The Sauk, Fox, and the Black Hawk War of 1832

Compiled by:Scott Church

Guilford High SchoolRockford, Illinois

14 July 2006

Sauk Images

Sauk Beginnings

• Originally located in Eastern Ontario

• Conflicts with the Iroquois Nations– Iroquois trade routes – Tribal conflicts

La Nouvelle France

La Nouvelle France

• Establishment of Fur Trade• Very lucrative for trading

nations• Conflict produced among tribes• Beaver as best skin for trade• Later trade established with

Sauk and Fox in Wisconsin

Tribes of New France

The Six Tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy

Iroquois Land and Warrior

Sauk Migration

• Driven out of eastern Ontario• Settle in Lower Michigan

O-Sag-A-Nong

• Saginaw County was named after the Sauk Indians who originally inhabited the area in the 1800’s, before being evicted by the Iroquois and later the Chippewa. "O-Sag-A-Nong" means "land of the Sauks."

Migration (cont’d)

• The Sauk were then driven out of Central Michigan into NE Wisconsin (Present-Day Green Bay)

• Fox join them here as they seek refuge from the French

• From WI to Saukenuk (near the Quad Cities, IL and IA)

Saukenuk

Saukenuk

• Political, cultural, religious, and social capital of the Sauk people

• Allied with French, changed after Seven Years’ War to British

• Black Hawk is born here in 1767• Most western battle of the American

Revolution is fought here in 1780 (Support of British because of trade)

• Most Illinois tribes support Americans

Black Hawk

Effects of American Revolution• Americans now “controlled”

territory• British use Sauk to oppose

American territory• Sauk want continued trade

system enjoyed with both the French and English

• Few white Americans are moving into territory

The New Northwest

Louisiana Purchase (1803)

1804 Changes

• Murder of white settler by Sauk prompts a summons to St. Louis

• Delegation brought the murderer and surrendered him

• Pardon issued from Washington, but not arrived before an attempted escape and shooting

1804 Changes (Cont’d)

• Jefferson hoped to peacefully assimilate all Indians into American society, or if they wanted their traditional life, then they should go west of the Mississippi River

• Treaty to formally surrender all Sauk lands east of the Mississippi (Delegation not able to agree to this, and likely did not understand American intentions)

• William Clark and William Henry Harrison conduct treaty hearings.

Clark and Harrison

Road to Discontent

• Tecumseh urges resistance to Americans

• Ft. Madison built 1808• Besieged in 1811 for 1 day• War of 1812 breaks out

– Americans urge neutrality– British stir up discontent– Americans do not honour credit

system in trade

Black Hawk and Tecumseh

• Black Hawk proves himself early as a warrior (age 15)

• Alliance with Tecumseh firmly establishes him as a chief among his people

Sauk Involvement in War• Join British agent Robert Dickson

and go to Detroit.• At the Battle of Raisin River, they

annihilate a force of 850 Kentuckians, angering Americans

• Most Sauk were neutral and were offered land along Des Moines River under leadership of Keokuk

Sauk Involvement

• While BH gone to fight for British, Clark sends about 1500 west along the Missouri River (Missouri Branch), now forever divided.

• 1814-Punitive American expedition sent to Saukenuk, under Zachary Taylor, to destroy it in response to British and Indian attack on fort at Prairie du Chien, destroying it.

Zachary Taylor

• Leads force to Saukenuk from St. Louis

• 1000 Indians, including traditional enemy Sioux, unite to fight Americans

• Taylor forced to retreat to Ft. Madison

Keokuk

• Never truly a chief

• Life-long tension between Black Hawk and him.

• Keokuk much more willing to work with the Americans

End to War

• Treaty of Ghent (1815) officially ends war

• British forced to completely abandon the Northwest, and their support for Black Hawk

• American promises of immunity from punishment for war hostility leads to another treaty in St. Louis (1816), confirming 1804 treaty

Fort Armstrong, built 1816

Illinois Statehood

• 3 December 1818

• Illinois will truly open up to settlement by white Americans

• Tense peace begins

Trouble begins!

• July 1829- Federal government allows for public sale of land around Saukenuk

• Spring 1830, Black Hawk returns to Saukenuk; not persuaded to leave

• Spring 1831, Black Hawk, warriors, women, and children return to Saukenuk

• Governor Reynolds calls militia to evict Indians (1,500 arrive)

“Articles of Capitulation”• Black Hawk forced to:

– Remain away from Saukenuk– Cease contact with the British– Submit to Keokuk’s authority– Keokuk to report to US if this not

followed• Treaty was illegal

– Neither Governor Reynolds nor General Gaines authorized to negotiate

– Congress never ratified the treaty

1832

• Black Hawk living peacefully in Iowa, with no intention of returning to Illinois

• Stirred to life by Napope and rivalry with Keokuk

• Ranks swell to between 1,200 and 2,000 with 500-800 warriors on return to Illinois

• By the time Black Hawk realizes that he was sucked into a conflict, it was too late

• President Jackson was also up for re-election

Andrew Jackson

• Very anti-Indian• Signs the Indian Removal Act• Would be unsympathetic to any

grievances by any of the tribes in the area.– Menominee– Sioux– Fox– Sauk

Indian Removal Act/Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears

Cherokees on the Trail of Tears

Black Hawk War (1832)

• 5 April- Black Hawk and band cross Mississippi and begin journey up Sinnissippi (Rock River)

• 23 April- Black Hawk and band stop at Prophetstown, where Black Hawk was urged to return to Iowa

Wa-bo-kia-shiek or White Cloud the Prophet by Robert Sully. Oil on canvas, 1833.

Black Hawk War (1832)

• 14 May- Battle of Stillman’s Run– Militia attacks Sauk truce

delegates– All out battle after that– One militiaman actually pleads for

his life from a stump– Governor Reynolds calls for 2,000

more volunteers

James Stephenson and Isiah Stillman

Lincoln rumored to have helped bury soldiers at Stillman’s Run

Black Hawk War (14 May)• Black Hawk camped near present-

day Atwood• Decided not to fight the Americans

(until they fire on unarmed truce delegates)

• Future president Zachary Taylor said that if the army had first contacted Black Hawk rather than the militia, there’d have been no war.

June Battles

• 14 -Spafford Farm Incident (MI Ter.)

• 16 - Battle of Pecatonica River (MI Ter.)

• 17 -Waddam’s Grove (IL)• 16 and 25 - Kellogg’s Grove (IL)• 24 - Attack on Apple River Fort

(IL)

Galena Stockade, 1832

July Battles

• 21- Wisconsin Heights (MI Ter.)– Dodge and men head to Ft. Blue

Mounds– Black Hawk makes his escape Horses

slaughtered for food– Women, children starving to death.

Others attacked and killed as they approached Ft. Crawford (Prairie du Chien)

• 24- General Atkinson begins final pursuit

Location of Bad Axe

Bad Axe Massacre

• 1 August• Black Hawk attempts to surrender to

Americans• Americans open fire on Sauk crossing

the Mississippi River, even using cannon fire

• River turns red with blood• 150-200 Sauk bodies found, others lost• Survivors on west bank hunted down by

Sioux, under Wabesha, and massacred• Only 10-15% of overall band will survive

to this point

Bad Axe Massacre

• Indian Agent Joseph M. Street to Superintendent William Clark, August 3, 1832:

• “The Inds. were pushed literally into the Mississippi, the current of which was at one time perceptibly tinged with the blood of the Indians who were shot on its margin & in its stream. . . .  It is impossible to say how many Inds. have been killed, as most of them were shot in the water or drowned in attempting to cross the Mississippi.”

Battle of Bad Axe-Bird’s Eye View

• John Wakefield, who served as a private, published a book on the war in 1834:

• “During the engagement we killed some of the squaws through mistake. It was a great misfortune to those miserable squaws and children, that they did not carry into execution [the plan] they had formed on the morning of the battle--that was, to come and meet us, and surrender themselves prisoners of war. It was a horrid sight to witness little children, wounded and suffering the most excruciating pain, although they were of the savage enemy, and the common enemy of the country.”

• “It was enough to make the heart of the most hardened being on earth to ache.”

• “We took about fifty prisoners, principally women and children. They during the engagement, had concealed themselves in the high weeds and grass, and amongst old logs and brush, which lay very thick on the bottom, and some had buried themselves in the mud and sand in the bank of the, river, just leaving enough of their heads out to breathe the breath of life.”

Battle of Bad Axe- Bird’s eye view

• Halstead S. Townsend, also a private: “Black Hawk was a mean man and a coward. He brought on the war. . . . Our spies got to the river and fired. Only Rittenhouse was left standing. Indians had shot down the rest. We rushed past them and did not stop to see to their injuries for we were after Indians. They went ¾ of a mile below here. Abadiah Rittenhouse, a spy, had a ball through his whiskers and one through the rim of his hat. He was dazed and wild after that. A squaw with a child on her back was near him. He said, "See me kill that d-----n squaw." He killed the squaw and the bullet broke the child’s arm. When we came up the child was gnawing a horse bone. On an acre of ground on this island, ponies were tied all over it and goods and old Indians were placed there. We passed by and did not molest them. After the battle we took them and baggage to Rock Island. Three squaws were shot on that race; they were naked. One woman we took on the boat and cared for. Another woman crawled under the bank and buried herself in the sand. The first one told where the other was, after she saw we would not kill her, and we got her from the bank. We have been accused of inhumanity to those Indians. It is false as hell, we never did it. With Henry’s men we killed in three-fourths of a mile, 82 Indians. We lost three men. Indians were thick there. We pursued. The shot to [sic] high. We found bullets thirty feet high in trees. If they had fired low they would have killed many. There were three willow bars out there. I cannot find them now. There Dodge stopped and waited for regulars. Thirty yards ahead was another pond of water. We fired at the smoke we saw. Dodge was behind us and mad; he cursed the regulars for being so d ---- d slow. We killed Indians without seeing them. We lost five or six of our men. Zachary Taylor at last came; made a speech and ordered us to charge. Was heavy fighting there. Squaws came to us holding up their arms. We pushed them back and killed none of them. We killed everything that didn’t surrender. Those not killed got in the river. Henry’s men were below on island and killed those who floated down.

Bad Axe Today

Battle of Bad Axe

Victory, Wisconsin today

Black Hawk Surrenders

Black Hawk and Five Other Sauk Prisoners

Black Hawk and Five Other Sauk Prisoners • Black Hawk and Five Other Saukie Prisoners by

George Catlin. Oil on paperboard mounted on heavier paperboard, 18 5/8 x 24 5/16 inches, 1861/1869. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Paul Mellon Collection. LEFT TO RIGHT: White Cloud the Prophet, the powerful shaman who betrayed Black Hawk; Neapope, who was considered the warrior chief; Black Hawk, wearing fringed buckskins and holding a black sparrow hawk, the bird from which his name is derived; Black Hawk's eldest living son, Na-she-ask-uk (literally translated as Whirling Thunder), who is wearing strands of sacred megis shells; and White Cloud's adopted son, Pawasheet, who is second from the right. On the far right stands Pumaho, Black Hawk's adopted son, who was training to become a warrior chief.

Black Hawk Purchase

Black Hawk Purchase

• Following the Black Hawk War in 1832, the U.S. Government established the Black Hawk Purchase, an area extending 50 miles west of the Mississippi River along the eastern border of the Territory of Iowa. Under this arrangement, resident Sac and Meskwaki were forced to relinquish 2.5 million hectares of land which was then opened to Euro-American settlement.

Portrait of Loud Thunder by Robert Sully (literally translated from the Sauk language

as Whirling Thunder)

Black Hawk and His Son