Black Hawk

Black Hawk (1767?–1838), Illinois Sauk Indian warrior and leader.Born at the village of Saukenuk in west‐central Illinois, Black Hawk as a young man acquired a reputation for bravery, good leadership, and cultural conservatism. Although never a village chief, he was a respected leader.

During the War of 1812, he led many Sauks to join the British. In 1813 they fought at the Battle of Frenchtown and in the sieges of Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson. In Black Hawk's absence young Keokuk became the recognized war chief of their village, leading to long‐term competition and bitterness between the two men. The warriors returned to Illinois (1814), where they defeated U.S. forces near Rock Island twice.

After the war, the Sauks tried to resume their peacetime activities, but increasing confrontations with the pioneers occurred. By 1830, Black Hawk had become a leader for those Sauks determined to occupy their traditional Illinois lands, while Keokuk accepted the need to migrate west. Dissident Sauks, Mesquakies, and Kickapoos coalesced in early 1832 into the British Band, who considered Black Hawk an elder statesman. He encouraged them to return to Illinois, which precipitated the Black Hawk War. For his role in those events, authorities imprisoned him. He returned to Iowa in 1833 and died there in 1838.

Black Hawk's life spanned an era of transition from relative freedom for midwestern tribes to their total subjugation by the federal government. Sauk actions illustrated the limited choices Indians had in the early nineteenth century, and demonstrated how the inflexible demands Americans made of their tribal neighbors brought disaster.
[See also Black Hawk War.]

Bibliography

Donald Jackson, ed., Black Hawk: An Autobiography, 1955.
Roger L. Nichols , Black Hawk and the Warrior's Path, 1992.

Roger L. Nichols