Black Hawk (chief)
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Black Hawk or Black Sparrow Hawk (Sauk Makataimeshekiakiak (Mahkate:wi-meši-ke:hke:hkwa), "be a large black hawk")[1] (1767–October 3, 1838) was a leader and warrior of the Sauk Native American tribe in what is now the United States. While he had inherited an important historic medicine bundle, he was not an hereditary civil chief of the Sauk. He was, however, appointed a war chief, and was generally known in English as Chief Black Hawk.
Black Hawk was born in the village of Saukenuk on the Rock River, near present-day Rock Island, Illinois. The Sauk used the town in the summer, for raising corn and burials, while moving across the Mississippi for winter hunts and fur trapping. In the War of 1812 he fought on the side of the British.
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[edit] Participation in the War of 1812
Black Hawk was present at the battle of Fort Meigs, and the attack on Fort Stephenson. The British, led by Major-General Henry Procter, and Tecumseh leading the Indian Confederacy, were repulsed, with great losses to the British. Black Hawk despaired over the waste of the lives caused by European attack methods, and soon after quit the war to return home. Towards the end of the war, Black Hawk rejoined the effort and participated alongside the British on campaigns along the Mississippi River near the Illinois Territory. With the conflict over in 1815, the British abandoned all promises of land recovery to Native Americans.
[edit] Black Hawk War
After the War of 1812, the non-native population of Illinois increased rapidly; a development that sharpened previous disputes about land ownership, especially in the lead-mining region north of the Rock River, an area claimed by the close allies of the Sauk, the Fox. These disputes culminated in the Black Hawk War in 1832. Black Hawk led a band of Sauk who attempted to hold their previous lands, refusing to migrate west of the Mississippi River. They were aided by some Fox, Winnebago and Kickapoo. Their struggle ended only months later, with Black Hawk in captivity and most of his followers dead.
[edit] Tour of the East
Having been taken prisoner, Black Hawk was kept at a series of forts, and visited with President Andrew Jackson before being sent to Fort Monroe for several months. On his release, he and his son were given a tour of the United States, as a means to show him how powerful the U.S. was. He was toured through major cities of the East and on military ships. It was hoped Black Hawk would relate his observations to his fellow Indians, and convince them of the futility of making war on the Americans. Black Hawk became quite popular as a result of his tour and crowds came to see him, although in Western cities, less influenced by the myth of the noble savage and more by the myth of the savage Indian, the crowds were less friendly.
[edit] Last Days
After that tour, Black Hawk was transferred back to his nation, and he lived with them along the Iowa River in what is now southeast Iowa. He died on October 3, 1838 after two weeks of illness, and was buried on the banks of the Des Moines River in Davis County. In July 1839, his remains were stolen by James Turner who prepared his skeleton for exhibition. Black Hawk’s sons Nashashuk and Gamesett went to Governor Robert Lucas of Iowa Territory, who used his influence to bring the bones to security in his offices in Burlington where, with the permission of the Chief's sons, they were left in the care of the Burlington Geological and Historical Society. When the Society's building burned down in 1855, Black Hawk’s remains were destroyed.[2]
Before his death, Black Hawk narrated an account of his life, in which he saw the continued expansion of American settlement west of the Mississippi River as a continued threat to the Sauk and other indigenous people. The Autobiography of Black Hawk, incorporating his own accounts and comments from others, was published in 1833.
[edit] Legacy
- A Black Hawk sculpture by Lorado Taft overlooks the Rock River in Oregon, Illinois.
- Ancestor of Hall of Fame athlete Jim Thorpe
[edit] Eponyms
Black Hawk was popular among the Easterners who settled the Midwest and the number of commemorations is tremendous.
- Black Hawk County, Iowa
- The Black Hawk Bridge over the Mississippi River, near the Battle of Bad Axe.
- The Chicago Blackhawks, a National Hockey League team
- Four U.S. Navy ships named USS Black Hawk
- The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter
- Blackhawk Technical College, a vocational college in Rock County, Wisconsin
- Black Hawk College, a community college in Moline, Illinois
- Burlington Hawkeye, a newspaper in Burlington, Iowa.
- Hawkeyes, mascot name for the University of Iowa.
- 86th Infantry Division nicknamed Black Hawks
[edit] Quotes
- "You know the cause of our making war. It is known to all white men. They ought to be ashamed of it." (ca. 1832)
- "I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them till they are off our lands."
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Works by Black Hawk at Project Gutenberg
- "Black Hawk (Makataimeshekiakiak)" - article from the Encyclopedia of North American Indians
- The Autobiography of Black Hawk
- Black Hawk's Surrender Speech, 1832
- Black Hawk State Historic Site, Rock Island, Illinois, including the original site of Saukenuk
- Portrait with his son Whirling Thunder, painted by John Wesley Jarvis in 1833 (at the Gilcrease Museum)
