Old Fort Snelling | Page 6

the Indians
would be kept in check. The surrender took place on July 20th, and the
captor christened the stockade Fort McKay in honor of himself.[32]
Thus, the Indians about the Mississippi had been present at the
surrender of two posts and had participated in a massacre. British arms
had been successful, and the close of the war found British prestige
very high.
The Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, closed the war; and
Article IX of that treaty provided that the United States should make
peace with the Indian tribes and restore to them the "possessions, rights
and privileges" which they had enjoyed before hostilities.[33] President
Madison accordingly appointed William Clark, Ninian Edwards, and

Auguste Chouteau as commissioners to enter into treaties of peace with
the warring tribes of the upper Mississippi and the upper Missouri.
Only with extreme difficulty was word of the negotiations sent to the
tribes. The hostility of the Indians living about the mouth of the Rock
River made it necessary that the messenger proceed to Prairie du Chien
by way of the Missouri River, and then across country.[34]
Although treaties were concluded with those who did come to the
council, none were eager to negotiate. The Chippewas, Menominees,
and Winnebagoes even refused to send delegations; and the Sacs of
Rock River not only refused to attend, but also showed their contempt
by continually harassing the frontier settlements during the time of the
negotiations.[35] This opposition, the commissioners reported, was due
to the presence of an unusual number of British traders among the
Indians. The report closed with the opinion that "the exertion of the
military power of the Government will be necessary to secure the peace
and safety of this country."[36]
For some years it had been customary for the British authorities to send
presents to the Indians on the Mississippi, and Robert Dickson had
promised the natives that the practice would be continued. But with the
coming of peace this custom was not allowed by the Americans.
Accordingly, in June, 1815, word was sent to the river tribes, that all
who came to the British headquarters at Drummond Island in Lake
Huron, would be supplied. By June 19th of the next year four hundred
Indians had arrived at the post--mainly Sioux. To sympathetic ears they
reported that they feared that the Americans were planning their
extinction, and a confederation was being formed to resist the building
of American forts on the Indian lands. As late as 1825, of the four
thousand Indians in the habit of visiting Drummond Island, three
thousand came from the region west and southwest of Lake Huron--that
is from American territory.[37] These motley processions which trailed
through the American woods, stopping to beg at the American posts,
were not slow in being reported. It did not take a vivid imagination to
see that the renewal of border warfare was inevitable.[38]
This danger was increased by the rapid development of the West

following the war. Just as over the mountain trails and down the rivers,
Kentucky and Tennessee had been settled before the war, now the
States of the Old Northwest received their pioneers. Henry Rowe
Schoolcraft, who made his first trip down the Ohio at this time (1818),
remarked: "I mingled in this crowd, and, while listening to the
anticipations indulged in, it seemed to me that the war had not, in
reality, been fought for 'free trade and sailors' rights' where it had
commenced, but to gain a knowledge of the world beyond the
Alleghanies.... To judge by the tone of general conversation, they
meant, in their generation, to plow the Mississippi Valley from its head
to its foot."[39]
The flatboats on the rivers, the crowded ferries, and the caravans
crossing the prairies were familiar scenes. In The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow, which appeared in 1819, Washington Irving puts this fondest
dream into the mind of his hero, Ichabod: "Nay, his busy fancy already
realized his hopes, and presented to him the blooming Katrina with a
whole family of children, mounted on the top of a wagon loaded with
household trumpery, with pots and kettles dangling beneath; and he
beheld himself bestriding a pacing mare, with a colt at her heels, setting
out for Kentucky, Tennessee, or the Lord knows where." When he
wrote this the author was not using his imagination: it was a picture he
saw daily.[40]
The extent of this westward movement is indicated by the provisions
made for the political organization of these growing settlements.
Indiana achieved statehood in 1816 and Illinois in 1818. Across the
river in Missouri the population had grown from 20,000 in 1810 to
66,000 in 1820,[41] and the weighty questions concerning her
admission were being discussed in Washington.
With an expanding frontier brought into contact with hostile Indians,
trouble was