Keokuk, chief of the Sac and Fox

Keokuk kēˈəkək [key], 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.

See biography by M. Lockwood (1943).

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