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

	A trader relates his family history and personal adventures, 1745-1857.
	Ho-Chunk chief Spoon Decorah looks back over a long life.
	Walking Cloud recounts episodes of the Black Hawk War.
	Speeches of Pontiac (1763) and Souligny (1848) against white incursions.
	John Shaw recalls Tomah, Black Hawk, Keokuk, and other Indian leaders.
	A participant tells how the Oneida, Stockbridge, and Brothertown came to Wisconsin in the 1820s.
	Essays and speeches by Brothertown and Stockbridge leaders.
	Gen. Joseph Street, Indian agent to the Ho-Chunk, Sauk and Fox.
	A memoir of Indian agent Joseph Street
	The Oneidas claim land in New York
	Early History of the Brothertown Indians
	Indian Versions of Some Early Wisconsin Events
	Menominee Vocabulary, 1893
	Ojibwe Place Names in Wisconsin, ca. 1890
	Ojibwe ceremonial pipe given to Gov. James Doty, 1844
	Menominee chiefs refuse to give up more land in 1832.
	Caleb Atwater describes the 1829 talks at Prairie du Chien
	The Commissioner of Indian Affairs visits the Ojibwe in 1826.
	The history and traditions of the Chippewa Valley
	Memoirs of an Interpreter among the Ojibwe, 1840-1900
	Fr. Baraga's 1853 Ojibwe Dictionary
	A Ho-Chunk grammar textbook, 1945
	A speech by Brothertown Indian leader Samsom Occom, 1771
	A guide to the Mohican language, 1789
	The language spoken by the Brothertown Indians when Europeans arrived in America
	A life of Jesus in Ottawa, 1837
	A religious primer in Mohican, 1818
	An Oneida prayer-book, 1816
	A missionary's speech in Oneida, 1815.
	An Oneida spelling book for children, 1820
	The first book printed in Wisconsin, an Ojibwe almanac
	The language of the Brothertown Indians' ancestors, 1722
	A Munsee language edition of Methodist hymns, 1874
	Stockbridge and Munsee Testimony, 1892
	The Stockbridge-Munsee Constitution, 1857
	Report on the Menominee at Termination, 1958
	A local historian chats about Prairie du Chien (vol. 1)
	A local historian chats about Prairie du Chien (vol. 2)
	The Killing of Chief Joe White (Gishkitawag), 1894
	Ojibwe leaders represent their credentials to Washington in a picture
	Wisconsin Indian leaders as they attended treaty councils in the 1830's.
	Menominee Chief Oshkosh in 1858
	Oneida Chief Daniel Bread in 1856
	Stockbridge Chief John W. Quinney in 1849
	Stockbridge Indian leader Austin E. Quinney, 1849
	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 chiefs protest broken treaties to officials in Washington in 1864.
	The Menominee and Ho-Chunk negotiate with the New York Indians in 1821.
	A French visitor describes the Menominee's 1838 annuity payment.
	The new Indian agent describes tensions in the Lead Region in 1827.
	The U.S. government deceives the Ojibwe, 1850.
	Wisconsin soldiers who served in the Winnebago War (1827)
	Wisconsin soldiers who served in the Black Hawk War (1832)
	The Treaty of Prairie du Chien, 1825
	Brief Ho-Chunk Language Vocabularies, 1830-1930
	A Long Ho-Chunk Vocabulary, 1880
	Brief Potawatomi Language Vocabularies, 1920-1932.
	Chief Oshkosh protests U.S. government treatment, ca. 1848