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LOOKING BACKWARD HAWKEYELAND IOWA CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE Published by THE STATE OF IOWA Dea Moincs Robert D. Blue, Governor of Iowa IOWA CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE LOOKING BACKWARD ON HAWKEYELAND Lester Milligan, Mason City, Chairman by William J. Petersen Edith Wasson McElroy, Executive Secretary Members Active Ex Officio Ross Burman, Burlington Lloyd Cunningham, Des Moines J. N. Darling, Des Moines Ethyl E. Martin, Iowa City Ralph Evans, Davenport John P. Mullen, Fonda Mrs. Myrtle Fellingham, Council Bluffs Jessie M. Parker, Des Moines John W. Gannaway, Grinnel! Rodney Q. Selby, Des Moines Mrs. F. P. Gernand, Volga F. E. Sheldon, Mount Ayr Mrs. Dwight S. Humeston, Albia Ora Williams, Des Moines William J. Petersen, Iowa City Mrs. Robert Pike, Sioux City Mrs. R. R. Roberts, Britt Hugo Saggau, Denison Homer Stephens, Clarinda Bert Stolpe, Des Moines E. W. Williams, Manchester Permission to reprint . thin brochure, revised and much L enlarged, in an edition of 12,000 copiw Old Capitol at Iowa Citv hna been granted to the Iowa CentmniPl Corn- mittee by John Md& Co., Ottumwa. Iowa. and The Morrell Magazine in which it orighdy appePred. Designed by Lawrence Oakley Cheerer LOOKINQ BACKWARD the Foxes, who had been driven across the Mississippi by the ON HAWKEYELAND French. Together the Sauk and Fox were too dangerous an A dozen years ago the writer reflect, could have demonstrated enemy and a French force of 84 was attending a Big Ten base- that the history of Iowa goes men accordingly set out from ball game at the University of back a long way, even in terms Montreal under Joseph de Noy- Iowa. Seated with some friends of English history. Perhaps he elles on August 14, 1734, to from the College of Engineering, would have recalled the stirring punish the Sauks and separate he was introduced as a history incident of the De Noyelles the two tribes. About 200 professor to an English woman expedition to Iowaland. As far Iroquois, Hurons, and Pota- who was seeing her first ball back as 1733 (in the reign of watomi "expressed the greatest game. During the course of the William IV) a~lda hundred willingness" to join the perilous game, the English woman po- years before the pmentset- expedition. litely inquired what history I tlement of Iowa began, a French Leaving the straggling French taught at the University. Upon soldier was killed while visiting village of Detroit on January 2, replying rather nonchalantly, a Sauk Indian village in northern 1735, the company of approxi- "Iowa History," she exclaimed Wisconsin. Fearful of French mately 250 men trudged west- with amazement: "Iowa His- vengeance, the Sauks fled west- ward through a desolate wilder- tory! Does Iowa have a pqd and joined their COUS~S, ness in the dead of winter, auffer- history?" ing much from cold and ex- . This naive reaction on the posure. Misled by the Kickapoo part of an English friend is Indians, whose principal village quite characteristic of the aver- * stood at the mouth of the Rock age foreigner's attitude toward river near present-day Rock the middle western scene. In- Island, the French finally deed, the average American reached the mouth of the Wapsi- dwelling along the Atlantic sea- pinicon where, instead of a large board often entertains similar Fox village they "found No- notions, more particularly if re- body." Upon learning that the siding east of the Hudson. It is Sauk and Fox had fled westward well known that the average to the "River with a fork," the New Yorker has the idea that weary expedition pressed onward Iowa is a town in Wisconsin and reaching the Raccoon Fork of that Hollywood embraces one- the Des Moines in mid-April. half of California. The geo- On April 19, 1735, De Noyelles graphical knowledge of the aver- *and his men fought the first age Bostonian is equally defi- Dr. William J. Peteraerr pitched battle between the red cient. Indeed, the Bostonian Research Associate, State His- man and the white man on Iowa torical Society of Iowa. would be slow to admit that any soil on the present site of the Lecturer in History, State American history took place University of Iowa. State capitol. In point of time that date might well be associ- west of the Hudson. Under such #Steamboat BiW' Petersen, an circumstances one auld-hardly - active member of the hva CM-' ated with a poem that runs: be expected to rebuff an in- tennial Co-ttee, ~rob&& has CTe~ulOUs~~~ii~h who more Iowa history at his finder tipa "By the -rude bridge that than anr other- - owa an. He is arched the flood, had arched her brows and -pnised--. as a spea&er of ability Their flag- to April's breeze queried "Iowa History! Does and ~ectuma fre~~ent&on his unfurled, Iowa have a history?" . favorite subjects-Mis s iss ippi ataamhtinrl and Iowa history. Here once the embattled ~~ttl~of the D~~ ~~j~~~ Re is the author of: Steemboat&g farmers stood, on the Uppa Miwiwippi; Iowa: The And fired the shot heard And yet, many an Iowa school- --mv- .--. ,fH- andA &fermce Qo4%- if given a few moments to Ouide to Iowa Hi;&. round the world." For the Battle of the Des of Waters. At that time Louis and wild game encountered, Moines, fought as it was on XIV occupied the French throne noted the general topography of April 19,1735, occurred 40 years and Charles I1 ruled over Eng- the country, and 'recorded in to the day before Lexington and land. On the Colonial scene the great detail the first meeting of Concord. But an Iowa school- Dutch retook New York from the red man and the white man boy would not ordinarily bring the British in 1673 while King on Iowa soil-held at the mouth I up Lexington and Concord when Philip's war broke out two years of the Iowa river on June 25, I talking with an English woman. later. La Salle had not explored 1673. The Joliet-Marquette 4 the Mississippi and Pennsyl- expedition bears the same re- and Joliet Marquette vania had not been founded by lation to Iowa lhstory that the Actually, the written history that brave and altruistic Quaker voyage of Columbus does to 9 of Iowa goes back even further -William Penn. American history. It is one of the than the Battle of the Des The advent of Joliet and outstanding exploits in the his- Moines, back before Queen Marquette occurred only a half tory of the Mississippi Valley. Anne's war, back before the century after the landing of the advent of William and Mary in Pilgrims at Plymouth. There Prehistoric Man 1688. The written history of were no newspapers to record Confronted with such facts, Iowa begins on June 17, 1673, their exploits and 17 years were the average Englishman, if he when Joliet and Marquette with to pass before the first such their five intrepid French com- publication appeared in Boston. were to pause and reflect, would panions paddled out of the Fortunately both Joliet and doubtless recall the stirring days mouth of the Wisconsin and into Marquette ,kept a journal of of William the Conqueror, the the broad expanse of the Missis- their trip along the eastern chivalry of King Arthur and his sippi and began their epoch border of what is now Iowa. Knights of t.Round Table, or making voyage down the Father They ddbed the plpnt life the fantastic exploit* recorded W& D&deYs map of 1718 when the Imwa oountry Uedto Ft~oe.A leeding P'n& outopr&hei.! Dek'de made a map that set the standard for the period and formed &ha baaah for mamy makmqaent map. It sholps ammirag knowledge of the Iowa wuntry, the murso of the Miw1*w&pi and Missouri rivera and their tributarim. in that epic poem-1~wuZf. He, regiaa d northeastern hwa although ~~y along the might wen recall s-denge, rivals Stanchage in the stsprmit of hills overlooking those &ant hanging rocks which tude of its size and implicathia st re ax^. No other Iowa river archmiogists trace back to the And the Hopewe&, *oh io on* eqb the Little Sioux in the r-9~01itMcor early b*ons;e age. tirely prehistoric, C dis- qbcrof ancient sites. Caves Although. Iowa &uche~dwis a tinguished by the la* use d and rock aheltcis have been dis- reM5vely tlllwwked field com- copper for both weapons and awered along the gorges and (Leftto right) BLACK HAWK, noted Sauk chief and leader in the Black Hawk War of 1832. He died in Iowa pared with other eater, it might ornammts. rades of the Cedar river and in 1838. The Black Hawk Purchase and Black Hawk coun* are named in his honor, even though Keokuk ne- be wdl to point out that a8 early dqthboring streams. Enclosures, gotiated the first sale of land in Iowa by the Indians. KEOKUK, another famous Sauk chief. He negotiated J Evidence d the p-ce of the first sale of Indian land to the whites and visited in Washington, D.C., after the Black Hawk War. He as 1927 Dr. Chdes Reuben prehistork man f Iowa is ant- agricultural plots and garden died in Kansas in 1848. POWESHZEK, a powerful Fox chief, superior in rank to Wapello but subordinate to beds, pits, shell heaps, caches, Keokuk. He was recogmked as a leader of both the Sauk and Fox, and is said to have wielded a stronger re- Keyes of Cornell Caege had tested in thb large number of straining influence than Keokuk among his followers in preventing them from joining with Black Hawk.