McKee, Dixon, and Girty were open and active agents in exciting the Indians to attack the American frontiers. They held frequent talks with them and supplied them liberally with goods and munitions of war. In 1811, there being a strong probability of a war with Great Britain, a deputation of the Sauks and Foxes, visited Washington city, to see the President, by whom they were told that in the event of a war taking place with England, their great father did not wish them to interfere on either side, but to remain neutral: He did not want their assistance but desired them to hunt and support their families and live in peace. Immediately after the war of 1812, the Sacs and Foxes, with whom, as with Indians generally, war is the great business of life, felt that they ought, as a matter of course, to take sides with one party or the other, and went to St. Louis, to offer their services to the United States agent, to fight against the British; but the offer was declined, on the ground that the government of the United States had resolved not to employ the Indians in that capacity. The machinations of the British, were successfully continued. The Sacs and Foxes divided upon the question of taking up arms against the United States. A part of them claimed the protection of the American government and received it; a part joined the British standard, Black Hawk among the number, and fought against the Americans until the peace of 1815. The number of warriors who joined the British is supposed to have been about two hundred, and they have ever since been known as the "British Band," at the head of which has been "General Black Hawk."
On the 14th September, 1815, William Clark, Ninian Edwards and Auguste Choteau, commissioners on behalf of the United States, concluded a treaty with the chiefs and warriors of the Fox tribe, by which all injuries and acts of hostility, committed by either party during the late war, were to be forgiven, and peace and friendship established between the two nations. The fourth article of the treaty contains a recognition of the former treaty in these words. "The said Fox tribe or nation do hereby, assent to, recognize, re-establish and confirm the treaty of St. Louis, which was concluded on the 3rd of November, 1804, to the full extent of their interest in the same, as well as all other contracts and agreements between the parties." This treaty was made at Portage des Sioux.