The Black Hawk War Including a Review of Black Hawk's Life
lesson to quiet those British Sacs who were too fierce to be pacified
while life lasted, and to stimulate a healthy and satisfactory trade
between the remote points of the north and northwest and those to the
south. It frequently has been alleged that Black Hawk and his people
never received their annuities. This is untrue as the record of the time
has disclosed.[48]
In November, 1820, we find the Sacs were drawing their annuities and had
been on the 3d of each November; in fact, those annuities had been made
permanent, and while bickerings about a fair division at times had been
noticeable, the tribes and head men were satisfied.[49]
It may be well to add here, that when Rev. Jedediah Morse made the
report just cited, he was a commissioner appointed by the President for
the purpose of ascertaining the actual state of the Indian tribes of the
northwest, and having visited Fort Armstrong in the summer of 1820, he
found British flags still floating and English medals still worn almost
exclusively in Black Hawk’s village. An exchange of these for American
flags and medals had been recommended in a letter written to him
November 20, 1820, from that post, and he adopted the suggestion in his
report;[50] but the flags and medals continued in evidence,
notwithstanding Morse’s report.
Following those manifestations, hostility to American rule was also
expressed in mutterings and quiet threats in 1823, when Beltrami stopped
there, and which he expressed in his books as follows: “For, both from
instinct and from feelings transmitted from father to son, they
cordially despise and hate them”[51] (the Americans), which certainly
did not indicate that the treaty of 1804 was responsible for their
hatred; it indicated also that the treaty of 1816 rested very lightly
upon their shoulders and that the erection of Fort Armstrong was a wise
precaution. If it may be thought that the treaty of 1804 made Black Hawk
a fault-finder with the Americans, it may be well to introduce a
specimen of his chronic affliction, found in the papers of Capt. T.G.
Anderson, British Indian Agent, in Vol. 10, Wis. Hist. Coll’s., pp. 145,
146.
“Speeches of Black Hawk and Na-i-o-gui-man, at Drummond’s Island, July
12, 1821.
“Present, Lieut.-Col. Wm. McKay, British Indian Superintendent; Capt.
Thos. G. Anderson, Clerk; Maj. James Winnett, and other officers of
the Sixty-eighth British Regiment, together with Lieut. L. Johnston.
“The Black Hawk, Speaker:
“‘Father, I am not very able to speak–probably I may say something
improper. I may have something to reproach my father with. I could not
get any of my chiefs to come with me.[52] One of the Reynard or Fox
chiefs accompanied me, and some of the Menominees who reside among us.
My mind has been entirely taken up since I left home with the idea
that every stroke of my paddle carried me nearer to my Great Father’s
fire, where his soldiers, the red coats, would be charitable to me and
cover my naked skin; and that in consequence of my not having been
able for three years to step across the barriers, which separate us
from them, I would receive a double proportion of my Great Father’s
bounty.
“‘The Americans, my father, surround us, but we are ever ready to meet
them. Now, my father, as we see you but seldom, I hope you will open
your stores and give us more presents than you do to other Indians who
visit you annually. Now I speak to you, my father, in hopes you will
be charitable to us, and give us something to take to our wives and
children. They are expecting to be warmed by the clothing of their
Great Father.’
“Taking some strings of wampum, he added: ‘Father, I got this from the
White Elk (Capt. McKee), to open a smoother path from our country to
all your fires. I spoke to the Pottawattomies with it, and they were
happy to accede to our proposals of friendship. Now, my father, we
have always obeyed your voice and will ever listen to your counsels.
With regard to the Indians, we have a good road from our country to
your fires; but there are whites who appear strong, and tell us they
will not allow us to see you any more. Should that be the case, we
will be miserable. But if the road continues good, as Capt. McKee told
us it would, we will see you every day’ (year). Delivered the wampum.
“Answer of the Superintendent:
“‘Children, I have listened to your discourse. Every word has entered
into my ears. When you came here three days (years) ago, I gave you of
your Great Father’s bounty a much greater proportion than I did to
other Indians, and told you your presents would in future be given you
at Amherstburg. You were displeased. You went away dissatisfied. I
have again this year treated you well. You appear dissatisfied still,
and want more. I now tell you that your presents are at Amherstburg,
and that in future you must go there if you wish to receive your Great
Father’s bounty. I have done everything in my power to please you and
render you happy; but my efforts appear to have been thrown away upon
you. Go home, and I do not wish to see dissatisfied children about me
again. With respect to the road being stopped up as you say, that is
news to me. I do not know that any steps have been taken to effect
that; and, indeed, if you behave yourselves, as I have always
recommended you to do, I do not believe you will be hindered from
seeing your Great Father’s fires.’”[53]
It will be seen from that meeting with his friends that Black Hawk was a
hard man to get along with, even with his friends. He returned home; but
instead of behaving himself he joined Pash-e-pa-ho in a war which robbed
the Iowas of their lands and exterminated their tribes, so that
thereafter their nation became a tradition. If Black Hawk should be
heard to complain of the loss of his lands to the Americans for a
trifling price, how much more should others whom he had wantonly robbed
and whose kin he had murdered be heard? Old men, young men, old women,
young women and children in swaddling clothes were murdered in the most
brutal manner; their homes were confiscated and their tribal name
effaced from history, to be no more known of men. Aye, upon that bloody
battlefield it was decreed that Black Hawk should be buried and from it
a ghoulish hand should steal his body; a fitting retribution, one might
justly say!
On the first day of May, 1823, the Iowas were celebrating their return
from a successful hunt by feasts, games and horse-racing. The mellow sun
had just arisen to witness their mock jousts and races. Intent upon the
harmless tournament, none had noticed the gradual gathering in the
neighboring grass and woods of the vicious Sacs during the night. The
women and children had been left at the village, while the men,
discarding their arms, gathered some distance away to enjoy their
frolic, unarmed and unsuspecting. A race had been appointed for the most
famous, and thus, while all were eagerly preparing for its issue, the
murderous Sacs pounced upon them.
All that day the unequal struggle waged; the unarmed Iowas against their
armed and powerful foes. Man after man went down before the fury of the
victors. Home after home was made desolate from the blow of the
tomahawk, the thrust of the spear and the ugly gash of the knife in the
hands of the hideous, howling Sacs; very devils incarnate. Parties of
twenty-five armed Sacs sought out a similar number of unarmed Iowas
whose strength had been well nigh spent and slaughtered them. Fresh
bands of the same number from the reserves did the like with other tired
and spent defenders until evening approached, when, unsupported by the
arms which had been left back at the village, and fighting against
hopeless odds, the Iowas could no longer sustain an honest cause; then,
and then only, as the mantle of evening fell upon that gory battlefield,
with a few scattered exceptions, the last of the Iowas was sent to the
hunting grounds of his dreams. The victorious Sacs fell upon the women,
children, invalids and cripples and murdered all save a pitiful handful,
which Black Hawk piously offered afterward to adopt into his tribe.
No one can estimate the number of dead. Pashepaho and Black Hawk have
attempted the task, but when it is known that the ordinary wild Indian
cannot comprehend numbers, we must leave all calculation open to
conjecture. Suffice it to say, the Iowa nation was annihilated, its
lands confiscated, and a scene of desolation was upon the land for many
years thereafter.
Following the account of Fulton, we find on page 120 _et seq._ the
following:
“When Mr. Jordan first saw the battleground in 1828, the graves of the
slain still appeared fresh, as if they had not been made more than a
year or two before. Black Hawk had often detailed to him the plan of
the attack and the incidents of the engagement. Contrary to the usual
Indian custom, this battle was brought on in the daytime. The
battlefield is a level river bottom prairie, about four miles in
length and two miles wide near the middle, narrowing to points at
either end. The main area of the bottom rises about twenty feet above
the river, with a narrow strip of lower land skirting the margin of
the stream, covered with trees. The river bank was fringed with a
dense growth of willows. Near the lower end of the prairie, and
extending up to the bank of the river, was situated the Iowa village.
Two miles above the town, near the middle of the prairie, was situated
a small natural mound which was then covered with a growth of small
trees and shrubs. In the rear of this mound lay a belt of wet prairie
which was covered with a rank grass. Bordering this on the north, the
land rises abruptly into broken bluffs covered with a heavy forest
many miles in extent. It was through this forest that the Sac and Fox
war party approached in the night before the attack, and secreted
themselves in the tall grass mentioned, intending to remain in ambush
through the day, and make observations to aid them in the attack which
they contemplated making on the following night. From this position
their spies could take a full survey of the situation of the village
and watch the movements of the Iowas.
“Near the mound mentioned, the Iowas had their racecourse, where they
were frequently wont to resort to engage in the amusement of
horse-racing. Unfortunately for them, this day they had selected for
their sports. Unconscious of the proximity of a lurking foe, they
repaired to the racing ground, leaving most of their arms in the
village with the old men, women and children, unprotected. The Sacs
and Foxes, under the leadership of their wily old chief, Pash-e-pa-ho,
perceived their advantage. He directed his subordinate in command,
Black Hawk, with a band of young warriors to file off through the tall
grass and avail themselves of the cover of the timber along the river
bank, to reach the village with the utmost speed and there commence
the battle. This movement was successfully executed, while
Pash-e-pa-ho with his division made a simultaneous assault from their
ambush upon the unarmed Iowas, who were engaged in their amusements at
the racecourse. Black Hawk, with his warriors at the village, poured a
furious volley upon the defenseless inhabitants, completing the
slaughter with tomahawk and scalping knife. The unarmed Iowas at the
racecourse attempted to reach the village, two miles distant, but most
of them were slain in their flight by Pash-e-pa-ho’s warriors. The
survivors reached their village only to find it in flames and to
behold their slaughtered friends in the midst of the devouring