Black Hawk

The elders of Black Hawk’s tribe taught all young Indians that they could prevent a person from entering the spirit world by scalping him. It was an unpardonable sin not to scalp your dead enemy. By leaving his scalp on, it would allow him into the spirit world where he could continue the fight.

When Black Hawk was a young man, he wanted to become a brave. The fastest way to become a brave was to kill one of your enemies. Black Hawk was a Sauk, and the enemies of the Sauk were the Osage Indians. During a battle, Black Hawk saw his father kill an Osage and take his scalp.

Black Hawk gained strength and courage after seeing his father kill an enemy brave. Fifteen-year-old Black Hawk rushed toward the enemy and struck and killed an Osage warrior with his tomahawk.

Black Hawk scalped the warrior and showed it to his father. His father said nothing, but he looked pleased. When they returned to their village, the elders allowed Black Hawk to attend the scalp dance for the first time.

 Singing Bird was a young Sauk Indian. The women were in control of the tribe’s lodges and could never be forced out or told to leave. When Black Hawk became a man, he wanted Singing Bird to be his wife. One night, after Singing Bird had retired, Black Hawk took a lit candle into her lodge. He lies down beside her and put the candle between them. If Singing Bird wanted him to stay, she would blow out the candle. If she did not blow out the candle, he was to use the light from the candle to find his way out. Singing Bird blew out the candle, and she and Black Hawk remained together for the rest of their lives.

Black Hawk was not a chief. He was a brave warrior and had the respect of his tribe. When the Indian chiefs had a powwow with the white chief at the Fort, Black Hawk would sometimes attend. One day, the white chief presented all the Indian chiefs with a metal to hang around their necks. The commander of the fort also gave Black Hawk a metal. When Black Hawk returned to his village wearing the metal, the other Indians thought the white chief had made Black Hawk a chief. Black Hawk was now a chief in the minds of the villagers, but he had no followers.

Population pressure was increasing east of the Mississippi. White settlers began to move onto Indian land. One day, in 1830, the white chief from Fort Armstrong informed the Indian villagers that they would have to move to the west side of the Mississippi. The white chief said that according to the treaty, the Indians had relinquished all their land east of the Mississippi to the Americans.

The Indians did not remember making the treaty, and Black Hawk said they had done no such thing. Black Hawk asked around and could not find anyone in the village who knew anything about a treaty that gave the Americans the Indian land east of the Mississippi. However, White Chief was right. Twenty-five years ago, in 1804, there was a treaty that placed all the Indian land east of the Mississippi under American control. Now, the whites realized it had been a mistake to allow the Indians to remain on government land for the past twenty-five years. There was plenty of land west of the Mississippi, and Chief Keokuk decided to keep the peace and move.

The women were the ones that planted the crops and grew the corn while the men hunted. That first year, the women found it difficult to till the virgin soil and grow the corn. That winter, the tribe went hungry for the first time. The following summer, some of the women decided to go back across the Mississippi to plant their corn.

Black Hawk also returned with twenty braves. Black Hawk said he did not want to give up the land where the bones of his ancestors were buried. Black Hawk sent runners to other villages looking for Braves willing to return to their ancestors’ land.

Black Hawk was successful in recruiting several hundred Indians. They were beginning to assemble at the tribe’s old village east of the Mississippi. While the women planted corn, the men harassed the nearby settlers into moving away by burning barns, tearing down fences, and trampling crops.

The white settlers complained loudly to the commander at Fort Armstrong and demanded he takes action. The settlers also sent a man on horseback to the governor asking for help. The governor called for volunteers. The Governor then wrote General Gaines at Jefferson Barracks apprising him of the situation and telling him that he called for volunteers to quell the uprising.

General Gaines wrote back,

In reply, it is my duty to state to you that I have ordered six companies of the regular troops stationed at Jefferson Barracks to embark tomorrow morning and repair forthwith to the spot occupied by the hostile Sacs. To this detachment I shall, if necessary, add four companies. With this force I am satisfied that I shall be able to repel the invasion and give security to the frontier inhabitants of the state. But should the hostile band be sustained by the residue of the Sac, Fox and other Indians to an extent requiring an augmentation of my force, I will, in that event, communicate with Your Excellency by express and avail myself of the co-operation which you propose. But, under existing circumstances, and the present aspect of our Indian relations on the Rock Island section of the frontier, I do not deem it necessary or proper to require militia, or any other description of force, other than that of the regular army at this place and Prairie du Chien.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Major-General

Edmund P. Gaines

General Gaines did not want or appreciate the help from volunteers. General Gaines immediately left for Fort Armstrong with six companies. Once there, he asked for and got four more companies from Fort Crawford.

The Indians tactic of harassing the settlers to get them to move away was a bad idea. It led to war. The Indians suffered badly, many were killed. Black Hawk was not familiar with all parts of the contested land east of the Mississippi. He found a couple of Indians that knew the area well and had them lead the way across unfamiliar territory. Unfortunately, for Black Hawk, these Indians were working for the soldiers. They led Black Hawk into an ambush. Hidden by trees and brush, the soldiers waited. When the Indians were close, they opened fire, killing many.

Black Hawk and the surviving Indians fled north, chased by General Gaines’ soldiers. The Indians went around Fort Crawford and across the Bad Axe River. They waded across a swamp and onto a small island.

There the final battle occurred. The battle was not going well for the Indians. When all looked hopeless, the Indians decided to run in all different directions. They were hoping to scatter the soldiers so most of the Indians would be able to get away safely.

Two Winnebago Indians, Chaetar and Decorra, followed Black Hawk and captured him without a struggle. They turned Black Hawk over to the soldiers at Fort Crawford. When Chaetar returned to Fort Armstrong, he told the white father, “I took Black Hawk. No one did it but me . . . What I have done is for the benefit of my nation, and I hope to see the good that has been promised to us.”

Jefferson Davis was a lieutenant and second in command at Fort Crawford. He escorted Chief Black Hawk to prison. Chief Black Hawk said Lt. Jefferson Davis treated them with much kindness. “He is a good and brave young chief, with whose conduct I was much pleased.” Black Hawk spent the winter in prison, was released, and spent the rest of his life on a reservation.