Iowa's Land Rush: Iowa Time Machine October 11, 1845

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On October 11, 1845, formal dispossession of the Sauk and Meskwaki in Iowa reached a climax as eager Americans prepared to dash across the Des Moines River to stake claims on the river’s western bank. American removal of the Sauk and Meskwaki attempted to push the tribes out of Iowa and onto a new Kansas reservation. Although many of Iowa’s Indigenous peoples remained despite formal dispossession, the removal marked a momentary change before the Meskwaki purchased lands to open a settlement in 1857.

The Meskwaki, an Algonquin-language people, lived throughout the upper Midwest before European contact. They fought the French for nearly forty years in the 1700s. Allying with the Sauk to avoid extermination by the French, the Meskwaki eventually moved out of the Great Lakes region to settle in today’s Iowa and Illinois. The Sauk and Meskwaki also fought against American incursion, choosing to ally predominantly with the British during the War of 1812. In the aftermath, the 1825 and 1830 treaties at Prairie du Chien began the removal of the Sauk and Meskwaki from east of the Mississippi River. Although some leaders, like Wapello, advocated for accommodating American-driven changes, others, including Black Hawk, fought back. Following the Black Hawk War of 1832, treaties concluded during the 1830s and early 1840s ultimately aimed to dispossess the tribe and relocate them to Kansas.

With a skeleton crew of Dragoons occupying the second Fort Des Moines (located near today’s Principal Park) and the Indigenous peoples of Iowa pushed out of the way, American migrants stood poised on the east bank of the river to push across and start the settlement of western Iowa. On October 11, 1845, the rush began. Hundreds of eager individuals and entire families crossed the boundary to stake claims on the most desirable lands in the newly opened territory. Many capitalized on illegally obtained knowledge before the official start of settlement, and the Dragoons watched as settlement washed across the Des Moines River. The small garrison lingered at Fort Des Moines to protect the building from scavengers during the winter of 1845-1846, and surveyors started the careful work of platting the soon-to-be seat of Polk County.

However, many Meskwaki remained in Iowa. After a forced departure from Iowa in October 1845, the American official overseeing the arrival in Kansas recorded that only 20% of the tribe had arrived by the end of the following year. Other military reports record the discovery of groups numbering as many as 200 hidden throughout Iowa during the decade that followed. In 1856, the Iowa General Assembly passed a measure allowing the Meskwaki to formally return to the State of Iowa, opening the door to the initial land purchase on July 13, 1857. A settlement owned by the sovereign Meskwaki people (not a reservation owned by the federal government), the Meskwaki return to Iowa marks an important moment in the state’s early history. #Iowa #OTD #History #IndigenousHistory #Dispossession