valley and remained there until 1845, when the U. S. government agreed to give them land in Kansas and to build houses there for them. Having never been in Kansas before, they thought it would be the very thing to do. In 1845 these tribes went to Kansas to be much disappointed.Land Opened to SettlersIt is of interest that when the Indians left the fertile Des Moines river valley, the government opened up these claims and there wasstarted the greatest land rush in history. To open the claims, a cannon was fired at midnight the summer of 1845. Covered wagons, men on horseback and on foot were lined upon a front of several miles, waiting for the starting signal. It came and in the darkness wagons ran into each other and were overturned, others drove into creek banks and others into swamps. At dawn, some had started their claims in swamps, others in rocky ground that was worthless, but others staked some wonderful claims.Some of the Fox and Sac, now called the Mesquakies, returned to Iowa in T859 and bought lands in Tama county. They are the only Indians now living in Iowa. They have about 16,000 acres in a very beautiful valley along the Iowa river. There is a bluff on one side of the river, which overlooks a fertile plain that is second to none in richness and productiveness. The double track of the main line of the Milwaukee R. R. and also the Northwestern R. R. skirt the southern edge of the reservation, as does the transcontinental highway No. 30. Nearly all of them have their regular frame houses in which they live during the winter, but all have their wigwams that they go back to in the summer.Name Tama Means BeautifulAsked why their forefathers chose that particular place, they say it was because of its beauty. The name Tama means beautiful. Also because there will never be a cyclone there, and there never has been. Speaking of railroads, reminds me of an incident that occurred when I was a boy. My dad, a doctor, was called to come to the reservation as soon as he could, as (Continued on Page 8)
Newspaper Details
Pella Chronicle
Pella, Iowa, US
Thu, Jul 07, 1938
Page 5
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IA, USA 04 Feb 2019
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