SIT

To Yellow Banks was in the fall of 1836, after the town of Oquawka had
been laid out, and when told that the town had taken the Indian name,
instead of its English interpretation, he was very much gratified, as
he had known it as Oquawka ever since his earliest recollection and had
always made it a stopping place when going out to their winter camps.
He said the Skunk river country was dotted over with Cabins all the
way down to the Des Moines river, and was filling up very fast by white
people. A new village had been started at Shokokon (Flint Hills) by the
whites, and some of its people have already built good houses, but the
greater number are still living in log cabins. They should have retained
its Indian name, Shokokon, as our people have spent many happy days in
this village. Here too, we had our council house in which the braves
of the Sac nation have many times assembled to listen to my words of
counsel. It was situated in a secluded but romantic spot in the midst of
the bluffs, not far from the river, and on frequent occasions, when it
became necessary to send out parties to make war on the Sioux to redress
our grievances, I have assembled my braves here to give them counsel
before starting on he war-path. And here, too, we have often met when
starting out in the fall for our fall and winter's hunt, to counsel in
regard to our several locations for the winter. In those days the Fur
Company had a trading house here and their only neighbors were the
resident Indians of Tama's town, located a few miles above on the river.

The Burlington _Hawk-Eye_, of a late date, in reference to this council
house, says:

"A little distance above the water works, and further around the turn of
the bluff is a natural amphitheater, formed by the action of the little
stream that for ages has dripped and gurgled down its deep and narrow
channel to the river. It is a straight, clear cut opening in the hill
side, slightly rising till at a distance of seventy-five or one hundred
yards from the face of the bluff it terminates as suddenly and sharply
as do the steeply sloping sides.

"Well back in this grassy retreat, upon a little projection of earth
that elevates it above the surrounding surface, lies a huge granite
boulder. In connection with the surroundings it gives to the place the
appearance of a work of man, everything is so admirably arranged for a
council chamber. Here, it is rumored by tradition, the dusky warriors of