Details
CLARK, WILLIAM, 1770-1838, Explorer, Governor of Missouri Territory. Letter signed ("Wm Clark," with autograph closing and flourish), to Felix St. Vrain, Agent for the Sauk and Fox Tribes, St. Louis, 12 September 1831. 5 pages, 4to, 249 x 203mm. (9 3/4 x 8 in.), integral blank docketed "On the...Murder of the Menominies at Prairie du Chien" (probably in hand of St. Vrain).
A PARTNER IN THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION REPORTS ON THE UNREST PRECEDING THE BLACK HAWK WAR
An important letter regarding intertribal conflicts and rising tensions on the Iowa-Illinois frontier involving the Sauk tribes and their leader, Chief Black Hawk: "Since the date of my instructions to you...to make a demand of the murderers concerned in the late attack on the Menominees at Prairie du Chien, no Report has been received..." Clark sends extracts of instructions from Washington then adds that he has conferred with General [Henry] Atkinson "in relation to the outrages of Indian War Parties & have concluded that the Council which has been ordered by the Secretary of War [Lewis Cass], shall be held at Rock Island as soon as the chiefs can be convened; and that Col. Morgan will make demand of the murderers...As the first step...you will without delay summon the chief of the Fox Tribe and also the chiefs of any other Tribe whose warriors may have been concerned in the late aggression, to meet in Council...You may say to the Chiefs...that the Secretary of War has directed me to instruct you 'to express...the indignation felt by the President [Andrew Jackson] at their wanton violations of their promises and our rights, and his fixed determination to cause to be apprehended the principal persons concerned in it'..." Clark strongly urges St. Vrain to report to him by return mail "what has been done...the prospects of procuring the murderers, the feelings of the Indians in relation to the outrages..." He goes on to report news from Major Taliaferro that "a party of mounted Sacs had invaded the Sioux Territory...and killed two principal men of the Wah-pa-cota Sioux...This will be a subject of investigation, and must be settled agreably to the Treaties, and the humane policy of the Government..."
Clark is best known for his participation in the Lewis and Clark expedition which explored the newly acquired Louisiana Territory as far as the Pacific Northwest. At the time of the present letter, however, Clark was concerned with the unsettled state of the Sauk tribe led by Chief Black Hawk, who had repudiated earlier treaties by which his tribe had ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi. In June 1831 Black Hawk had withdrawn from contested village sites, but, having enlisted support in Canada, crossed the Mississippi in April 1832 and set out for Rock River, the tribe's ancestral village site. When General Atkinson ordered them to return to Iowa, the so-called Black Hawk War erupted. By August Black Hawk and his rebellion had been quelled.
A PARTNER IN THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION REPORTS ON THE UNREST PRECEDING THE BLACK HAWK WAR
An important letter regarding intertribal conflicts and rising tensions on the Iowa-Illinois frontier involving the Sauk tribes and their leader, Chief Black Hawk: "Since the date of my instructions to you...to make a demand of the murderers concerned in the late attack on the Menominees at Prairie du Chien, no Report has been received..." Clark sends extracts of instructions from Washington then adds that he has conferred with General [Henry] Atkinson "in relation to the outrages of Indian War Parties & have concluded that the Council which has been ordered by the Secretary of War [Lewis Cass], shall be held at Rock Island as soon as the chiefs can be convened; and that Col. Morgan will make demand of the murderers...As the first step...you will without delay summon the chief of the Fox Tribe and also the chiefs of any other Tribe whose warriors may have been concerned in the late aggression, to meet in Council...You may say to the Chiefs...that the Secretary of War has directed me to instruct you 'to express...the indignation felt by the President [Andrew Jackson] at their wanton violations of their promises and our rights, and his fixed determination to cause to be apprehended the principal persons concerned in it'..." Clark strongly urges St. Vrain to report to him by return mail "what has been done...the prospects of procuring the murderers, the feelings of the Indians in relation to the outrages..." He goes on to report news from Major Taliaferro that "a party of mounted Sacs had invaded the Sioux Territory...and killed two principal men of the Wah-pa-cota Sioux...This will be a subject of investigation, and must be settled agreably to the Treaties, and the humane policy of the Government..."
Clark is best known for his participation in the Lewis and Clark expedition which explored the newly acquired Louisiana Territory as far as the Pacific Northwest. At the time of the present letter, however, Clark was concerned with the unsettled state of the Sauk tribe led by Chief Black Hawk, who had repudiated earlier treaties by which his tribe had ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi. In June 1831 Black Hawk had withdrawn from contested village sites, but, having enlisted support in Canada, crossed the Mississippi in April 1832 and set out for Rock River, the tribe's ancestral village site. When General Atkinson ordered them to return to Iowa, the so-called Black Hawk War erupted. By August Black Hawk and his rebellion had been quelled.