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Chief Black Hawk
This warrior of the united Sac and Fox tribes precipitated Illinois' only
armed struggle with Native Americans when in 1832 he led a band of his
people eastward from their Iowa reservation and toward the lands that
they had once farmed in the Rock River valley of northern Illinois. Black
Hawk had fought with the British in the War of 1812, hoping to upend Americans'
relentless westward expansion into his tribes' lands. By 1832 American
officials had removed the Sac and Fox from their tribal lands in northern
Illinois and western Wisconsin, citing a treaty signed at St. Louis in
1804. Black Hawk and other Native Americans vigorously disputed the treaty's
authenticity, arguing that the Indians who signed were not authorized
to do so. When he decided to ignore the treaty and return his band to
their original lands, Black Hawk set off war hysteria in Illinois, where
the governor called up the state militia and summoned federal troops.
Realizing the gravity of his situation, Black Hawk attempted to return
to Iowa, but was unable to do so before American troops caught his party
on the banks of the Mississippi and slaughtered them in the Battle of
Bad Axe. Black Hawk himself was taken prisoner and toured the East with
his captors. During his confinement Black Hawk told his life story to
a translator, who published it as one of the few extant accounts of the
United States' Indian wars told from a Native American perspective.
©Copyright 2002 Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project