Most Native Americans in the region decided against joining the uprising, and so the conflict ended after U.S. officials responded with a show of military force.

Red Bird died in prison in 1828 while awaiting trial; two other men convicted of murder were pardoned by President John Quincy Adams and released.

By that time, however, Americans had begun to trespass on Ho-Chunk (or Winnebago) lands in large numbers, drawn by the promise of easy lead mining along the Fever (later Galena) River.

[6] In March 1826, a French-Canadian man named Methode, his Native American wife, and their children were gathering maple syrup in present-day Iowa, about twelve miles north of Prairie du Chien, when they were murdered, apparently by a Ho-Chunk raiding party that had been passing through.

[10] In accordance with Ho-Chunk custom, writes historian Martin Zanger, the six men were not all involved in the murders; they were surrendered to appease American anger and deflect punishment away from the tribe as a whole.

Colonel Josiah Snelling, commander of the 5th Infantry Regiment, reinforced the fort amid rumors that the Ho-Chunks were going to attempt to free the prisoners.

[16] Another grievance was the news that some Ho-Chunk women had been sexually assaulted by American riverboat crews along the Mississippi River, although this story, like the one about the executions, may have been a false rumor.

[19] Unable to locate their intended victim, they instead targeted the cabin of Registre Gagnier, the son of an esteemed African-American nurse and midwife named Aunt Mary Ann.

Settlers, fearing the outbreak of a wider Indian war, fled to towns such as Galena and Chicago, or sought sanctuary in the abandoned Fort Crawford.

[29] Lewis Cass, the governor of Michigan Territory, and Thomas McKenney, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, were hosting a treaty conference near Green Bay when they learned of the attacks.

[30] To discourage the spread of the uprising, Cass promptly invited Native Americans in the region to come to the treaty grounds to receive gifts and food; more than 2,000 people eventually arrived.

[31] McKenney warned the Ho-Chunk chiefs in attendance that the only way to avoid an American military invasion of their homeland was to surrender those responsible for the attacks.

[39] In diplomatic talks with the Ho-Chunks at the close of the war, General Atkinson promised that the U.S. government would look into their grievances in the lead mining region.

[40] Thomas McKenney requested military aid to evict American miners who were trespassing on Ho-Chunk land, but after the war, settlers poured into the region in unprecedented numbers, and U.S. officials proved to be unable or unwilling to stem the tide.

By January 1828, there were as many as 10,000 illegal settlers on Ho-Chunk land, including militia general Henry Dodge, who established a mining camp after the war and boasted that the U.S. Army could not make him leave.

This belief, according to historian Martin Zanger, was based on an American failure to understand the decentralized nature of Ho-Chunk society.

Wau-koo-kau and Man-ne-tah-peh-keh, the two warriors imprisoned for the 1826 murders of the Methode family, were released due to a lack of witnesses, as were three Ho-Chunks held for the attack on the keelboats.

[45] According to historian Patrick Jung, it became clear during the trial that Red Bird had committed the murders at the Gagnier cabin, and that there was not enough evidence to convict Wekau and Chickhonsic.

[22] On November 3, 1828, President John Quincy Adams, having been told that the executions would likely spark another uprising,[46] pardoned the prisoners in exchange for a land cession.

[47] In July and August 1829, in treaties signed at Prairie du Chien, the Three Fires Confederacy and the Ho-Chunks formally ceded the lead mining region to the United States for annual payments of $16,000 and $18,000 respectively.