"Who is Black Hawk?" An exasperated general of the frontier army first flung this question at the assembled warriors and braves of Black Hawk's band in a council at Fort Armstrong on Rock Island back in the summer of 1831.

Now, nearly a century and three quarters after these dramatic times of frontier strife, we seem strangely lacking in the background of tradition. When one reflects on the richness of our prairie soil in the heroism, villainy, comedy, pathos, romance, and tragedy of the early days of our nation.

What do you really know of the story of Nicollet? The Columbus of the West, who in the old quest for a passage from Europe to the Orient landed his canoes on the shores of Lake Michigan at Green Bay. He then arrayed himself in Chinese ceremonial robes to greet what he hoped would prove Mandarins of the Celestial Empire, but who turned out to be Winnebago Indians of the wild rice marshes of Wisconsin?

What do you know of the Herculean labors of Robert Cavalier (LaSalle) and his faithful friend, the Italian, Henri de Tonti? Of the martyrdom of the gentle Father Marquette? Of the adventures of those freebooters of the forest, Radisson, Groseilliers, and Du Lhut?

What do you know of the five-handed struggle between Indian, French, British, and American for the key to the continent? Of the triumph of the American cause through the genius and daring of Washington's fellow Virginian, and rival in generalship, George Rogers Clark? Nicollet, LaSalle, Tonti, Radisson, Groseilliers, DeLhut, Clark . . . to most of us they are only names of streets, towns, and hotels, mere labels as barren of significance as numbers on automobile license tags.

This research is an attempt to present and chronicle the conflicts between the Red and White worlds. I will try to illuminate the historical accounts handed down of the Sac & Fox Nation being dispersed from their tribal lands in the Midwest. It was during the course of my research that a detailed number of written accounts surfaced that gives a broad insight about an era of events and the people now barely understandable from the early days of our nation.

Through these pages we can visualize how the Indians – Sac & Fox Nation, in particular – faced conditions of the moment and how they interpreted the situations afterward. Yet, while we study American history in textbooks, Native American history, it’s personalities, concerns and events have gone largely unrecorded and often overlooked.

Standard histories concern themselves with the arrangement of historical artifacts --- dates, policies, movements and institutions -- which mark the progress of all human transformation. Native American anthologies, on the other hand, attempt to illustrate a general theme of conflicting values that was encountered during the settlement of the United States of America. The missing dimension in our knowledge is the informality of everyday experience. This aspect colors our decisions and plays an intimate role in our historical assimilation of information.

An attempt has been made to scale the obstacles in the way that prevents us from deeply understanding historical knowledge by bringing these two themes together. This should allow the conflicts of two diverse worlds --- one Red, the other White --- to become an underlying context within which the actual individuals assume human shape and dimension in responding to the stimuli that occurred. This method will imprint events and personalities on the reader and allow him to formulate a broad personal interpretation from the data at hand. Hopefully, the trivial becomes meaningful and the exaggerated event or situation finds itself reduced to a human dimension.

Events should always be classified according to the memorable quality, as well as consequential aspects of a larger theme. We must allow our emotions to play a decisive role in our thinking processes. Thus, as a result, the joy and tragedy of an era can help us to better understand how and why events occurred the way they did.

The impressions of this study focus on the dilemma between two diverse cultures. Had the Sac & Fox Nation been able to recognize and deal with the tremendous gulf in values and outlook, time might have recorded a different history. Could the pioneers have transcended their own greed, generated by images of a land beyond comprehension, or the Indians have exhibited sufficient wisdom and craft to preserve a bit off their ancestral homelands untouched? These questions and more will likely be answered after the last witness has been called testifying to the events that led up to the skirmish lasting 15 weeks becoming known as "Black Hawk’s War" in 1832.

Today, in a world where current problems seem insurmountable, we often find ourselves standing side by side with the personalities of the past. As then, so now, exalting or mourning, but always, it seems, incapable of achieving full understanding of our situation.

History calls us to share — not render judgements.

The sole requirement for the discerning reader is to discard the presumptions and preconceptions and immerse the mind and heart in the richness of the human condition. The assumptions before hand that either side was fated to take the steps it did, eliminates the possibility of deeply understanding how the participants felt and their later reflections. I sincerely hope the reader will appreciate this added scope of this research.

Research continued over the years on Black Hawk and this Indian Nation. With the internet, sources became available and speeded up the research—resulting in a thorough detailed mapping of the period between 1800 through 1833.

This is the man that I discovered for myself. Black Hawk lived under four flags—Spanish, French, British, and American. Covering an era that pre-dated the United States as an independent nation to the forceful removal of Indians east of the Mississippi River under our seventh President Andrew Jackson. The Indians culture and economy was irreversibly altered by the impact of the fur trade, European diseases and the developing hotbed of tribal warfare brought on by the westward expansion of settlers from the eastern seaboard.

The traditions and beliefs that Black Hawk represented no longer sufficed and offered an uncertain future, at best. For by 1832, the situation called for courses of action that no longer led down the warrior’s path. His negative judgements of Keokuk as self-seeking and even cowardly appear consistent given Black Hawk’s warrior’s viewpoint.

Without a doubt, the Watchful Fox did not represent the highest Sac ideal of a tribal war leader. Keokuk’s trips East to Washington made him realize that against a people so numerous that the Indian of any nation had no chance to prevail. So he choose the more difficult road—that of negotiation and adaptation. In retrospect, Keokuk’s approach was no more successful than the proud resistance of Black Hawk. The onslaught of the White World was just as destructive to the Indians in peace as General Atkinson’s force had been during the 1832 war campaign that destroyed the British Band. If accommodation in times of peace brought degradation and near destruction to the tribe, what was really lost through warfare and overwhelming defeat?

What of Black Hawk, the man?

He was a dynamic leader when most men his age were either dead or resigned to spend their remaining years as a non-entity among their own people. As a tactician and Indian military leader he was recognized among the best by the American officers who fought against him. Though his speaking skills were not as good as Keokuk’s, he nevertheless could call his people to the causes he so firmly believed in. His attitudes and life were spent in the service to his people to retain their traditional 18^th century lands, tribal identity and honor.

Even if Black Hawk’s views offered an accurate understanding of the tribal situation, his actions are not always consistent. He was a proud and stubborn man. He had trouble taking advice or direction—unless they agreed with his own views. Because of his intense identification with the Sac Nation and it’s wellbeing, those who held alternative views found him to be uncooperative and unyielding. His strong temper often got him in difficulties.

Black Hawk was convinced he knew best for the Sac Nation. He refused to consider alternatives, but worse, allowed himself the right to wishful thinking and this would often cause him to neglect to ask the critical questions of those who misled him. He found it difficult to admit mistakes. When his actions proved devastating, he excused himself by claiming he was only a war leader and not a civil chief. From time to time Black Hawk would acknowledge the truthfulness of a particular white, but more often than not all whites were included in his blanket denunciations.

When Black Hawk is considered under these circumstances, his actions become more understandable and defensible than they might otherwise be.

The life and times of Black Hawk demonstrates that leaders base their actions on many things and his strong traditional beliefs and practices shaped his outlook on many major issues. His belief that only the Indian dealt honorably with others colored his experiences with the whites. His was an unyielding personality, pride in his personal accomplishments and leadership skills made him a formidable leader and a person who could not be ignored. A patriot Sac, a warrior, yet his ideals belonged to an earlier simple era. One in which the Sac and Fox could live in their traditional ways—free from major interference by the United States.

Though brief, the Black Hawk War involved a number of men who would go on to important national political and military careers. Three future presidents had some part in the events of the spring and summer of 1832. Abraham Lincoln, then 23 years old, began as a captain in the Illinois militia and rejoined twice as a private after his initial term of service ended; he never saw action, just helped bury the dead after Stillman’s Run. Col. Zachary Taylor commanded all of the regular troops under Gen. Henry Atkinson during the war. The other future president was Jefferson Davis, who presided over the Confederate States of America during the Civil War; he spent much of the Black Hawk War on leave, but was charged with delivering Black Hawk and White Cloud to St. Louis in early September 1832. Another veteran of the war who might have been president was Gen. Winfield Scott, nicknamed "Fuss & Feathers", who received the Whig party's nomination in 1852.

Four future Illinois governors served in the war: Thomas Ford, John Wood, Joseph Duncan, and Thomas Carlin. It also launched the careers of one future governor each for Nebraska and Michigan and of at least seven United States senators. In 1836, Col. Henry Dodge parlayed his important role in the conflict into an appointment as governor of Wisconsin Territory.

I urge the reader to explore the related sources in the bibliography for more information on this fascinating era and the individuals who shaped it.

In the quest for accurate information about this early period of our country’s history I wish to thank and acknowledge the inestimable help from the following individuals. Harry G. Heiss, at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. For his help in locating letters and other documents relating to William Henry Harrison (1800-1818). His assistance is readily apparent in Chapters 4, especially 5, and 6.

To Roger Norton for assistance in locating digital images relating to Lincoln from the 1832 period. To Brian Leigh Dunnigan at William L. Clements Library. In assisting me in locating many of the digital images of the individuals illustrated in this book.

To Cheryl Schnirring, at the Illinois State Historical Library for tirelessly retrieving letters and other documents from the period of July 2^nd through September of 1832. These miscellaneous documents related to Atkinson’s Order Book, letters to and from him, Scott, Dodge, Henry, Alexander, Taylor and Rueben Holmes. All were part of the Black Hawk War Papers Collection.

To John E. Hallwas, Director of Regional Collections at Western Illinois University Libraries in Macomb, Illinois. For His encouragement over the years after my first book, The Galesburg Chronicles was published and helps in locating a few hard to locate digital images.

To Peter Cannon, Senior Legislative Analyst for the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. For his assistance in locating the 1989 Assembly Resolution that publicly apologizes for the actions that resulted in the events that occurred in the summer of 1832 within the borders of this state.

And of course, to my wife, Jean Ann, for her tireless proofreading and critical perspective in the layout and text preparation. Her patience and understanding at the long hours I kept at the computer working on this book was instrumental in finally getting it to print.

To everyone else who in many uncounted ways knowingly or unknowingly helped in the preparation of this work.