Treaty Councils, from Prairie du Chien to Madeline Island

During August 1825, thousands of Indians representing all the Wisconsin tribes gathered in Prairie du Chien. Territorial governors William Clark of Missouri and Lewis Cass of Michigan facilitated discussions that produced a general treaty of peace among all the tribes. Henry Schoolcraft left a long account of this seminal event in chapter 23 of his memoirs (see below), and painter J.O. Lewis captured the scene and dozens of Indian leaders in color (all included here).

Although it granted no land to the United States, the Prairie du Chien treaty of 1825 opened the door for talks with individual tribes that were intended to do just that. Between 1829 and 1833 the first four of these transferred U.S. title to all lands south of the Fox-Wisconsin waterway, and in five more councils over the next fifteen years the tribes ceded nearly all the rest of Wisconsin to the U.S. government. In a single generation, under the pressure of overwhelming military force, people who had lived here for centuries or millennia lost their rights to their native lands.

More than seventy treaties were negotiated with Wisconsin Indians between 1804 and 1854. Though compensation was always granted for ceded territory, it was often minimal as white negotiators took advantage of their Indian counterparts. "We are ignorant of the way you measure land," says a Menominee chief in one of the documents given here. "We do not know what you mean by the acres you speak of. What is it?" U.S. negotiators could be equally ignorant: they negotiated and signed more than one treaty with Indians who lacked authority to speak for their nation. In addition to ignorance, factors such as misplaced benevolence, romantic paternalism, simple racism, malice, and plain human greed all played roles in the legal dispossession of Wisconsin's first peoples.

For a complete list of all treaties and their texts, see Kappler's Indian affairs: laws and treaties (Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1904-1979). The major treaties negotiated between Indian nations and the U.S. government that resulted in land cessions in Wisconsin are listed here:

1829 (July 29-Aug. 1) at Prairie du Chien with the Potawatomie, Ojibwe, and Ottawa (July 29) and the Ho-Chunk (Aug. 1). The tribes ceded the lead mining region of southwestern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Kappler vol. II, pp. 297-303

1831 (Feb. 8) at Washington, D.C. with the Menominee, who ceded the area from Milwaukee to Green Bay to Fox River, and settled the N.Y. Indians. Kappler vol. II, pp. 319-323

1832 (Sept. 15-21) at Fort Armstrong, Ill., on Rock Island, with the Ho-Chunk (Sept. 15) and the Sauk and Fox (Sept. 21). The Ho-Chunk ceded all their remaining territory south of the Wisconsin River; the Sauk & Fox ceded the Iowa shore of the Mississippi. Kappler vol. II, pp. 345-351

1833 (Sept. 26) at Chicago with the Potawatomie, Ojibwe, and Ottawa, who ceded all their remaining lands east of Mississippi; the Potawatomie agreed to leave Wisconsin for lands west of Mississippi. Kappler vol. II, pp. 402-415

1836 (Sept. 3) at Cedar Point, Wis., with the Menominee, who ceded lands in northeast Wisconsin roughly from Green Bay to the Wolf River. Kappler vol. II, pp. 463-466

1837 (Nov. 1) at Washington, D.C., with the Ho-Chunk, who ceded all their remaining lands east of Mississippi and agreed to western removal. Kappler vol. II, pp. 498-500

1837 (July 29) at St. Peters, Minn. (Fort Snelling) with the Ojibwe, who ceded the northern lands whose drainage flowed southwest toward the Mississippi, but retained fishing and hunting rights on it. Kappler vol. II, pp. 491-492

1842 (Oct. 4) at LaPointe, Wis. (Madeline Island), with the Ojibwe, who ceded all their remaining lands in Wisconsin and Michigan. Kappler vol. II, pp. 542-545

1848 (October 18) at Lake Poygan, Wis., with the Menominee, who ceded all their remaining lands. Kappler vol. II, pp. 572-574

1854 (Sept. 30) at LaPointe, Wis. (Madeline Island), with the Ojibwe; established the Bad River, Lac Courte Oreilles, Red Cliff, and Lac du Flambeau reservations. Kappler vol. II, pp. 648-652

[Sources: Wyman, Mark. The Wisconsin Frontier (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c1998). The History of Wisconsin: volume 1, From Exploration to Statehood by Alice E. Smith. (Madison, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1973)]

Original Documents and Other Primary Sources

	Gen. Joseph Street, Indian agent to the Ho-Chunk, Sauk and Fox.
	Essays and speeches by Brothertown and Stockbridge leaders.
	Menominee Vocabulary, 1893
	Indian Versions of Some Early Wisconsin Events
	Ojibwe Place Names in Wisconsin, ca. 1890
	John Shaw recalls Tomah, Black Hawk, Keokuk, and other Indian leaders.
	Walking Cloud recounts episodes of the Black Hawk War.
	The Oneidas claim land in New York
	A participant tells how the Oneida, Stockbridge, and Brothertown came to Wisconsin in the 1820s.
	A trader relates his family history and personal adventures, 1745-1857.
	Ho-Chunk chief Spoon Decorah looks back over a long life.
	Speeches of Pontiac (1763) and Souligny (1848) against white incursions.
	A memoir of Indian agent Joseph Street
	Early History of the Brothertown Indians
	Ojibwe ceremonial pipe given to Gov. James Doty, 1844
	The Commissioner of Indian Affairs visits the Ojibwe in 1826.
	Caleb Atwater describes the 1829 talks at Prairie du Chien
	A guide to the Mohican language, 1789
	The language spoken by the Brothertown Indians when Europeans arrived in America
	An Oneida prayer-book, 1816
	The language of the Brothertown Indians' ancestors, 1722
	A missionary's speech in Oneida, 1815.
	The first book printed in Wisconsin, an Ojibwe almanac
	A religious primer in Mohican, 1818
	A speech by Brothertown Indian leader Samsom Occom, 1771
	Report on the Menominee at Termination, 1958
	A life of Jesus in Ottawa, 1837
	A Ho-Chunk grammar textbook, 1945
	Stockbridge and Munsee Testimony, 1892
	An Oneida spelling book for children, 1820
	Fr. Baraga's 1853 Ojibwe Dictionary
	Memoirs of an Interpreter among the Ojibwe, 1840-1900
	A Munsee language edition of Methodist hymns, 1874
	The Stockbridge-Munsee Constitution, 1857
	The history and traditions of the Chippewa Valley
	Menominee chiefs refuse to give up more land in 1832.
	The Killing of Chief Joe White (Gishkitawag), 1894
	Menominee Chief Oshkosh in 1858
	Pictures of the Ojibwe in the 19th and 20th centuries.
	Pictures of the Menominee in the 19th and 20th centuries.
	Pictures of the Ho-Chunk in the 19th and 20th centuries.
	Pictures of the Meskwaki (Fox) Indians in the 19th century.
	Pictures of the Potawatomi from the 1820's to the 1920's
	Pictures of the Sauk Indians during the 1830's
	Ojibwe leaders represent their credentials to Washington in a picture
	Stockbridge Chief John W. Quinney in 1849
	Oneida Chief Daniel Bread in 1856
	Stockbridge Indian leader Austin E. Quinney, 1849
	Wisconsin Indian leaders as they attended treaty councils in the 1830's.
	The U.S. government deceives the Ojibwe, 1850.
	Ojibwe chiefs protest broken treaties to officials in Washington in 1864.
	The new Indian agent describes tensions in the Lead Region in 1827.
	Wisconsin soldiers who served in the Black Hawk War (1832)
	Brief Potawatomi Language Vocabularies, 1920-1932.
	Brief Ho-Chunk Language Vocabularies, 1830-1930
	The Treaty of Prairie du Chien, 1825
	A French visitor describes the Menominee's 1838 annuity payment.
	The Menominee and Ho-Chunk negotiate with the New York Indians in 1821.
	A Long Ho-Chunk Vocabulary, 1880
	Chief Oshkosh protests U.S. government treatment, ca. 1848
	Wisconsin soldiers who served in the Winnebago War (1827)
	Madeline Island Historical Museum

Primary Sources Available Elsewhere

	Collected historical documents from the Wisconsin Historical Society
	Maps and texts of all Wisconsin treaty cessions
	Henry Schoolcraft's Personal Memoirs (1812-1842)
	Black Hawk's autobiography (electronic text from Project Gutenberg)
	A Scholarly Overview of Ojibwe Treaty Rights
	A historical, documentary, and descriptive history of Wisconsin to 1854
	An 1823 interview with a Sauk warrior
	Texts of all the Indian treaties with Wisconsin tribes.
	A missionary recounts his experiences near Lake Superior, 1860
	The full text of Caleb Atwater's book, excerpted above (1831)
	An Indian interpreter negotiates treaty payments in 1856
	Diary of Oneida Indian John Archiquette, 1868-1874

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