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j e F F r e y T. c a r r W I l l I a M e . W h I T T a k e r Fort atkinson, Iowa, 1840–1849 We have heard that you intend to move your agency, this fall to the Turkey River, out on the Neutral Ground. This distresses us very much, I assure you. Also, that you will insist on our going out, this fall, from the Mississippi; on removing our families out, and on Turkey River receiving our annuities. This we cannot do, Father; you know we cannot do it. If our people wished to go, they are not able to get out. Our wigwams are filled with sick, we cannot go.—Ho-Chunk Chief Winneshiek, September 1840 Situated on a steep bluff overlooking the small town of Fort Atkinson in northeast Iowa, the site of historic Fort Atkinson first impresses visitors with its scale. The stone buildings, the wooden stockade, and the parade ground outlined by stone foundations combine to provide a sense of what it was like to walk through the lonely frontier fort 165 years ago (plate 12). Fort Atkinson is the best preserved fort in Iowa, and the charming scene conceals a poignant story of a fort designed to control and manipulate the Ho-Chunk until they could be removed from Iowa completely. The U.S. Army built Fort Atkinson, occupied between 1840 and 1849, to force the Ho-Chunk from Wisconsin into northeast Iowa and to make sure they did not escape back to Wisconsin. The post was also built to protect the Ho-Chunk from their rivals—the Santee, Sauk, and Meskwaki—and to remove Euro-American squatters and traders encroaching on the land until the Ho-Chunk were evicted (Lurie 1978; Mahan 1922; Merry and Green 1989; Peterson 1995; Rogers 1993; Williams 1980:34). 12 Jeffrey T. Carr and William E. Whittaker | 147 The Ho-Chunk Enter Iowa The Ho-Chunk were encouraged to move from Wisconsin into Iowa during the 1830s. While a few Ho-Chunk crossed the Mississippi and entered Iowa beginning in 1832, the vast majority remained in Wisconsin. The Black Hawk conflict of 1832 soon put greater pressure on the U.S. government to remove Indians from east of the Mississippi (Black Hawk 1882; Van der Zee 1915a). In 1825long-running conflicts between the Santee in northern Iowa and the affiliated Meskwaki, Sauk, and Ioway in southern Iowa led to the creation of a formal line to separate the groups. This Neutral Line was only infrequently patrolled by the U.S. military based at Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien; therefore conflicts continued in the region. In 1830 the U.S. government established the Neutral Ground, which extended 20 miles on either side of the Neutral Line; no Indians were supposed to enter this area. This swath of land, extending from the mouth of the Upper Iowa River to the headwaters of the Des Moines River, was considered the ideal place to settle the Ho-Chunk after they were expelled from Wisconsin following an 1832 treaty (Van der Zee 1915b). Another treaty, signed in 1837 in Washington , again ceded all Ho-Chunk lands in Wisconsin for lands in Iowa, although many Ho-Chunk debated the legitimacy of this treaty (Mahan 1921). While reluctant to leave Wisconsin, the Ho-Chunk knew the Neutral Ground and considered it part of their hunting territory. Murray (1854:137– 149) described a hunting party he took in 1835 from Fort Crawford to the head of the Turkey River. He encountered small Ho-Chunk groups in the region who were quite protective of the area and attempted to drive out the Euro-American hunters with prairie fire. The Ho-Chunk were in a delicate situation by 1840. Their once friendly relationship with the Meskwaki and Sauk had deteriorated since the Black Hawk uprising, and their relationship with the Santee Dakota, long an enemy, was changing. David Lowry (1840), the Indian subagent for the Ho-Chunk, worried about a Ho-Chunk and Santee alliance against other Indians or the U.S. government. In 1840, after much negotiation, payment, and threats, Henry Atkinson supervised the removal of 3,000 Ho-Chunk from Wisconsin to Iowa, only after Ho-Chunk leaders Yellow Thunder and Little Soldier were jailed for delaying the march. The Ho-Chunk were settled in the Neutral Ground along the Turkey River, and the Turkey River Subagency and the Hewitt trading post opened nearby (Doershuk...

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