Keokuk

Keokuk, city, United States

Keokuk, city (1990 pop. 12,451), seat of Lee co., extreme SE Iowa, on the Mississippi River at the foot of the Des Moines River rapids and in a farm area; inc. 1847. Its industries focus on food processing and packaging (turkeys, dairy items, grain products), and metal products are manufactured. The city was named for Keokuk, a Sac tribal chief who ceded lands to settlers and who is buried beneath an impressive statue in Rand Park. Because of its location at the foot of the treacherous Des Moines River rapids, Keokuk was a transshipment stop for boats ascending the Mississippi. During the Civil War five army hospitals there served the wounded; those who did not survive were buried in the city's national cemetery, where the Unknown Soldier Monument was erected. In 1877 a ship canal (9 mi/14.5 km long) was completed around the rapids; in 1910–13 the river was dammed, creating Lake Keokuk. Mark Twain worked as a printer in Keokuk; mementos of his stay are preserved.

---

Keokuk, chief of the Sac and Fox

Keokuk (kē`əkək), c.1780–1848, Native American, chief of the Sac and Fox, b. near present-day Rock Island, Ill. When Black Hawk supported the British in the War of 1812, Keokuk refused to join him, thereby gaining recognition and support from the U.S. government. After Black Hawk's defeat in 1832, Keokuk's people were given a large tract of land in SE Iowa. Keokuk visited Washington D.C., in 1833 and 1837. His grave and a statue of him are at Keokuk, Iowa.

Bibliography

See biography by M. Lockwood (1943).

---

Keokuk

(born 1790?, along Rock River [near present-day Rock Island, Ill., U.S.]—died 1848?, [in present-day Franklin county, Kan.]) Sauk Indian orator and politician. He engaged in a lifelong struggle for power with rival leader Black Hawk, who advocated resistance to white settlement on tribal lands. Keokuk instead urged accommodation and concession. Many Indians, witnessing the showering of gifts and honours on Keokuk by U.S. Indian agents and military leaders, turned to him for leadership. In 1832 Black Hawk led a short-lived resistance effort against white encroachments; Keokuk counseled peace and surrender, and he even provided advance warning to the U.S. of Black Hawk's intentions. For this assistance, the U.S. government named Keokuk leader of the Sauk nation in 1837. Keokuk responded by ceding the Illinois lands of his tribe and moving his people to Iowa. He continued to give away tribal land until his people were forced to settle on a reservation in Kansas, where he died in disgrace, despite the wealth and power he had accumulated.