Thus, Iowa, though as yet unnamed, first became a part of the United States in 1803. The periods of French, Spanish, and again French control of the Iowa country, however, left little or no permanent impress upon its future government, because the country was as yet unsettled.
The Government of the New Purchase. — On March 26, 1804, Congress made provision for the government of the newly acquired country by dividing it into two jurisdictions — the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana. The Territory of Orleans in no way concerns the history of Iowa; but the District of Louisiana, of which Iowa was a part, was placed under the jurisdiction of the Governor and Judges of the Territory of Indiana. It was in 1804, while the Iowa country was under the jurisdiction of the Governor and Judges of the Territory of Indiana, that Governor William Henry Harrison, afterwards President of the United States, made the famous treaty with the Indians at St. Louis, which was later one of the causes of the Black Hawk War.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition. — The United States now authorized several military expeditions into the newly acquired area for the purpose of getting more accurate information relative to the nature of the country. The first and most famous of these was the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806). Making their way up the Missouri River, Lewis and Clark passed along the western border of Iowa. Sergeant Floyd, the only person who died on the expedition, was buried on Iowa soil near the present site of Sioux City; and his memory is perpetuated in the
