Timber and Treaties: The Sauk and Mesquakie Decision to Sell Iowa Territory

Abstract

S unday, 17 October 1841, was the third day of treaty negotiations between the United States government and the united nations of the Sauk and Mesquakie (also known as the Sac and Fox)1 The U.S. commissioners had already spent over thirteen hundred dollars for some thirty thousand pounds of food to fete their guests. 2 The United States hoped to acquire the remaining twelve million acres of Iowa lands held by the Sauk and Mesquakie. In exchange the commissioners were offering the tribes land in southwestern Minnesota; money, housing, and plowed land for all; plus larger houses and acreages for the chiefs. Yet the Sauk and Mesquakie rejected the treaty offer. Powieshiek spoke for the Mesquakie nation: