August Chouteau

William Clark

Native Americans, American

Settlers and the 1815 Treaties of

Portage Des Sioux

Lessons for Elementary Students

The activities in this packet are designed to encourage students to think about the t

reaties signed between the U.S. and American Indians in the Midwest which ended the

hostilities resulting from the War of 1812. Students are asked to use critical thinking

skills to evaluate events and their impact upon both Americans and American Indians.

The units were developed as part of the 2015 Commemoration of the signing of the

treaties in a pecan grove in the small Missouri town of Portage des Sioux. The 2015

commemoration will include a series of events in the St. Louis and Portage des Sioux

areas and culminate in a commemoration involving both locals and Native American

tribes. The events are sponsored by The Land Between the Rivers Historical and Ge-

nealogical Society, the Missouri Humanities Council and the Missouri Council for His-

tory Education. Information about the Commemoration may be obtained on the web-

site: peace-friencship.com

The lesson plans are free of charge and may be reproduced and distributed without

prior permission as long as their source is acknowledged. Lesson plans are available

for free download at: www.mohistoryeducation.org

Land ceded to the U.S. by various tribes in the Treaty of St. Louis ( 1804 )

Lessons in this unit were developed by Dr. Gary McKiddy,

President of the Missouri Council for History Education and Mr.

Ben Vossenkemper, Portage des Sioux Historical and Genealogi-

cal

Background

In 1812, the U.S. found itself at war with Great Britain. The British encouraged Ameri-

can Indian tribes in the Mid-West to rebel against the Americans in hopes of keeping

American troops occupied on the frontier and eventually joining the Upper Louisiana

territory to Canada. They provided weapons and supplies to the Indians and promised

them an independent territory under British protection when the war ended. The war

lasted three long years and eventually ended in a tie. British Canada was not able to

annex the Louisiana Territory, nor was America able to annex Canada. The issues be-

tween the U.S. and the British were resolved by the Treaty of Ghent, leaving the U.S.

to negotiate separate treaties with the Native American who continued to fight the en-

croaching American settlers. Realizing that without British support, their cause was

lost, a number of tribes agreed to meet with commissioners appointed by the U.S.

government in the settlement of Portage des Sioux, Missouri. Over a three month pe-

riod, 5,000 American Indians traveled to Portage to negotiate treaties. The Indians

would receive a promise of perpetual peace and friendship if they agreed to leave the

land along the Mississippi River and move to the edge of the Great Plains in western

Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. A mass migration began, but not without

resistance from several tribal leaders who would continue fighting for another twenty

years. The 1815 Treaties led to a flood of new settlers entering Missouri and Illinois

and to a change of lifestyle among the tribes who had to go west. For settlers from the

east, the Treaties of 1815 beneficial; for American Indians, they were a disaster lead-

ing to another move by American Indians away from their traditional homelands.

Activities

1. Native Americans, Settlers and a Sense of Place. This

lesson examines how the American Indians lived and

how their life was changed each time they were forced

to move west. Students will use maps and write a para-

graph.

2. Using Primary Sources. Students will be asked to

complete Venn diagrams showing what each side

( A mericans and American Indians ) promised to do in

the treaties signed at Portage des Sioux and what each

side expected to gain. Then, considering what they

learned in Activity One, students will be asked to ex-

plain which side got the better agreement.

3. Indian Names. The Indians who signed the treaty were

listed by their Indian name followed by a phrase which

would describe them so they could not be confused

with other Indians of the same name and tribe. Stu-

dents will asked to pick a phrase for themselves and

then either write a paragraph or draw a picture explain-

ing why this name is appropriate.

Clark, Edwards and Choteau

meeting with the Indians.

A “peace medal” was given to each chief who signed

a treaty with the United States.

Fort Zumwalt

Activity One

Before the United States bought the territory west of the Mississippi

River from France in 1804, it was the home of many Indian tribes. For

many years, Europeans had traded with the Indians for fur. The Euro-

peans had settled only a few towns where the Indians could come to

trade for goods made in Europe.

Most of the Indians in what is now Missouri and Illinois lived in small

villages along the rivers and streams. Their houses were made of reed

mats lashed together. Osage lodges were called wickiups. These were

the same types of houses used by the Mississippian settlement at Caho-

kia, Illinois. Around 1100 C.E., over 20,000 Indians lived here and they

traded with other tribes as far away as Canada and the Gulf Coast. By

1250 c.e., Cahokia was larger than London England.

Indian men hunted for game and caught fish. The women raised the

children and grew vegetables, especially corn and squash. The women

also wove baskets and made clothing. Children usually helped their

parents and took care of small animals like chickens and rabbits. Boys

would help their fathers make arrow and spear heads and scrapers used

to prepare animal skins to be made into clothing or to be sold to the

Europeans. Even today, farmers often find Indian arrowheads when

they do their spring plowing.

The state of Missouri is named after the Missouria Indians who lived

where the Missouri River joins the Mississippi. Another large tribe in

Missouri were the Osage. They originally came from the eastern part of

the U.S., but had been pushed west by other tribes. The Osage had

settlements along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and occupied a

large area of land stretching from central Missouri to Kansas, Oklahoma

and Arkansas. Other tribes, such as the Fox, Sac, Dakota, Iowa and Illi-

nois also lived in Missouri and Illinois.

When the Americans started to enter the Louisiana Territory ( the

area bought from France which includes all land between the Mississippi

River and the Rocky Mountains ) ; they cleared land and planted large

fields. With the forests turned into fields, there was no where for the In-

dians to hunt and the settlers would not let Indians gather berries and

nuts as they had always done. As Americans entered the territory, the

Indians were pushed westward. Some tribes often attacked settlers

feeling that they had stolen their land and that France had no right to sell

land which should belong to the tribes.

The government of the U.S. made treaties with tribes promising

them the right to own land if they would only move west and away from

the land where American farmers were. Each time, the treaty only

lasted for a few years. As more settlers came, the government offered

land to the west if only the Indians would again move. The government

also moved other Indians from as far away as Georgia into the territory

promised to the tribes in the Midwest after President Andrew Jackson

decided to move all Indians out of the Eastern U.S. Groups such as the

Cherokee, who lived in the southern U.S., were now pushed on to land

promised to tribes in the Midwest. Many Cherokee died during the

Trail of Tears when Indians were forced to walk from Georgia to Okla-

homa . The trip took many months and many died of exhaustion and be-

cause of the cold winter.

In 1812, the U.S. and Britain went to war. In the Midwest, British

troops from Canada encouraged Indians to attack the Americans. They

promised to return land to the Indians if they won the war. Many Ameri-

cans hoped to add Canada to the U.S. Some tribes sided with the British,

some with the Americans and some tried to stay neutral. The last battle

between Americans and Indians in the War of 1812 was the Battle of the

Sinkhole, fought in eastern Missouri between the towns of Moscow Mills

and Troy, Missouri. One of the Indians who fought here was Black Hawk,

who twenty years later would lead a major Indian uprising which included

battles in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri.

The War of 1812 ended in 1814 with a treaty between the U.S. and

Great Britain. The British did not get the Louisiana Territory and the U.S.

did not get Canada. The British stopped supplying their Indian allies and

left them to sign separate treaties with the U.S.

In the spring of 1815, the U.S. invited Indian tribes from the Midwest

to the small town of Portage des Sioux to sign peace treaties. Again, they

promised to protect Indian rights and give them land; if only the Indians

would move further west. The U.S. sent $20,000 worth of goods to be

give to the Indians. Because they had remained neutral, the Osage where

the only tribe to be give extra goods and money.

After the treaties, the Indians had to move to the western part of Mis-

souri. They were on the edge of the Great Plains where there were not as

many forests as in the eastern part of the state. Many tribes were

pushed into the same areas. Eventually, the tribe were pushed across the

border into southern Kansas and then into Oklahoma. Because these ar-

eas were not considered good for farming, the Americans moved the Indi-

ans there.

Tribes such as the Osage could not hunt in the forests as they once

had, nor plant the large gardens like they had along the Missouri and Mis-

sissippi Rivers. Rather than deer, the Indians now relied on buffalo as a

main source of meat. The buffalo grazed over large areas of land, so In-

dian hunting parties often had to travel to find them. The land in Okla-

homa was hilly and rocky and there was little rain. By the 1870s, all tribes

had been moved onto reservations. Indian children were required to at-

tend government schools where they were to speak English only.

Eventually, as Indians moved away to places where they could get

better jobs; reservation land was sold to non-Indians. Many tribes lost

their reservations completely and scattered across the U.S. For example,

only 7,000 of the 29,000 Osage in the U.S. ( 13,000 are “ e nrolled mem-

bers ” and another 16,000 claim to be Osage on the U.S. census ) still

live in Osage County, Oklahoma.

To learn more about Indians in the Midwest and the War of 1812 in Missouri and

Illnois, check the following sources.

“ C ahokia Mounds Historic Site ” cahokiamounds.org

Dickey, Michael. People at the River ’ s Mouth: In Search of the Missouria Indians. Columbia, MO:

U. of MO Press, 2011.

“ F irst People. ” www.firstpeople.us

Keating, Ann. Rising Up from Indian Country. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 2012.

Murdock, David. Eyewitness Books: North American Indian. N.Y.: DK Publishing, 2005.

“ N ative American Tribes of Missouri, ” http://www.native-languages.org/missouri.htm

Riehecky, Janet. The Osage. Minnesota: Bridgestone Books, 2003.

Activity One

Working with Maps

The maps with this assignment show the land belonging to the Osage be-

fore treaties were signed with the U.S. Find the Osage land on each map

and color it red; then pretend you are an Osage who was born in Missouri

in 1800 and in 1880 lived on the reservation in Oklahoma. Write a letter to

a friend telling how your has life changed since your childhood.

Map of the Osage hunting ground in the late 18th

Century; Wikipedia.com

Osage County Oklahoma; Wikipedia

Area along the Missouri River where the Osage

lived before moving to Oklahoma; Wikipedia.

The red dot represents Fort Sibley, later called Fort

Osage, which was built so the U.S. government

could trade with the Osage after several chiefs vis-

ited President Jefferson in Washington, D.C. in

1804. In the treaty of 1808, signed in St. Louis, the

Osage agreed to give all their land east of the fort

to the U.S. Some Osage village remained along

the Missouri, Mississippi and Osage Rivers until

after the treaty of 1815. They claimed that the

chiefs who visited Jefferson had no right to sign

away the rights of their tribe.

Draw a line from the Iowa to the Arkansas border

through the red dot. Color the land which still be-

longed to the Osage in red.

Find the area which is now the Osage reservation and color it red.

This map which accompanies the Wikipedia article on the Osage Nation shows where the Osage have lived

since the 1830s. ( "Okterritory". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Okterritory.png#/media/File:Okterritory.png )

Activity Two

Primary Sources: The Treaties of Portage des Sioux

Read the treaty which follows. All the tribal treaties followed the same for-

mat. After reading the treaty, make two Venn Diagrams, one which ex-

plains what each side promised to do following the treaty and one explain-

ing what each side expected to get from the treaty. Then, thinking about

The following tribes signed the Treaties of 1815 at

Portage des Sioux in the fall. Over 2,000

Indians arrived during the first few weeks of the first great

Indian Council held West of the Mississippi.

Potawatomi Piankeshaw

Lakota

Mdewakantonwan Dakota

Sioux

Sioux of the Lakes

Omaha

Kickapoo

Osage Nation

Sac

Fox

Iowa

Other tribes were to sign similar treaties in St. Louis later in the fall and winter.

The 1815 Treaty of Portage des Sioux

In the diagram below, list what each side promised

to do to fulfill the treaty.

U.S. Government Osage Nation

Both Sides

Monument to the 1815 Treaties in Portage des Sioux,

Missouri

The 1815 Treaty of Portage des Sioux

In the diagram below, list what each side expected to get

from signing the treaty.

U.S. Government Both Sides

Osage Nation

Arrow Heads collected in Missouri.

Activity Three

Indian Names

Look at the names of the Osage chiefs who signed the Treaty of Portage

des Sioux. After each Indian name, there is a phrase to describe this chief

so he could not be confused with other Osage Indians who might have the

same name. Sometimes the phrase tells of their physical appearance,

such as “ without ears, ” other phrases tell what a person can do, “ he

who sees far, ” other phrases compare the person to an animal or to

something in nature, “ big bear. ” If you were an Indian chief, what

phrase would describe you? Write a paragraph or draw a picture explain-

ing why your family selected this phrase to describe you.

My Name Is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The phrase to describe me would be _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Put your paragraph or drawing in the box below.