Music
GREAT
NATIVE AMERICANS IN HISTORY
BLACK HAWK, SAC WARRIOR
Among
the native Americans who helped make history in Iowa, two stand out with
special prominence, because of the part they took in the early settlement
of the country along the west bank of the Mississippi River. These two
are Black Hawk and Keokuk, Sacs.
"Black Hawk was the leader of the war party of the Sacs and Foxes; Keokuk
was the leader of the peace party. Because of Black Hawk's actions whites
were permitted to occupy Iowa land sooner perhaps, than otherwise they
would have been.
Black Hawk's Indian name was a long one. It was Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak,
meaning a hawk, black hawk or sparrow hawk. He was not born a chief, but
became prominent because of his deeds. As a boy in battle with the Osages
he killed an enemy, and in other encounters he won so much glory that
he was admitted to the circle of the braves, and to the scalp dance.
"When Black Hawk was nineteen his father, Py-e-sha, was killed by the
Cherokees, in a great engagement in which the Sacs and Foxes finally were
victorious. Black Hawk came into possession of the medicine bag of the
tribe. The Indians believed this had been given to his grandfather by
the Great Spirit, and it was considered the most precious thing the Sacs
had.
"Black Hawk now blackened his face and retired into the dense woods. He
lived apart from his companions for five years, seeking solitude, where
he might pray and talk with the Great Spirit. When he returned to active
life he was looked upon as a very important person.
"The Sacs, with a few Foxes, were then living in Saukenuk, the noted Native
village at the angle of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers, not far from
Rock Island City. Black Hawk was born here in 1767, and he dearly loved
the place. The vicinity is beautiful now, but was ten times more attractive
when the People possessed it.
"On one side of the village flowed the sparkling, singing Rock River;
on the other side swept the majestic Mississippi. Maize fields rippled
in the breezes. Heavy woods clothed the hills. Islands dotted the rivers.
Game and fish were abundant, and when hunting was not occupying the young
braves, and war excursions were not called for, the People gathered on
the prairie to play ball, not baseball but a game more like La crosse.
"The island in the Mississippi now called Rock Island was the Indians'
garden. Here grew fruits, and along its shores were the finest fish. In
a cave under the rocks at the northwest side of the island, dwelt a good
spirit, which protected the People. Those who had been fortunate enough
to catch a glimpse of it said it had white wings, like an immense swan.
"The village, the island, the graves of their ancestors were here. All
this beloved country, then the Sacs and Foxes were called upon to surrender
to the United States.
"In 1804 a delegation of Sacs and Foxes visited St. Louis and on returning
to the village shamefacedly informed the rest of the People that a treaty
had been signed giving up the territory east of the Mississippi. The signing
of this treaty was kept quiet, it is said, for some days, but when the
act became known Black Hawk and others in the tribes were very angry.
They claimed the delegates had not been authorized to sign such a paper
and even asserted that the men had been given alcohol and then tricked
into attaching their names to the treaty. A great protest went up, for
the Indians did not wish to lose their homes, especially when so little
compensation was received from the government.
"However, Congress ratified the treaty, and the protest of Black Hawk
and his followers went for naught. Had the Indians been given an opportunity
to reconsider the treaty they would have refused to support their delegates'
action. But while the government always had a chance, through Congress,
to decline to accept a treaty, at the council was the only occasion accorded
the People to act on the matter.
"Although in succeeding treaties this treaty of 1804 was referred to by
the Indians as legal, Black Hawk never admitted it was right or just.
"In the treaty the government said that so long as the lots were not sold
to settlers the Indians could live and hunt in the territory, as they
always had.
"This would have been some satisfaction to the People had the United States
kept faith with them. But in 1808 a detachment of soldiers arrived at
the place where the city of Fort Madison now is, and prepared to build
a fort. This was then Indian land, and the People claimed the government
was doing wrong in erecting a fort west of the Mississippi, in this region.
The presence of the fort and the garrison irritated the People, and finally
they forced the soldiers to flee for their lives.
"When the War of 1812, between the United States and Great Britain, broke
out, inducements were offered Black Hawk to join the English. The English
had proved better friends to the Sacs and Foxes than had the Americans.
The People had been told they could obtain goods at government stores
on credit, paying for them when the hunting season was over, but at the
opening of the war a number of Sacs, having visited a trader's establishment,
were refused goods for which they asked. When they returned a shrewd British
agent sent word that he would give them whatever they desired. This contrast
in treatment made the People like the English more than ever.
"The
British sought out Black Hawk, flattered him, called him "general," and
told him that if he would aid them the Americans would be driven back
to the Atlantic Coast, and the People would possess the country, as formerly.
So Black Hawk and two hundred braves left to help England. They were termed
the "British Band." Keokuk and the People who favored remaining neutral
stayed at home.
"During Black Hawk's absence from the village brutal whites murdered his
adopted son, a mere boy, and the support of an aged father. This greatly
increased Black Hawk's bitterness against the Americans.
"He and his band did not stay long with the British armies but within
a year returned to Saukenuk. Here Black Hawk took part in several skirmishes
on Iowa's very border. Two furious little battles were fought on the Mississippi,
not far from the present cities of Davenport and Moline.
"In the summer of 1814 a detachment of United States regulars and volunteers
left St. Louis, in three barges, bound for Prairie du Chien, to reinforce
the fort there. When they had passed Rock Island (the island) a violent
gale forced the boat under the commanding officer, Lieutenant Campbell,
onto a small island ever since known as Campbell's Island. The Sacs and
Foxes and Winnebagoes attacked it, and only a brave rescue by one of the
other boats averted great carnage. As it was, after severe fighting, the
whole expedition was sent hurrying back, in disorder, to St. Louis, with
a number killed.
"Major Zachary Taylor, afterwards President Taylor, then set forth from
St. Louis to punish the Indians and establish a fort on Rock Island. By
this time the British had reached the point, with cannons. The British
and the Indians forced Major Taylor to retreat. The cannon assailed him
from the shore, while the Indians swam or paddled out to the little islands
in the channel, and from the willows kept up a deadly fire with rifles
and muskets.
"In 1816 Fort Armstrong was built at the foot of Rock Island, right over
the sacred cave. The Indians complained that the noise frightened away
the good spirit, and that they did not want soldiers so near. The fort
attracted a number of whites, who quarreled with the Indians, and demanded
that the lands be thrown open for settlers.
"In 1828 President Adams declared that lots should be sold. The Keokuk
faction left quietly, but Black Hawk and his band refused to go. They
said the Great Spirit had given them the land, to use. In the spring of
1830 they returned from a winter hunt to find the site of their homes
had been sold. This was a blow to them. The hunt of the next winter was
unsuccessful, and they were disheartened. Their squaws planted corn, and
the settlers plowed it up. The militia was called out to expel the Indians.
Before the arrival of the soldiers Black Hawk's people crossed the river,
and all that the troops could do was to valiantly burn the ancient town.
"Black Hawk established headquarters at the site of Fort Madison, the
fort having been burned some years before. The season was too far advanced
for a new crop of corn or beans, and when one night some young Indians
swam the river in order to get ears from the old fields the whites tried
to shoot them.
"When fall came the Black Hawk faction was destitute. A Winnebago-Sac
prophet named Wa-bo-kie-shiek had sent word to Black Hawk advising him
to resist the whites, and promised the Winnebagoes and British would aid
him to regain his lands. The prophet's village was thirty-five miles up
the Rock River. Black Hawk decided to visit it. He always insisted that
his people started out merely to join with their friends in raising a
crop of beans and corn, to prevent starvation. But the government did
not trust him, and when in this spring of 1832 he and his braves, on horseback,
went up the west bank of the Mississippi, and the women and children in
canoes ascended the channel and all crossed to the Rock River, they were
ordered back. They refused, and the Black Hawk War ensued.
"In this war the People under Black Hawk were terribly defeated. They
were not allowed the privileges of a flag of truce, but in spite of offers
to surrender were shot down by cannon and muskets. The war ended in an
encounter August 2, 1832, at the mouth the Bad Axe River, in Wisconsin,
where the principal band of fleeing natives was overtaken and men, women
and children were slaughtered. Black Hawk was captured by treacherous
Winnebagoes and conveyed to Prairie du Chien. From there he was sent to
Jefferson Barracks, at St. Louis. Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, afterward
president of the Confederacy, guarded him on the trip. After a long confinement,
he was taken on a tour of the East in order to show him how powerful was
the United States. In August, 1833, at Fort Armstrong, Black Hawk was
released.
"He then lived for a time near Keokuk's village on the Iowa River. The
government had recognized Keokuk as principal chief, and Black Hawk felt
the humiliation. For a short period he had a cabin on Devil Creek, in
Lee County. In 1838 he followed the other chiefs to the new quarters on
the Des Moines River, near Iowaville. His cabin stood about one hundred
feet from the north bank. Nearby were two trees, an elm and an ash, with
roots intertwined. From under these roots flowed a spring known as Black
Hawk's Spring.
"In the fall of 1838 the old warrior became ill; in October he died. During
his illness his wife was very devoted, but she said, with resignation:
"He is getting old; he must die; Manitou calls him home."
"He was buried about half a mile from the cabin, at a place where the
Sacs had fought a great battle with the Iowas. He had selected the spot
before he was stricken.
"His grave was unusually large. The body was interred in a sitting posture,
facing the southeast. In the left hand was a cane given to the chief by
Henry Clay. All the best things Black Hawk had, when he died, were buried
with him, together with clothing, provisions and tobacco sufficient to
last him to the spirit land, supposed to be three days' travel.
"A white physician dug up the skeleton, but the government regained it
and deposited it in a historical collection at Burlington. Here it was
burned in a mysterious fire that destroyed many other valuable articles
connected with Iowa's history.
"Black Hawk was a true warrior, and had a remarkable number of good traits.
He never drank liquor, and tried to prevent the whites from supplying
it to other Natives. He had only one wife, and dearly loved his family.
He was not cruel, and practiced none of the tortures of which some tribes
and Americans were fond.
"While he was not a chief by birth, he was looked upon as a leader because
of his great qualities of mind and person. In appearance he was dignified,
but he was not a large man. He was of medium stature, and his frame was
spare and wiry. His countenance was kindly, his head was finely shaped,
and his eyes were extraordinarily black and piercing.
"... Black Hawk was honest in his opposition to the whites. He endeavored
to preserve his native land. White historians argue he only hastened the
onward march of "manifest destiny", for he afforded opportunity to the
government to exact territory as a penalty. Nevertheless, Black Hawk was
a great Sac patriot and warrior.