Living Law,
Living LandSupport land rights
All treaties and agreements

Treaty

Fox at Portage des Sioux (1815)

The Fox tribe confirmed the 1804 St. Louis treaty at Portage des Sioux in 1815 and re-established peace with the United States.

Signed
September 14, 1815
Senate
Ratified
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On September 14, 1815, commissioners William Clark, Ninian Edwards and Auguste Chouteau signed a treaty of peace and friendship at Portage des Sioux with a Fox king, chiefs and warriors. It came a day after a similar treaty with a Sauk band. The preamble says the parties wished to re-establish peace and to be "placed in all things, and in every respect, on the same footing upon which they stood before the war."

The first three articles were the terms of peace. Every injury or act of hostility by either side was "mutually forgiven and forgot." There would be perpetual peace and friendship between U.S. citizens and the Fox. Both sides would deliver up all prisoners to the officer commanding at Fort Clark on the Illinois River, who would send them home as soon as practicable.

In Article 4 the Fox "assent to, recognize, re-establish, and confirm" the Treaty of St. Louis of November 3, 1804, "to the full extent of their interest in the same." The United States promised to fulfill all that treaty's stipulations in favor of the Fox. This was a confirmation, not a new cession.

A history from Before Knox reports that many Meskwaki and Sauk considered the 1804 treaty void because it was "signed in the absence of important leaders and without the consent of the Tribal Council." The sources here do not describe the Fox council or say what the Fox themselves said at Portage des Sioux.

Good to know. The Fox are also called the Meskwaki.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error

What the sources say, and how this was checked

Well supported by the sources below.

  1. re-establishing peace and friendship between the United States and the said tribe or nationTreaty with the Foxes, 1815 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. assent to, recognize, re-establish, and confirm, the treaty of St. LouisTreaty with the Foxes, 1815 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. was signed in the absence of important leaders and without the consent of the Tribal CouncilThe Black Hawk War and Treaties (Before Knox)

Research notes. Before Knox's statement is about the 1804 treaty in general and names Meskwaki and Sauk (the Meskwaki are also called the Fox); it does not address this 1815 council. The 1804 text does not say how the Fox were represented. No acreage is involved.

What the treaty did to the land

Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.

What happened next

Everything the record holds about this land and this treaty, in order: what earlier agreements said, what this one did, and what the United States, the courts and the nations did afterwards.

  1. 1804

    Land lost

    About 16 million acres ceded to the United States by the Sauk and Fox

    By Treaty of St. Louis with the Sauk and Fox, 1804

    area 50 area 51

  2. 1815

    Land record

    Earlier terms confirmed for the land of the Sauk and Fox

    By Sauk at Portage des Sioux (1815)

    area 50 area 51

  3. 1815

    This treaty

    Earlier terms confirmed for the land of the Sauk and Fox

    The Fox tribe confirmed the 1804 St. Louis treaty at Portage des Sioux in 1815 and re-established peace with the United States.

  4. 1816

    Land record

    Earlier terms confirmed for the land of the Sauk and Fox

    By Treaty of St. Louis with the Sauk of Rock River, 1816

    area 50 area 51

Who is doing the work today

The nations connected to this treaty come first, then groups returning land and defending treaty rights. Support goes directly to them.

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-foxes-1815-0121reference work
    Sept. 14, 1815. | 7 Stat., 135. / scan: TRE.A TY WITH THE FOXES, 1815. 121

Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.