bigpigeon.us webpage Pott. Co. > Early History, updated by RAC 11 Mar 2020.  Under development 11 March 2020.

This webarea will focus on the Pottawattamie County vicinity, while sometimes expanding to nearby states.
In the 1700s, the  stone age culture in the Missouri River valley was transformed by two major events.  
The introduction of European trade goods.
French America in 1763
French America in 1763
The introduction of horses.
Horse Dispersal
Horse Dispersal from Spanish Mexico
By 1820, most Plains Indians had been using European trade goods for a century, tribes to the east from the French via the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, and western tribes from the Spanish from settlements such as Santa Fe.

For the following sixty years, white settlement surged west through the Plains Indians lands. Both the Plains Indians, and Indians from east of the Mississippi were confined to reservations.

Subsequently much land originally allocated for reservations was aquired by white settlers.
Native American Land Cession in Iowa

By 1832, the allied Sauk and Meskwaki tribes occupied much of eastern Iowa. Their resistance to American settlement led to the 1832 Black Hawk War, and the resulting Black Hawk Purchases.

Additional land cessions followed, and by 1851 the United States government had acquired title to all Iowa land.
Indian Land Cessions in Iowa
Indian Land Cessions in Iowa
Part 3 - Early Europeans in the Pottawattamie County Area
Thomas Jefferson's 1803 purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France included the Missouri River basin, shown on the accompanying map.

At the time, the Missouri River offered a promising avenue into the riches of the northern Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. It also potentially offered a feasible route to the Pacific Ocean.
The Missouri River Basin
The Missouri River Basin
the Corps of Discovery - 1804 - 1806
Part 5
From the 1820s to 1846, Bellevue was 
The Bellevue Agency - 1833
The Bellevue Agency - 1833
Pre-1837 Area History Outline (with an 1860s map)
Don't confuse the city of Council Bluffs with the historic Council Bluffs area, which I view as starting at the mouth of the Platte River and extending north to Ft. Calhoun.
​This is my draft list of pre-1837 historical sites along the Missouri River in the Council Bluffs area from south to north:
Bellevue - trading post, Indian agency & mission.
Traders Point - satellite of Bellevue trading post on east side of river run for many years by Francis Guittar.
Hart's Bluff - east side of river in today's NW Council Bluffs Big Lake.
Cabanne's Post - trading post near today's Florence.
Ft. Lisa - trading post run by Manuel Lisa.
Engineer Cantonment - occupied 1819-20 by the Stephen H. Long party.
Ft. Atkinson - SE of today's Ft. Calhoun, one of the largest US military posts from 1819-1826; today a living history museum.
Council Bluffs site: site of 1804 council between the Lewis and Clark party and Indians; exact location unknown but near Ft. Atkinson.

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Council Bluffs Area - 1860s
Council Bluffs Area - 1860s
Sources for Big Pigeon's Early Area History webpage:​
Some items to include in this webarea:
1804-06 - Corps of Discovery
1807-12 Manuel Lisa in the upper Missouri
1810-12 - The Astorians change the course of Western history.
1812-20 - Manuel Lisa in the Council Bluffs area.
1819-27 - Fort Atkinson.
1819-20 -  Engineer Cantonment and the Long Expedition.
1822-40 - Cabanne's Trading Post.
1822 - ? - Bellevue and Traders Point
1830-38 - George Catlin on the Missouri.
1833 - Prince Max and Karl Bodmer on the Missouri.
Also:
Hart's Bluff 
Bring in Peter Sarpy, Fontennelle family, & other local figures..


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