War to the Knife with the Sauk #2

By David Wrolson

Iowa as a "Dark and Bloody Ground".

I am intrigued by the Sioux war with the Sauk and Fox. I knew very little about it prior to this project.

The Sauk (and Fox) had been pushed west by white settlement into Iowa and this brought them into conflict with the Sioux.

It is interesting that I have run across indications that it was not just the eastern Sioux that were involved. I have run across indications that all 3 Sioux branches were involved. The Dakota, Nakota and the Lakota all were in a war to the knife with the Sauk.

The early reading I have done on this indicate that the 1820's were a violent time in this war with raids back and forth by both sides. This 1820's violence explains why the Sioux (as referenced in the previous post) were eager to help the whites in the Black Hawk War in 1832.

I was aware of the treaty line dividing the Sioux from the Chippewa in central Minnesota, however I did not know that similar line divided the Sioux from the Sauk in northeast Iowa.

Kentucky in the old days is often called a "Dark and Bloody Ground." Well, after following the smoke of the Sioux into the Sauk war, I can't help but also thinking of Iowa as a dark and bloody ground. The boundary line was not sufficient to keep the tribes apart. A 40-mile neutral zone was established along the line as a buffer to keep the tribes apart.

The buffer is shown as the 2 diagonal rectangles in northeast Iowa on the map below.

The smoke of the Sioux traveled widely and I wonder if they raided the Sauk in Illinois