The whole chapter is online on the Iowa History Site. STORIES OF IOWA Chapter 22 FOR BOYS AND GIRLS THE TAMA INDIANS If you go west along the Lincoln Highway from Tama you will find Indians still living in Iowa. Perhaps you will wonder how these Indians happen to be here when all the rest are gone. To tell you the story we will have to go back many, many years. A hundred years ago the Indians hunted and fished over all of what is now Iowa. But the white people soon saw that the land here was good for farms. They told the Indians that they must sell their hunting grounds in Iowa. Of course the Indians did not like to see the white people come in and take their lands, but they had learned that if they went to war the white soldiers always won. In 1832 the United States said that the Sauk and Fox Indians must sell their lands along the Mississippi River. Then the white settlers wanted more farms and the Indians had to move again. Finally, in 1845, the Sauk and Fox Indians had to leave Iowa and go to a new home in Kansas. Before they left, they met at Fort Des Moines to receive the money which the government was paying them for giving up their homes. This fort stood where the city of Des Moines now stands, just where the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers come together. Unusually the Indians had a very good time when they received this money. There was always plenty of things to eat and there were white men there who sold whisky to the Indians. But this time the Indians were very sad. They knew that they must leave Iowa. They did not want to go. They loved the prairies of Iowa where there were deer and the streams where there were fish. But they knew that white soldiers with guns would come and drive them out if they did not go. So early in the fall of 1845 these Indians started their march across the Missouri River. They did not have wagons or trucks. Most of them rode horseback. Perhaps some of the women walked. Everywhere were dogs, barking at each other or chasing the rabbits across the prairies. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County _http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/_ (http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/) IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: _http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/_ (http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/)