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THE RED MEN OF IOWA.

CHAPTER XII.

THE BLACK HAWK WAR.

Causes of the War--Encroachments of the Whites--Murder of Black Hawk's Adopted Son--"Battle of the Sink-hole"--British Agents --Capture of Prairie du Chien--Fort Armstrong--White Settlers --Demand the Removal of the Indians--Keokuk and his People Remove West of the Mississippi--Black Hawk and his Adherents Refuse-- He Consults the British--Gov. Reynolds--Gen. Clark--Gen. Gaines--The Prophet--Military Preparations--Black Hawk and his Band Cross the Mississippi--Treaty of Capitulation--New Difficulties--Neopope --Keokuk's Advice--Black Hawk and his Band Return--Regulars and Militia again Sent against them--Black Hawk's Flag of Truce Disregarded--Major Stillman's Defeat--Alarm on the Frontier-- Gen. Dodge Raises Volunteer Companies--March to Dixon's Ferry --Murders on the Pecatonica--"Battle of Pecatonica"--Battle on the Wisconsin--Wretched Condition of the Indians--Their Attempts to Escape--Fired upon from the Steamboat ''Warrior''--Battle of Bad Axe--Defeat of the Indians--Escape of Black Hawk and his Associates--Their Capture--Gen. Scott--Treaty--The "Black Hawk Purchase."

WE have seen the united tribes of the Sacs and Foxes, impelled by circumstances, successively changing their habitations until they finally, sometime in the last century, settle down on the banks of the Mississippi. In some respects the Indian is a wanderer, but there are not wanting instances in proof of the fact that his tenderest feelings and sympathies often cluster around the scenes to which he has been accustomed from childhood. The ancestors of the generation of the Sacs and Foxes, which was cotemporaneous with Black Hawk, had far back in the past exchanged a comparatively inhospitable region for a more

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THE BLACK HAWK WAR.

congenial home, where they fondly hoped to remain undisturbed by the pale-faced intruder. They had maintained successful war against the allied tribes of the Illinois country; against the haughty and warlike Sioux; had conquered the Iowas, and defied the power of the Osages. Their traditions taught them the story of the gradual westward march of the white man, and when in 1804 some four or five of their chiefs and braves at St. Louis had sold to the whites a large portion of their richest lands, it is not strange that some of their wisest and most far-seeing men began to divine the destiny that awaited them. In that treaty it was stipulated that the Indians should retain possession of the lands ceded until they were brought into market, or sold for actual settlement. The very next year (1805) the government dispatched an expedition under Lieutenant Pike to explore the upper Mississippi. A few years later Fort Edwards and Fort Madison were established, and in 1818, Fort Armstrong on Rock Island, the first being on the lands ceded in 1804. Not long after the erection of Fort Armstrong whites began to make their appearance on Rock River. A few miles from Fort Armstrong, on Rock River, was situated the village of Black Hawk and his band. Though not a chief by hereditary right, as a brave he had succeeded in acquiring and maintaining a power and influence over a considerable portion of the Sac tribe to which he belonged, and who adhered to him in a determination not to yield to the whites the country which they considered was unjustly claimed under the treaty of 1804, although in subsequent treaties Black Hawk had himself acknowledged the validity of that treaty. Meantime the government sold a few quarter sections in the vicinity of

Pages 188 - 189

Chapter Thirteen

Introductory Page| Portrait of MA-KA-TAI-ME-SHE-KIA-KIAH (Black Hawk)| Title Page| Page 2|

Preface (pages 3 - 6)| Illustrations (page 7)| Contents (pages 8 - 17)

Chapter One| Chapter Two| Chapter Three| Chapter Four| Chapter Five

Chapter Six| Chapter Seven| Chapter Eight| Chapter Nine| Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

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