Hoffman] LAND TREATY 25 



almost potential. Some of the mure shrewd among them very soon penetrated the 

 ambitions design of Williams, which was no less than a total subjugation of the 

 whole country, and the establishment of an Indian government, of which he was to 

 be the sole dictator. The French and traders immediately organized into an oppo- 

 sition to the whole programme of the delegates. They were familiar with the 

 Menomonees and Winnebagoes, present at their debates, counselled and advised with 

 them in their deliberations, and when the answer of the Menomonees and Winneba- 

 goes was given, it was a deliberate and decided refusal to cede them an inch of soil 

 west of Lake Michigan. It was plain to all, that the French and half breeds had 

 answered, and not the Indians. Tho delegates expressed as much in their reply and 

 affectionately requested their brothers to re-cousider the matter, and answer for 

 themselves, independent of tho French and half breeds. 



Several days were spent by both parties in out-door discussions. Tho French and 

 half breed interest, rinding their position not safely tenable, counselled a kind of 

 compromise, which being adopted, resulted in proposing a cession to their eastern 

 brethren, the Not-ta-ways, of a strip of land live miles in width, running across the 

 Fox river at Little Chute as a centre, and thence to the north-west and south-east, 

 equi-distant with their claims or possessions. In offering this cession to the dele- 

 gates as their ultimatum, these tribes urged their limited possessions, the poverty 

 of their hunting grounds, and their inability in consequence to subsist their people! 

 The possessions of the Menomonees then reached from the mouth of Green Bay to the 

 Milwaukee River, North and South, and from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, South- 

 east and North-west. Those of the Winnebagoes included all the remainder of what 

 is now known as southern Wisconsin, except the inconsiderable tract west of Sugar 

 River, claimed by the Sauks and Foxes. They were very much crowded, of course! 

 The delegates saw that the object was, by placing them on a great thoroughfare, the 

 Fox River, between these two tribes, to establish such a surveillance over them as 

 effectually to prevent any design or movement the New York Indians might ever 

 attempt, contrary to tho wishes or interests of the grautees, or the French inhabi- 

 tants. After much deliberation, and a good deal of hesitation, it was concluded on 

 the advice chiefly of lleudnck, the Mo-he-kun-nuck chief, to accept the graut. A 

 treaty was accordingly drawn up by Mr. Trowbridge, and signed by the parties 

 on the 18th of August, and witnessed by the citizens and U. S. officers at the post. 

 Five hundred dollars were paid the Menomonees and Winnebagoes at the time, and 

 fifteen hundred dollars stipulated to be paid in goods the following year, in full for 

 the cession. 



In about ten days the Menomonees and Winnebagoes assembled to greet their new 

 friends the Xot-ta-ways, as they called the New York Indiaus, and to receive the 

 $1,500 payment, in goods, on the cession of 1821. Such an assemblage of wild 

 Indians, young and old, women and papooses, was seldom seen. Of the two tribes, 

 there could not have been less than five thousand souls, besides the New Yorkers, 

 the French, half breeds, and Americans. The best specimen of Indian character, 

 aud especially of a war dance, ever seen by the writer, was there given for several 

 days. The Winnebagoes, of that day at least, exhibited the largest, most perfectly 

 formed set of both men aud women, almost ever seen anywhere. Tho great display of 

 action and muscle in these dances, struck the beholder with admiration and terror. 

 The ring round the dancers contained several thousand, all singing in chorus to 

 the load of the chief drummer; the voices of the Winnebago women prevailing in 

 clarion tones above the whole. 



The payment of the fifteen hundred dollars worth of goods, was made with as 

 much ceremony as possible by the delegates, accompanied by a set speech setting 

 forth the great advantages that would be derived to their western brethren by 

 their settling among them. After the payment and the proper receipts of acknowl- 

 edgment on the treaties, followed feasting, dancing, and a general hilarity for two 

 days. The delegates then invited the Menomonees aud Winnebagoes to a formal 

 council, aud renewed the effort for a further extension of territory. Every argument 



