NATIVE PEOPLES
(Vol. XIX, No. 5)
Sept./Oct. 2006, pp. 74+

Copyright © 2006 by Native Peoples magazine (www.nativepeoples.com). All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

The Great Chiefs: Black Hawk

Tactical Genius of the Sauk & Fox

By Gary Ilminen

     He led one of the last battles for Native lands fought east of the Mississippi, but his legacy is much more than the jagged memory of war.

     

Chief Black Hawk Color lithograph of the Sauk brave Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, also known as Black Hawk, published in "History of the Indian Tribes of North America, Volume II" by McKenney & Hall, 1842. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

Black Sparrow Hawk, Makataimeshekiakiak, known as Black Hawk, was born in 1767 in Saukenuk, the principal village of the Sauk (Osakiwugi or Sac) people. Saukenuk was at the confluence of the Rock and Mississippi rivers, where Rock Island, Illinois now stands. It was the hub of the confederacy of the Sauk and Fox (Mesquakie) tribes.

     He was the great-grandson of Thunder, Nanamakee, one of the Sauk nation's principal chiefs, but Black Hawk was not considered a civil chief. Nonetheless, he often led men in battle and he rarely knew defeat. Black Hawk had an enduring impact, and not only because of his skill as a warrior. He left something very rare among Native American figures of the early 19th century: a literary legacy.

     In 1833, he dictated his autobiography to government interpreter Antoine LeClaire, which was edited and published by J.B. Patterson. Black Hawk's book provides rare insight into his life, the life of his people and the disastrous war of 1832 that bore his name.

     In war, he was tough and inventive. He killed his first man in combat at age 15 and led war parties against other tribes before he was 18. In 1814 he delivered two stunning defeats to American troops on the Mississippi River. In July, his warriors routed forces led by Major John Campbell, killing 14 of Campbell's men, wounding 17 more and capturing one of his three keelboats--while suffering only three casualties. In September, he used artillery to defeat more than 400 American army regulars and militia under Major Zachary Taylor (the future United States president), sending Taylor's eight keelboats downriver in retreat. It is believed to be the first, and perhaps only, use of artillery by Indians in a pitched battle against U.S. forces.

Noted for Compassion

     Skilled as he was in combat, devotion to his family and to his people defined Black Hawk more than war. He felt grief so deeply that when two of his children died in quick succession, he blackened his face and moved his lodge to a solitary place, mourning them for two years. His capacity for compassion was told of by a white man named Elijah Kilbourn, whose life Black Hawk spared twice, even though Kilbourn had tried to kill him. He could even honor his deadliest enemy; he dedicated his autobiography to Brigadier General Henry Atkinson--the victorious commander of the U.S. forces in the Black Hawk War.

     Black Hawk's military reputation made his 1832 eastward incursion across the Mississippi into northern Illinois alarming to white settlers, resulting in a massive military reaction. Illinois Governor John Reynolds called up 3,000 volunteers, and President Andrew Jackson ordered more than 400 U.S. Army regulars into action under General Winfield Scott.

     The conflict arose, in part, from Black Hawk's belief that treaties struck with the American government in 1804, 1816 and 1831 were based on deception and were not being honored by the government. Black Hawk had reluctantly signed the treaty of 1831 that caused the Sauk and Fox people to "remove" west of the Mississippi to Iowa. Under its terms, General Edmund P. Gaines agreed to supply food to replace crops not harvested. Provisions were supplied, but far too little.

     "In this treaty he [Gaines] agreed to give us corn in place of that we had left growing in our fields. I touched the goose quill to this treaty and was determined to live in peace," Black Hawk recalled in his autobiography. "The corn that had been given to us was soon found to be inadequate to our wants; when loud lamentations were heard in the camp by our women and children, for their roasting ears, beans and squashes."

Starvation or War

     By the spring of 1832, Black Hawk decided he had to act to prevent starvation among the people. On April 6, he led about 500 warriors; nearly 1,000 other men, women and children; and hundreds of horses across the Mississippi River near Oquawka, Illinois, seeking provisions.

     Black Hawk did not want war, but if it came, he had been assured the Ottawa, Chippewa, Winnebago, Potawatomi and the British would come to his aid. Black Hawk's people had warm relations with the British, leading them to be called the "British band," so he accepted this information in good faith, but it was not true. When Black Hawk learned the truth, he decided that if government forces opposed them, they would not fight but would return to Iowa peacefully; but that was not to be.

     On May 14, the Black Hawk War erupted at Sycamore Creek near present-day Stillman Valley, Illinois. Black Hawk and about 40 warriors routed nearly 400 mounted Illinois militia under Major Isaiah Stillman in a surprise attack. The attack was to avenge the killing by Stillman's men of two messengers sent into the militia's camp under a white flag to negotiate safe passage back to Iowa.

     Exaggerated accounts of the number of Black Hawk's forces by the militia defeated in "Stillman's Run" panicked settlers and brought calls for more volunteers. Black Hawk and his followers were to be punished--even if he tried to surrender. That reaction would have catastrophic consequences in the final battle of the war.

Attempts to Surrender

     Panic gripped the frontier when Black Hawk struck the Apple River stockade in Elizabeth, Illinois on June 24. The stockade held, but Brigadier General Henry Atkinson's inability to track down Black Hawk in the ensuing weeks deepened fears that he might strike anywhere, any time. On July 21, Atkinson finally overtook Black Hawk near present-day Sauk City, Wisconsin. Black Hawk again tried to arrange surrender, but this time the absence of an interpreter among the government forces prevented it.

     In the Battle of Wisconsin Heights, Black Hawk outmaneuvered Atkinson's troops, allowing most of his band to cross the Wisconsin River. About 150 tried to slip downriver in makeshift canoes to reach Prairie du Chien. Winnebagos and Menominees working for the whites killed or captured most of them. Others drowned, and still others made it to shore only to become lost and starve to death. Only about two dozen survived the "western escape."

     On Aug. 1, near the Bad Axe River, the remnants of Black Hawk's starving band made its final attempt to surrender. The bearer of a white flag was fired on by government troops from the deck of the steamer Warrior, anchored in the Mississippi. When Black Hawk's men returned fire from shore, a canister was fired from a cannon on the boat and the final battle was on. That night, Black Hawk went north toward Chippewa country, but only three lodges went with him; the rest chose to stay and try to cross the Mississippi. On Aug. 2, Atkinson's forces attacked the nearly defenseless people trapped at the river's edge. When the massacre was over, fewer than 150 remained alive. Black Hawk himself surrendered at Prairie du Chien on Aug. 27.

     On Oct. 3, 1838, Black Hawk died and was buried in Iowa. His remains were stolen, recovered and then placed in the Geological and Historical Museum in Burlington, Iowa. The museum and Black Hawk's remains were destroyed by fire in 1855. Black Hawk had been promised that he could be buried in his ancestral homeland. It is a bitter irony that the warrior who risked all for that land would ultimately have no final resting place at all.

Gary Ilminen has been a freelance writer for 31 years, writing for newspapers, radio, professional health care journals, and recently for motorcycle, history and general interest magazines. He is also the author of the book Consumer Guide to Long-term Care (University of Wisconsin Press). His interest in Black Hawk began a number of years ago after visiting the site of the Battle of Wisconsin Heights near his home in southern Wisconsin.

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