h;
and Ha-she-quar-hi-qua, or Bear.

They went in the summer of 1804 and were gone a long time. When they
returned, they were wearing new medals, and seemed ashamed. They
camped outside of Saukenuk for several days, before they reported in
council. The man they had been sent to get was not with them.

Finally, in the council they said that they had signed away a great
tract of land, mostly on the west side of the Mississippi above St.
Louis, in order to buy the warrior's life; they had been drunk when
they signed--but that was all right. However, when they had signed,
the warrior was let out, and as he started to come to them, the
soldiers had shot him dead.

They still were not certain just what land they had signed away. That
made the council and people angry. Black-hawk called the chiefs fools.
They had no right to sell the land without the consent of the council.
After this, the "Missouri band" of the Sacs kept by themselves, in
disgrace.

It was too late to do anything more about the treaty. The United
States had it. An Indian gets only one chance--and Head Chief
Pashepaho himself had put his mark on the paper. The United States has
two chances: the first, on the ground; the second, when the paper is
sent to Washington.

Later it was found that Pashepaho and the others had signed away all
the Sac and Fox lands east of the Mississippi River! That was how the
treaty might be made to read. The payment for many millions of acres
was $2,234.54 down, in goods, and $1,000 a year, in other goods.

But there was one pleasing clause. As long as the United States held
the land, the Sacs and Foxes might live and hunt there. Any white men
who tried to come in were to be arrested and put off.

At any rate, although Black-hawk raged and said that the treaty was a
false treaty, it stood. The United States officials who had signed it
were men of honest names, and considered that they had acted fairly.
But Black-hawk never admitted that.

The United States was to erect a trading post, up the Mississippi, for
the convenience of the Sacs and Foxes. In 1808 soldiers appeared above
the mouth of the Des Moines River, on the west side of the Mississippi,
in southeastern Iowa, and began to build.

This turned out to be not a trading post but a fort, named Fort Belle
Vue, and afterward, Fort Madison.

The Sacs and Foxes, and their allies, the Potawatomis and Winnebagos,
planned to destroy it, and made attacks.