The Rock River bands played the biggest part in the Black Hawk War of 1832, the last of the wars for the Old Northwest. The central issue, as with the majority of Indian wars, was land.
In 1804, some Sac and Meskwaki bands were tricked into signing away all their tribal lands in Illinois by William Henry Harrison (who later became president of the United States). But the Sac and Meskwaki of the Rock River claimed that those who had signed the treaty at St. Louis did not represent all the Sac. Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black Sparrow Hawk, or simply Black Hawk, and his band from the village of Saukenuk (now Rock Island), at the junction of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers, refused to depart from their homeland.
As Black Hawk later wrote in his biography, “My reason teaches me that land cannot be sold. The Great Spirit gave it to his children to live on. So long as they occupy it and cultivate it they have the right to the soil. Nothing can be sold but such things as can be taken away.”
The forces of history proved otherwise. Non-Indian settlers kept coming and white officials kept favoring their land claims over Indian claims. In 1818, Illinois
Territory became the 21st state of the Union. In 1829, when Black Hawk and his band left the village for the winter hunt, squatters moved onto their land. They even took over some of the Indian lodges. On returning the following spring, some of the Sac and Meskwaki under a Sac chief named Keokuk agreed to relocate across the Mississippi in Iowa. Yet Black Hawk and his followers stayed on in lodges that the squatters had not occupied. Despite some quarreling, the two groups survived a planting season together. And Black Hawk vowed to return again the following spring.
Troops were called in to keep the Indians out of Saukenuk once and for all. There were some young men in this army who later became famous in American history, such as Abraham Lincoln, Zachary Taylor, and Jefferson Davis. Daniel Boone’s son Nat was also among them. Despite warnings to stay away, Black Hawk’s band of 300 warriors plus their families returned the next spring, in 1830. But when the combined force of state militia and federal regulars reached the village, they found that the Indians had slipped back across the Mississippi during the night. War had been avoided for the time being.
The clash finally came in 1832. By that time, Black Hawk’s followers had grown in number. White Cloud, a Winnebago shaman, also known as Winnebago Prophet, preached against the whites and rallied WINNEBAGO (ho-CHUNK), POTAWATOMI, and Kickapoo to the Sac and Meskwaki cause. His message of living according to traditional Indian ways resembled the teachings of other prophets before him, such as Delaware Prophet of the LENNI LENAPE (DELAWARE) and Shawnee Prophet of the SHAWNEE.
The first fighting occurred in May. It broke out when jittery and inexperienced militiamen fired on tribal representatives sent to parley under a white flag of truce. Black Hawk had been prepared to surrender, but now his warriors attacked and routed the enemy, who fled in panic. The Indian victory is named Stillman’s Run after Major Isaiah Stillman, who had been in charge of the unit.
The allied Indians headed northward up the Rock River into Wisconsin. The army organized a pursuit. The next clash occurred in June along the Wisconsin River. Black Hawk had hoped to descend the Wisconsin to the Mississippi, from where his followers could reach the safety of Keokuk’s village in Iowa. Many Indians died in the battle. The rest managed to escape across the river in makeshift rafts. Black Hawk decided to push on for the Bad Axe River, which also joined up with the Mississippi. By now, his people were exhausted and starving.
Troops caught up with them once more in July. Again Black Hawk tried to parley a surrender under a flag of truce. Again soldiers fired on his men. While the Indians were making rafts and canoes to cross the river, soldiers attacked them along the bank. Other soldiers fired on them from the steamship Warrior, which was outfitted with cannon. Many women and children were killed. Warriors trying desperately to swim across the swift waters were picked off by sharpshooters. As many as 300 Native Americans died in the massacre.
Black Hawk and Winnebago Prophet were among the few Indians to escape. They headed north into Winnebago country. But weary of hiding out, they turned themselves in the following July. Black Hawk closed his surrender speech with these words: “Farewell my nation! Black Hawk tried to save you, and avenge your wrongs. He drank the blood of some of the whites. He has been taken prisoner, and his plans are stopped. He can do no more. He is near his end. His sun is setting, and he will rise no more. Farewell to Black Hawk.”
Black Hawk dictated his autobiography in 1833. He was eventually released under the condition that he no longer act as a chief among his people. He met President Andrew Jackson, the man who had shaped the policy of relocating eastern Indians westward, in Washington, D. C., and toured other eastern cities. But stripped of his homeland and his authority, Black Hawk died a bitter man in 1838. In a final insult to this great leader, grave robbers raided his tomb and displayed his head in a traveling carnival.
In 1842, the other Sac and Meskwaki chief, Keokuk, was pressured into selling tribal lands in Iowa. The Sac and Meskwaki moved to the part of the original Indian Territory that is now Kansas. Then in the 1850s, when whites were rapidly settling Kansas, some Sac and Meskwaki relocated to the new, smaller Indian Territory that is now Oklahoma. Some later returned and bought back part of the Iowa land.
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