The tri-state region of Southwest Wisconsin, Northwest Illinois, and Eastern Iowa occupies the ancestral lands of the Sauk, Meskwaki, Potawatomi, and Ho-Chunk nations. The United States acquired this mineral-rich region in a series of treaties with Indigenous nations signed from 1804 to 1832. Learn about the circumstances and terms of these fraught treaty negotiations, their connection to violence in the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War, and their lasting significance for both Indigenous people and white settlers.

Saturday, January 30th, 10-11am CST. The zoom link will be sent via email on Friday, January 29.

$10/person fee. Registration deadline is Thursday, January 28 at 4 p.m.

Presenter: Joshua Wachuta is a public historian based in southwest Wisconsin. He has written and delivered interpretive programs for organizations including the Wisconsin Historical Society at Villa Louis in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and the National Park Service at Grand Portage, Minnesota. Wachuta received a PhD in U.S. and Public History from Loyola University Chicago in 2019. His dissertation, “All and More Than Was Owed,” examined how 19th Century businessmen in the Upper Mississippi Valley acquired private investment capital from the expropriation of Indigenous tribal wealth in federal treaties.