Sauk and Fox at Treaty Ground on the Mississippi Opposite Rock Island, Dubuque County, Wisconsin Territory (1836)

What happened

On September 28, 1836, Henry Dodge, commissioner for the United States, signed a treaty with the confederated Sac and Fox tribes at a treaty ground on the right bank of the Mississippi River, opposite Rock Island, in Dubuque County, Wisconsin Territory. The tribes were represented in general council by their chiefs, headmen and warriors. Article 1 ceded forever the reservation of four hundred sections that the 1832 treaty had made for them. The treaty states no acreage.

The preamble says the tribes wanted additional means of support and to pay their just creditors. In Article 2 the United States agreed to pay $30,000 in June 1837 and then $10,000 a year in specie for ten years. It agreed to pay $48,458.87 1/2 toward debts found justly due, with any surplus paid to the Indians. Article 3 promised about 200 horses. Articles 4 and 5 made payments for named children.

Article 6 required the tribes to leave the ceded land by November 1, 1836. It also said no band or party could plant, fish or hunt on any part of it after that date. The treaty was proclaimed on February 27, 1837. The text does not describe the council itself, and the sources used here do not say what followed.

Good to know. Not to be confused with the separate September 17, 1836 Fort Leavenworth treaty with the Ioway and the Missouri band of Sac and Fox.

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