The New International Encyclopædia/Keokuk (chief)

KEOKUK (c.1780-1848). An Indian chief of the Sac-Fox Confederation, from whom the city of Keokuk, Iowa, was named. He was born near Rock River, Illinois, in a tribe of Sacs whose spokesman he was during the War of 1812. He exerted his great influence to preserve peace between his tribe and the whites. He was one of the party who visited the Eastern States (1837), and he removed (1845) from Iowa to Kansas, where he died from poisoning.