1767-1838

Makataimeshekiakiak, better known to history as Black Hawk, became the most famous Indian of his time despite never holding the position of a chief. That fame derived from his lifelong accomplishments as a warrior, his efforts to resist the takeover of his people’s homeland, and, in defeat, his public journey throughout several eastern cities. That journey secured his image in the East as a symbol of nobility and courage, though many Euro-Americans in the Midwest continued to demonize him. Even in the Midwest, where Black Hawk had fought his battles, often against tribal enemies and sometimes against the United States, he eventually would become an exemplum of injustice against the region’s native inhabitants. Part of Black Hawk’s legacy is the long list of Midwestern sites named after him and his Sauk people, including the professional hockey team known as the Chicago Blackhawks.

EARLY YEARS Black Hawk's Family

Little is known of Black Hawk’s earliest years. According to his own account of his life, which was published in 1833 after his defeat in the Black Hawk War, he was born in 1767, shortly after his people had migrated to a fertile area where the Rock River met the Mississippi River in northwestern Illinois. Today the city of Rock Island sits on that site. His father was named Pyesa, and his mother Kneebingkemewoin, or Summer Rain, although she is not identified by name in the autobiography. The parents may have had another son in addition to Black Hawk, or perhaps even more children, although no evidence of their existence remains.

Black Hawk was proud of his family heritage, especially of his greatgrandfather, Nansimakee, and his own father. According to Black Hawk, Nansimakee, then living near Montreal, received a message from the Great Spirit that he would meet a white man who would be like a father to him. Consequently, Nansimakee went off with his two brothers and encountered a white man who said that he was the son of the King of France. The man, possibly the French explorer Champlain, who first arrived in Canada in 1603, presented Nansimakee with a medal. Upon returning to the Sauk, Nansimakee received the highly valued medicine bag from his father, Mukattiquet, who was the principal chief of the Sauk. Black Hawk would inherit the same medicine bag many years later.

The Sauk

The Sauk left the Montreal area around 1629, when the British temporarily captured Quebec from the French. They resided first on Mackinac Island in northern Michigan, but later moved near present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin. After establishing an alliance with the Fox, the Sauk eventually moved westward in Wisconsin and then down to northern Illinois at the confluence of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers.

Black Hawk (whose given name actually meant Black Sparrow Hawk, but who later shortened the name to the one by which he came to be widely known) notes that few significant events occurred during his youth, suggesting that he led what was for Sauk children a typical existence. That would have involved a seasonal pattern of work (and certainly play as well, including horse and foot races and lacrosse). During the winter, the Sauk endured some hardships, but led (for the times) a reasonably comfortable life in the other seasons. The young Black Hawk spent spring, summer, and fall in the location that he came to love and would try as hard as he could to preserve. The later Black Hawk War cannot be understood without also understanding what the Sauk village, called Saukenuk, meant to Black Hawk and his people.

Spring was the time for planting not just corn (the Sauk’s most important crop), but also a variety of other foods, including beans, melons, squash, and pumpkins. All of these crops were planted together in the same fields. Plums, crab apples, and assorted berries also enriched the Sauk people’s diet. During the summer, the Sauk hunted for buffalo, deer, and smaller game. Nevertheless, as largely an agricultural people, they never depended on the buffalo as extensively as did many other Indian nations, including the Lakota. Some members of the community, including women and older men, worked lead mines, selling the lead to the Euro-Americans. Others fished and wove mats for flooring.

Harvesting occurred in the fall. Before winter hit in force, the Sauk moved to their winter hunting grounds west of the Mississippi. They left behind a store of corn buried and ready for the next spring planting. During the winter, the Sauk hunted and trapped to trade skins and also engaged in making maple sugar. In the spring, they returned to Saukenuk.

One of the most important areas at Saukenuk was the cemetery, which tied past and present together for the Sauk. In his autobiography, Black Hawk describes the Sauk practice of visiting graves and keeping them in good shape. According to Black Hawk, mothers went to the cemetery to mourn their children, and sons to honor their fathers. Maintaining this connection was of great importance to him: Even years later, after the loss of Saukenuk seemed inevitable, he asked for permission to be buried there. It is no wonder, then, that when the time came to defend Saukenuk, Black Hawk was prepared to do just that.

The Warrior

Long before Black Hawk faced the United States in battle, he had established his warrior credentials against the traditional Sauk enemies, especially the Osage. According to his autobiography, Black Hawk wounded his first enemy at the age of 15, which would have been about 1782. Not long after this initial encounter, he volunteered to accompany his father in a campaign against the Osage. It is clear from his own account that Black Hawk’s motivation was largely to prove to his father his worthiness as a son. During the battle, Black

Hawk watched his father kill one of the enemy and then, determined to impress his father, rushed against another of the Osage. Black Hawk knocked him to the ground with a tomahawk and then ran him through with a lance. He removed the fallen warrior’s scalp and presented it to his father, who, according to the son’s account, said nothing but gazed approvingly at him. After the battle, Black Hawk participated in his first Scalp Dance, a communal celebration that sometimes, at least, included women of the village.

A few months later, Black Hawk for the first time led men into battle. His small party of seven attacked a much larger Osage force (according to Black Hawk 100, although he surely would not have been able to take an exact count); in the encounter, Black Hawk killed one Osage and then led his men on a successful retreat without incurring any casualties. Afterward he gathered a much larger force (numbered at 180 in the autobiography) and again sought out the Osage. Reaching the Osage camp, they found the enemy gone. Disappointed, most of Black Hawk’s men returned to their own village, while Black Hawk and five other men continued their pursuit. They finally caught up with the Osage warriors, killed two of them, and returned in victory. At the age of 19, Black Hawk led another large expedition against the Osage. This time, the Sauk found their adversaries and engaged in a major battle. Black Hawk records six kills himself (five men and one woman), and puts the total Osage dead at approximately 100 with the loss of 19 of his own men.1

The victory temporarily induced the Osage to remain in their own territory, but another traditional enemy awaited Black Hawk—the Cherokee. This battle, fought a few miles below St. Louis, apparently not long after the victory against the Osage, brought a great change to Black Hawk’s life. His father, Pyesa, suffered a mortal wound to which he soon succumbed. Black Hawk assumed command during the battle and led the Sauk to another victory, with the Sauk losing only 7 men to the Cherokees’ 28.2 As always, these numbers come from Black Hawk recalling the battles many years later and may not be completely accurate.

The sacred medicine bag, which had been in Pyesa’s possession for safekeeping, passed to Black Hawk upon his father’s death. The medicine bag was a bundle, likely made of animal skin, birch bark, or a fabric, containing a variety of objects that possessed spiritual and cultural significance (such as cedar leaves, a hawk skin, a buffalo tail, and sacred tobacco). When going into battle, the keeper of the medicine bag led the band of warriors, holding the bag against his chest. While departing from the battle, he walked last with the bag on his back. This strategy ensured that the medicine bag always remained between the Sauk war party and the enemy, thereby providing protection against a surprise attack.3 The medicine bag represented the Sauk people and also connected Black Hawk with his ancestors—his great-great grandfather, Mukataquet, had passed the medicine bag on to his son, Nansimakee, and ultimately, through Pyesa, to Black Hawk. Black Hawk’s status among the Sauk thus arose from two sources: his skill and success as a warrior and his role as keeper of the medicine bag.

Medicine Bundle

The medicine bundle that Black Hawk carefully guarded was an important element in Sauk culture. Sacred bundles were also important among the Fox, Shawnee, Comanche, Kiowa, Chiricahua Apache, Seminole, Creek, and Choctaw, as well as many other native peoples. Different types of bundles existed. For example, the naming bundle was used during a child's naming ceremony. The war bundle offered protection and success in battle. The medicine bundle also provided assistance in a range of everyday activities, including hunting.

The medicine bundle included a variety of charms, objects, or substances that could induce supernatural powers to aid the possessor of the bundle. Sacred bundles also might contain fetishes and amulets: A fetish was believed to be the repository of a living being, while an amulet symbolized a divine being that aided the individual for honoring it by carrying the token.

Sauk and Fox war bundles typically included portions of the buffalo, eagle feathers, and parts of other animals. The buffalo and eagle were especially honored as sacred. War whistles, cedar leaves to burn as incense, herbs and roots, and paint also were common in war bundles. Sauk medicine bundles included a variety of charm medicines, often paint, and sometimes medicines believed to bring success in a specific endeavor such as hunting, gambling, or war.

M. R. Harrington, writing in Sacred Bundles of the Sac and Fox Indians (1914), describes medicine bundles as minor bundles and implies that they were more individual and less communal than war bundles. Black Hawk, however, describes his medicine bundle (medicine bag) in his autobiography with great reverence and notes that he carried it on military expeditions. He gives the history of the bundle, explains how he came to inherit it (on the death of his father), and describes it as having widespread application to his people.

Black Hawk deeply mourned Pyesa’s death. He blackened his face, fasted, and prayed to the Great Spirit. While he hunted and fished, he apparently (so far as one can tell from his autobiography) did not take a leadership role for five years. Black Hawk’s period of mourning was unusually long given that Sauk typically mourned the death of close relatives for six months to a year. Whether this hiatus also involved abstinence from war is uncertain.

In his autobiography, Black Hawk compresses a lengthy period of time into a few pages, noting that by his thirty-fifth year, which would have been about 1802, he had fought extensively against a variety of enemies, such as the Osage, Cherokee, Chippewa (also known as the Ojibwa), and Kaskaskia. Black Hawk and his Sauk continued fighting the Osage as well as the Lakota well beyond that date.