Black Hawk

1767 (age 71)

Saukenuk, Illinois, United States

From his youth he was intensely bloodthirsty and hostile to the Americans. As early as 1804, by a treaty signed at St Louis on the 3rd of November, they agreed to the removal in return for an annuity of $1000. British influences were still strong in the upper Mississippi valley and undoubtedly led Black Hawk and the chiefs of the Sauk and Fox confederacy to repudiate this agreement of 1804, and subsequently to enter into the conspiracy of Tecumseh and take part with the British in the war of 1812. Antagonistic to whites settling in his people’s territory, Black Hawk joined the British in a number of engagements in the War of 1812. Thereafter U. S. officials cultivated the cooperation of Keokuk, a rival chief, who took what Black Hawk saw as an accommodationist approach to the government’s demands that the Sauk and Fox honour the treaty of 1804 and resettle across the Mississippi in Iowa. Black Hawk became the leader of dissident Sauks and Foxes who refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the treaty. The treaties of 1815 at Portage des Sioux (with the Foxes) and of 1816 at St Louis (with the Sauk) substantially renewed that of 1804. In 1830 a final treaty was signed at Prairie du Chien, by which all title to the lands of the Sauk and Foxes east of the Mississippi was ceded to the government, and provision was made for the immediate opening of the tract to settlers. This precipitated what is known as the Black Hawk War. Settlers began pouring into the new region in the early spring of 1831, and Black Hawk in June attacked several villages near the Illinois-Wisconsin line. After massacring several isolated families, he was driven off by a force of Illinois militia. He renewed his attack in the following year (1832), but after several minor engagements, in most of which he was successful, he was defeated (216t of July) at Wisconsin Heights on the Wisconsin river, opposite Prairie du Sac, by Michigan volunteers under Colonels Henry Dodge and James D. Henry, and fleeing westward was again decisively defeated on the Mississippi at the mouth of the Bad Axe river (on the xst and 2nd of August) by General Henry Atkinson. His band was completely dispersed, and he himself was captured by a party of Winnebagoes. At Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, on the 21t of September, a treaty was signed, by which a large tract of the Sauk and Fox territory was ceded to the United States; and the United States granted to them a reservation of 400 sq. m. , the payment of $20, 000 a year for thirty years, and the settlement of certain traders' claims against the tribe. In 1832 Black Hawk, who had been compelled to relocate to Iowa in 1830, led some 1, 000 Sauks, Foxes, and Kickapoos—including women and children—back across the Mississippi to the disputed Illinois area with the intention of resettling there. Gov. John Reynolds of Illinois called out the militia, and the U. S. government also dispatched troops to confront the band. Black Hawk and his followers easily repulsed the Illinois militia in the war’s first encounter, the Battle of Stillman’s Run, and the Indians fared well in a number of other early conflicts. As the weeks wore on, however, the strength of Black Hawk’s band began to wane. Expected aid from other tribes and the British did not materialize, food supplies were quickly exhausted, and desertions, malnutrition, and illness took their toll. Black Hawk retreated northward through the Rock River valley, and in the final battle, or massacre, at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin, most of the Indians, who were trying to make their way back across the Mississippi, were slaughtered. Black Hawk escaped but surrendered shortly thereafter. As a condition of peace, the United States dispossessed the Sauk and Fox of their land in eastern Iowa and the Ho-Chunk of theirs in southern Wisconsin. The ruthlessness of the Black Hawk War so affected Native Americans that by 1837 all surrounding tribes had fled to the West, leaving most of the former Northwest Territory to white settlement. Black Hawk and most of the other chiefs and leaders of the band remained in custody after the war. In September 1832 Jefferson Davis, a young army lieutenant, accompanied the prisoners by steamboat to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, where they were confined, often in chains, throughout the fall and winter. Their visitors included the celebrated author Washington Irving and the artist George Catlin, who made a number of paintings and sketches of them, some of which portrayed them (at their own insistence) in chains. The following spring, five of these men were turned over to Keokuk. After seven months in captivity, Black Hawk and five others were sent east in April 1833. Their first major stop was Washington, D. C. , but their final destination was another prison, Fort Monroe in southeastern Virginia. Traveling from St. Louis to Washington by steamboat, carriage, and railroad, they attracted huge crowds wherever they went. In Washington, they met with Pres. Andrew Jackson and Secretary of War Lewis Cass. Even before they left Washington for Fort Monroe, Cass was already inclined to send them home. As a result, they stayed just a few weeks at the fort, where they spent much of their time sitting for paintings and sketches by various artists. On June 5, 1833, Black Hawk and the others were loaded on a steamboat for the trip west. To impress upon them the number and strength of the American people, Cass directed that they be taken on a route that included most of the large cities of the east—Baltimore, Maryland, Philadelphia, and New York—before heading west over the Erie Canal and Great Lakes. Everywhere they went in the east, they met with immense crowds that were axious to see and hear them. This public enthusiasm did not extend to the west; in Detroit an angry crowd hanged and burned effigies of the prisoners. In mid-July the first of the prisoners were released at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. The remaining four were held at Fort Armstrong on Rock Island until Keokuk and other Sauk and Fox leaders could come to take charge of them in early October. Black Hawk’s release to Keokuk was a final blow to his pride, from which he never recovered. During these final days of his captivity at Fort Armstrong, Black Hawk recounted the story of his life for Antoine LeClair, a mixed-race interpreter, and J. P. Patterson, a newspaper editor. Before the end of the year, they had edited and published Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak or Black Hawk. While its authenticity was questioned at the time, it is generally accepted now as Black Hawk’s autobiography. But it should not be viewed as entirely accurate—either as an account of events or as a record of Black Hawk’s understanding of those events. What Black Hawk said to LeClair and Patterson is very likely not precisely what appeared in the book. His words were translated from Sauk into English by LeClair and then written down by Patterson. The raw transcripts of these conversations do not survive, but it seems likely that Patterson edited and rearranged the material with an eye to his expected audience. Black Hawk spent most of the last five years of his life with his family among the Sauks in Iowa. On a few occasions he was taken to councils between the Sauks and Foxes and the federal government, including another trip to Washington in 1837. But he had no power and little influence. To the end of his life, he blamed Keokuk for his and his people’s fate. On October 3, 1838, Black Hawk died at his home on the Des Moines River in Iowa.

Black Sparrow Hawk

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also known as Makataimeshekiakiak

tribal leader warrior

Background

Black Hawk, born Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak was born in 1767 in the village of Saukenuk on the Rock River (present-day Rock Island, Illinois).

Career

From his youth he was intensely bloodthirsty and hostile to the Americans.

As early as 1804, by a treaty signed at St Louis on the 3rd of November, they agreed to the removal in return for an annuity of $1000.

British influences were still strong in the upper Mississippi valley and undoubtedly led Black Hawk and the chiefs of the Sauk and Fox confederacy to repudiate this agreement of 1804, and subsequently to enter into the conspiracy of Tecumseh and take part with the British in the war of 1812.

Antagonistic to whites settling in his people’s territory, Black Hawk joined the British in a number of engagements in the War of 1812. Thereafter U. S. officials cultivated the cooperation of Keokuk, a rival chief, who took what Black Hawk saw as an accommodationist approach to the government’s demands that the Sauk and Fox honour the treaty of 1804 and resettle across the Mississippi in Iowa. Black Hawk became the leader of dissident Sauks and Foxes who refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the treaty.

The treaties of 1815 at Portage des Sioux (with the Foxes) and of 1816 at St Louis (with the Sauk) substantially renewed that of 1804.

In 1830 a final treaty was signed at Prairie du Chien, by which all title to the lands of the Sauk and Foxes east of the Mississippi was ceded to the government, and provision was made for the immediate opening of the tract to settlers.

This precipitated what is known as the Black Hawk War.

Settlers began pouring into the new region in the early spring of 1831, and Black Hawk in June attacked several villages near the Illinois-Wisconsin line.

After massacring several isolated families, he was driven off by a force of Illinois militia.

He renewed his attack in the following year (1832), but after several minor engagements, in most of which he was successful, he was defeated (216t of July) at Wisconsin Heights on the Wisconsin river, opposite Prairie du Sac, by Michigan volunteers under Colonels Henry Dodge and James D. Henry, and fleeing westward was again decisively defeated on the Mississippi at the mouth of the Bad Axe river (on the xst and 2nd of August) by General Henry Atkinson.

His band was completely dispersed, and he himself was captured by a party of Winnebagoes.

At Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, on the 21t of September, a treaty was signed, by which a large tract of the Sauk and Fox territory was ceded to the United States; and the United States granted to them a reservation of 400 sq. m. , the payment of $20, 000 a year for thirty years, and the settlement of certain traders' claims against the tribe.

In 1832 Black Hawk, who had been compelled to relocate to Iowa in 1830, led some 1, 000 Sauks, Foxes, and Kickapoos—including women and children—back across the Mississippi to the disputed Illinois area with the intention of resettling there. Gov. John Reynolds of Illinois called out the militia, and the U. S. government also dispatched troops to confront the band.

Black Hawk and his followers easily repulsed the Illinois militia in the war’s first encounter, the Battle of Stillman’s Run, and the Indians fared well in a number of other early conflicts. As the weeks wore on, however, the strength of Black Hawk’s band began to wane. Expected aid from other tribes and the British did not materialize, food supplies were quickly exhausted, and desertions, malnutrition, and illness took their toll. Black Hawk retreated northward through the Rock River valley, and in the final battle, or massacre, at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin, most of the Indians, who were trying to make their way back across the Mississippi, were slaughtered. Black Hawk escaped but surrendered shortly thereafter. As a condition of peace, the United States dispossessed the Sauk and Fox of their land in eastern Iowa and the Ho-Chunk of theirs in southern Wisconsin. The ruthlessness of the Black Hawk War so affected Native Americans that by 1837 all surrounding tribes had fled to the West, leaving most of the former Northwest Territory to white settlement.

Black Hawk and most of the other chiefs and leaders of the band remained in custody after the war. In September 1832 Jefferson Davis, a young army lieutenant, accompanied the prisoners by steamboat to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, where they were confined, often in chains, throughout the fall and winter. Their visitors included the celebrated author Washington Irving and the artist George Catlin, who made a number of paintings and sketches of them, some of which portrayed them (at their own insistence) in chains. The following spring, five of these men were turned over to Keokuk.

After seven months in captivity, Black Hawk and five others were sent east in April 1833. Their first major stop was Washington, D. C. , but their final destination was another prison, Fort Monroe in southeastern Virginia. Traveling from St. Louis to Washington by steamboat, carriage, and railroad, they attracted huge crowds wherever they went. In Washington, they met with Pres. Andrew Jackson and Secretary of War Lewis Cass. Even before they left Washington for Fort Monroe, Cass was already inclined to send them home. As a result, they stayed just a few weeks at the fort, where they spent much of their time sitting for paintings and sketches by various artists.

On June 5, 1833, Black Hawk and the others were loaded on a steamboat for the trip west. To impress upon them the number and strength of the American people, Cass directed that they be taken on a route that included most of the large cities of the east—Baltimore, Maryland, Philadelphia, and New York—before heading west over the Erie Canal and Great Lakes. Everywhere they went in the east, they met with immense crowds that were axious to see and hear them. This public enthusiasm did not extend to the west; in Detroit an angry crowd hanged and burned effigies of the prisoners. In mid-July the first of the prisoners were released at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. The remaining four were held at Fort Armstrong on Rock Island until Keokuk and other Sauk and Fox leaders could come to take charge of them in early October. Black Hawk’s release to Keokuk was a final blow to his pride, from which he never recovered.

During these final days of his captivity at Fort Armstrong, Black Hawk recounted the story of his life for Antoine LeClair, a mixed-race interpreter, and J. P. Patterson, a newspaper editor. Before the end of the year, they had edited and published Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak or Black Hawk. While its authenticity was questioned at the time, it is generally accepted now as Black Hawk’s autobiography. But it should not be viewed as entirely accurate—either as an account of events or as a record of Black Hawk’s understanding of those events. What Black Hawk said to LeClair and Patterson is very likely not precisely what appeared in the book. His words were translated from Sauk into English by LeClair and then written down by Patterson. The raw transcripts of these conversations do not survive, but it seems likely that Patterson edited and rearranged the material with an eye to his expected audience.

Black Hawk spent most of the last five years of his life with his family among the Sauks in Iowa. On a few occasions he was taken to councils between the Sauks and Foxes and the federal government, including another trip to Washington in 1837. But he had no power and little influence. To the end of his life, he blamed Keokuk for his and his people’s fate. On October 3, 1838, Black Hawk died at his home on the Des Moines River in Iowa.

Achievements

He became eader of a faction of Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, and Ho-Chunk peoples. lthough he had inherited an important historic medicine bundle from his father, he was not a hereditary civil chief. Black Hawk earned his status as a war chief or captain by his actions: leading raiding and war parties as a young man, and a band of Sauk warriors during the Black Hawk War of 1832.

Connections

Black Hawk had one wife, known as As-she-we-qua or Singing Bird (her English name was Sarah Sally Baker) with whom he had five children.

Father:: Pyesa
Wife:: As-she-we-qua

References

Life of Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak: Dictated by Himself (Penguin Classics)

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