The Black Hawk War

A retelling of the Black Hawk War that brings into focus the forces struggling for control over the American frontier. Until 1822, the Sauk Nation occupied one of North America's largest and most prosperous Indian settlements, the envy of white Americans who had already begun to encroach upon the rich Indian land. When the inevitable conflicts turned violent, the Sauks were forced into exile, banished forever from the east side of the Mississippi River. Black Hawk and his followers rose up in the spring of 1832 and defiantly crossed the Mississippi from Iowa to Illinois to reclaim their ancestral home. Though the war lasted only three months, no other violent encounter between white America and native peoples embodies so clearly the essence of the Republic's inner conflict between its belief in freedom and human rights and its insatiable appetite for new territory.--From publisher description.

In 1832, facing white expansion, the Sauk warrior Black Hawk attempted to forge a pan-Indian alliance to preserve the homelands of the confederated Sauk and Fox tribes on the eastern bank of the Mississippi. Here, Patrick J. Jung re-examines the causes, course, and consequences of the ensuing war with the United States, a conflict that decimated Black Hawk's band. Correcting mistakes that plagued previous histories, and drawing on recent ethnohistorical interpretations, Jung shows that the outcome can be understood only by discussing the complexity of intertribal rivalry, military ineptitude, and racial dynamics.

Indian tribes involved in the Blackhawk War included the Utes, Uinta and Goshute Indian tribes.

In the spring of 1832, when the Indian warrior Black Hawk and a thousand followers marched into Illinois to reoccupy lands ceded to American settlers, the U.S. Army turned to rival tribes for military support. In order to grasp Indian motives, Hall explores their alliances in earlier wars with colonial powers and in intertribal conflicts.

The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", crossed the Mississippi River, into the U.S. state of Illinois, from Iowa Indian Territory in April 1832. Black Hawk's motives were ambiguous, but he was apparently hoping to avoid bloodshed while resettling on tribal land that had been ceded to the United States in the disputed 1804 Treaty of St. Louis. Black Hawk, born Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, (1767-1838) was a band leader and warrior of the Sauk American Indian tribe in what is now the Midwest of the United States. Although 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.

Of all the Native American leaders who attempted to resist the westward expansion of the United States and further white settlement during the 19th century, few fought as long or as hard as Black Hawk, a leader of the Sauk in the present-day Midwest. Though he is no longer as well-known as his contemporary Tecumseh, or subsequent Native American leaders like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo, his eventual surrender and trip east as a prisoner turned him into one of the first Native American celebrities in the country. Long before curious Americans came out in throngs to get a glimpse of him, Black Hawk played a crucial role in some of the seminal events of the 19th century, including the negotiations of several treaties and the War of 1812. Today, of course, he is best known for leading a band of about 1,500 during the Black Hawk War in 1832, a series of small battles fought in the Wisconsin territory after Black Hawk led his people east across the Mississippi River in an attempt to reclaim his people's old lands in Illinois. One of the earliest battles in the war resulted in a shocking defeat of American militia and one of America's most notorious losses before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but the fighting ultimately lasted only a few months, culminating in a massacre of Native Americans at the Battle of Bad Axe. During the fighting there, American soldiers literally pushed the Native Americans back to the Mississippi River and then shot men, women and children as they attempted to cross the river to safety. Given the limited amount of fighting, the Black Hawk War was hardly a war in the traditional sense, but it is still well-known among Americans today, and it was truly a seminal moment in American history. Black Hawk's defeat essentially ended all Native American resistance east of the Mississippi River and opened up the rest of Illinois and Wisconsin to white settlement. The war also provided an opportunity for some of the era's most famous Americans to get military experience, including several U.S. Senators, several Territorial Governors, future Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and most famously, Abraham Lincoln.

Reproduction of the original: The Black Hawk War Including a Review of Black Hawk’s Life by Frank E. Stevens

Discusses the life and times of the Sauk chief who led his people in a struggle to prevent the advance of white settlers in Illinois that culminated with the Black Hawk War of 1832.