Page 173(unnumbered in text)

THE RED MEN OF IOWA.

CHAPTER XI.

THE SIOUX.

IT was in 1680 that Father Hennepin and his two companions, Michael Ako and Anthony Auguella, were sent from Fort Crevecour, near Lake Peoria, by the renowned La Salle, on their mission of discovery to the upper Mississippi. The tribes they found inhabiting the country now embraced in northern Iowa and the State of Minnesota, were those belonging to the great Dakota group, or nation. While encamped on the banks of the Mississippi they were taken prisoners by a band of Sioux warriors, and remained with them in their wanderings over the vast prairies and among the lakes of that region, from April until September, having during that time been joined by that other intrepid French adventurer, Du Luth. These were the first Europeans who met the people that occupied and roamed over the prairies of northern Iowa or kindled their camp-fires about the head-waters of the Des Moines, and on the