Black Hawk War

 

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, a treaty ceded all Indian land east of the Mississippi to 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 planted crops and grew corn while the men hunted. The women found it difficult to till the virgin soil and grow corn. That winter, the tribe went hungry for the first time.

Some women returned across the Mississippi the following summer 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 began assembling at the tribe's old village east of the Mississippi. The women planted corn while the men harassed the nearby settlers. The Indians hoped to establish their right to be there and frighten the settlers into moving. They began to burn barns, tear down fences, and trample the white settlers' crops.

The white settlers complained loudly to the commander at Fort Armstrong. They demanded that he remove the Indians from government land. The settlers also sent a man on horseback asking the Governor for help. The Governor wrote General Gaines at Jefferson Barracks.

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 was a bad idea. It led to war. The Indians suffered severely, and soldiers killed many Indians.

Black Hawk was unfamiliar with all parts of the contested land east of the Mississippi. He found a couple of Indians who 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 that 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. After serving several months, he was released and spent the rest of his life on a reservation.