Quashquame
Quashquame (alt: "Quawsquawma, Quashquami, Quashquammee, Quash-Qua-Mie, Quash-kaume, Quash-quam-ma", meaning "Jumping Fish") (c. 1764 – c .
Quashquame is best known as the leader of the 1804 delegation to St. Louis that ceded lands in western Illinois and northeast Missouri to the U.S. government under the supervision of William Henry Harrison.
[1] The Sauk and Meskwaki delegation had been sent to negotiate the release of a murder suspect and to make amends for the killing, not to conduct land treaties.
We held a council at our village to see what could be done for him, and determined that Quashquame, Pashepaho, Ouchequaka and Hashequarhiqua should go down to St. Louis, see our American father and do all they could to have our friend released by paying for the person killed, thus covering the blood and satisfying the relations of the murdered man.
The relations of the prisoner blacked their faces and fasted, hoping the Great Spirit would take pity on them and return husband and father to his sorrowing wife and weeping children.
Early the next morning the Council Lodge was crowded, Quashquame and party came up and gave us the following account of their mission: On our arrival at St. Louis we met our American father and explained to him our business, urging the release of our friend.
I found by that treaty, that all of the country east of the Mississippi, and south of Jeffreon was ceded to the United States for one thousand dollars a year.
The next day Quashquame and two other Sauk leaders attempted to restore relations with the United States Army, telling the commander, Alpha Kingsley, that the offending parties were acting on their own and had left the region.
"[7] About 1810, Quashquamie maintained a camp or temporary village along Moniteau Creek in the south part of Cooper County, Missouri, perhaps near Rocheport.
Black Hawk wrote: "... all the children and old men and women belonging to the warriors who had joined the British were left with them to provide for.
[9] The Rock River group of Sauk was commonly known as the British Band, which formed the core of Indians participating in the Black Hawk War.
While living at the eastern village, Quashquame helped mediate retribution for the murder of a Sauk by a white trader near Bear Creek in 1818.
Their beds consisted of a platform, raised four feet high from the earth, resting on poles, tied at that height to posts standing upright in the ground opposite each other, and touching the roof.
In this space fires were kindled in cold and wet weather, and here, at such times, the cooking was carried on, and the family warmed themselves, eat their food, &c. There was no chimney, and the smoke either passed through the roof, or out the doors, at the ends of the wigwam.
On all the waters of the Upper Mississippi, no better dwelling is to be found, among the Indians.– Quasquawma was reposing himself on his bed of state when we went into his palace, and the only person at work was one of his wives at the door, dressing a deer skin.
We told him all our business, asked his advice, and aid, which he cheerfully promised and he was of great use to us, from that time forward, until the treaties were concluded.
He finally succeeded so perfectly, that the cannon was going off, a dog was represented as sitting down near and officer of our army, with his chapeau de bras on, his epauletts were on his shoulders, and several privates were standing on the boat.
The chief went around his village, and showed us whatever we wished to see, until we requested him to take us back, to our island in his canoe, ours having returned, which he politely did.Atwater estimated Quashquame's age to be about 65, which means he may have been born about 1764.
"Quasquawma, was chief of this tribe once, but being cheated out of the mineral country, as the Indians allege, he was denigrated from his rank and his son-in-law Tiama elected in his stead.
"[14] The 1830 date of death is not supported by historical accounts of Quashquame attending a conference at Fort Armstrong in the fall of 1831.
