LIFE OF MA-KA-TAI-ME-SHE-KAI-KIAK, OR BLACK HAWK (c. 1832, by Black Hawk)

The great Sauk war chief Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kai-kiak, or Black Hawk, was born in Illinois near the Mississippi River in 1767. The land on which he was raised was ceded to the United States in 1804 via shady dealings on the part of William Henry Harrison who, it is believed, forced the treaty upon a group of badly intoxicated chiefs who were acting without tribal warrant. Black Hawk's anger over this treaty led him to join Tecumseh's fight for an Indian confederation. After the War of 1812, Black Hawk joined forces with Winnebago prophet White Cloud and the two continued Tecumseh's fight for a unified Indian response to American encroachment.

The Black Hawk War was an attempt by the Sauks (with help from the Winnebagos, Potawatomis, and Mascoutins) to regain their lands in Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Between 1831 and 1832, a series of bloody battles were fought, but though the tribes made small gains they were eventually overcome by a group of Illinois militiamen at the mouth of the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin. Black Hawk and his followers were imprisoned for several years before being allowed to settle in Iowa. After being well received during a 1833 visit to Washington, D.C., Black Hawk decided to tell his story to U.S. interpreter Antoine le Claire. The Autobiography of Black Hawk was published in 1833 and is now considered an American classic. This selection details Black Hawk's meeting with Illinois Governor Cole, to whom he makes a case for equitable treatment for his people.

Leah R.Shafer,
Cornell University

See also Black Hawk War ; Indian Land Cessions ; Indians and Alcohol ; Sauk .

The white people brought whisky into our village, made our people drunk, and cheated them out of their horses, guns, and traps! This fraudulent system was carried to such an extent that I apprehended serious difficulties might take place, unless a stop was put to it. Consequently, I visited all the whites and begged them not to sell whisky to my people. One of them continued the practice openly. I took a party of my young men, went to his house, and took out his barrel and broke in the head and poured out the whisky. I did this for fear some of the whites might be killed by my people when drunk.

Our people were treated badly by the whites on many occasions. At one time, a white man beat one of our women cruelly, for pulling a few suckers of corn out of his field, to suck, when hungry. At another time, one of our young men was beat with clubs by two white men for opening a fence which crossed our road, to take his horse through. His shoulder blade was broken, and his body badly bruised, from which he soon after died!

Bad, and cruel, as our people were treated by the whites, not one of them was hurt or molested by any of my band. I hope this will prove that we are a peaceable people—having permitted ten men to take possession of our corn-fields; prevent us from planting corn; burn our lodges; ill-treat our women; and beat to death our men, without offering resistance to their barbarous cruelties. This is a lesson worthy for the white man to learn: to use forbearance when injured.

We acquainted our agent daily with our situation, and through him, the great chief at St. Louis—and hoped that something would be done for us. The whites were complaining at the same time that we were intruding upon their rights! They made themselves out the injured party, and we the intruders! And called loudly to the great war chief to protect their property.

How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.

During this summer, I happened at Rock Island when a great chief arrived, whom I had known as the great chief of Illinois, [Governor Cole] in company with another chief, who, I have been told, is a great writer (Judge Jas. Hall.) I called upon them and begged to explain to them the grievances, under which me and my people were laboring, hoping that they could do something for us. The great chief, however, did not seem disposed to council with me. He said he was no longer the chief of Illinois—that his children had selected another father in his stead, and that he now only ranked as they did. I was surprised at this talk, as I had always heard that he was a good, brave, and great chief. But the white people never appear to be satisfied. When they get a good father, they hold councils, (at the suggestion of some bad, ambitious man, who wants the place himself,) and conclude, among themselves that this man, or some other equally ambitious, would make a better father than they have, and nine times out of ten they don't get as good a one again.

I insisted on explaining to these two chiefs the true situation of my people. They gave their assent. I arose and made a speech, in which I explained to them the treaty made by Quash-qua-me, and three of our braves, according to the manner the trader and others had explained it to me. I then told them that Quash-qua-me and his party denied, positively, having ever sold my village; and that, as I had never known them to lie, I was determined to keep it in possession.

I told them that the white people had already entered our village, burnt our lodges, destroyed our fences, ploughed up our corn, and beat our people: that they had brought whisky into our country, made our people drunk, and taken from them their horses, guns, and traps; and that I had borne all this injury, without suffering any of my braves to raise a hand against the whites.

My object in holding this council, was to get the opinion of these two chiefs, as to the best course for me to pursue. I had appealed in vain, time after time, to our agent, who regularly represented our situation to the chief at St. Louis, whose duty it was to call upon our Great Father to have justice done to us; but instead of this, we are told that the white people want our country and we must leave it to them!

I did not think it possible that our Great Father wished us to leave our village, where we had lived so long, and where the bones of so many of our people had been laid. The great chief said that, as he was no longer a chief, he could do nothing for us; and felt sorry that it was not in his power to aid us—nor did he know how to advise us. Neither of them could do anything for us; but both evidently appeared very sorry. It would give me great pleasure, at all times, to take these two chiefs by the hand.

That fall I paid a visit to the agent, before we started to our hunting grounds, to hear if he had any good news for me. He had news! He said that the land on which our village stood was now ordered to be sold to individuals; and that, when sold, our right to remain, by treaty, would be at an end, and that if we returned next spring, we would be forced to remove!

We learned during the winter that part of the lands where our village stood had been sold to individuals, and that the trader at Rock Island had bought the greater part that had been sold. The reason was now plain to me why he urged us to remove. His object, we thought, was to get our lands. We held several councils that winter to determine what we should do, and resolved, in one of them, to return to our village in the spring, as usual; and concluded, that if we were removed by force, that the trader, agent, and others, must be the cause; and that, if found guilty of having us driven from our village they should be killed! The trader stood foremost on this list. He had purchased the land on which my lodge stood, and that of our grave yard also! Ne-a-pope promised to kill him, the agent, the interpreter, the great chief at St. Louis, the war chief at fort Armstrong, Rock Island, and Ke-o-kuck—these being the principal persons to blame for endeavoring to remove us.

Our women received bad accounts from the women that had been raising corn at the new village—the difficulty of breaking the new prairie with hoes—and the small quantity of corn raised. We were nearly in the same situation with regard to the latter, it being the first time I ever knew our people to be in want of provision.

I prevailed upon some of Ke-o-kuck's band to return this spring to the Rock river village. Ke-o-kuck would not return with us. I hoped that we would get permission to go to Washington to settle our affairs with our Great Father. I visited the agent at Rock Island. He was displeased because we had returned to our village, and told me that we must remove to the west of the Mississippi. I told him plainly that we would not! I visited the interpreter at his house, who advised me to do as the agent had directed me. I then went to see the trader and upbraided him for buying our lands. He said that if he had not purchased them, some person else would, and that if our Great Father would make an exchange with us, he would willingly give up the land he had purchased to the government. This I thought was fair, and began to think that he had not acted as badly as I had suspected. We again repaired our lodges, and built others, as most of our village had been burnt and destroyed. Our women selected small patches to plant corn, (where the whites had not taken them within their fences,) and worked hard to raise something for our children to subsist upon.

I was told that, according to the treaty, we had no right to remain upon the lands sold, and that the government would force us to leave them. There was but a small portion, however, that had been sold; the balance remaining in the hands of the government, we claimed the right (if we had no other) to "live and hunt upon, as long as it remained the property of the government," by a stipulation in the same treaty that required us to evacuate it after it had been sold. This was the land that we wished to inhabit, and thought we had the best right to occupy.

I heard that there was a great chief on the Wabash, and sent a party to get his advice. They informed him that we had not sold our village. He assured them, then, that if we had not sold the land on which our village stood, our Great Father would not take it from us.

I started early to Malden to see the chief of my British Father, and told him my story. He gave the same reply that the chief on the Wabash had given; and in justice to him, I must say, he never gave me any bad advice: but advised me to apply to our American Father, who, he said, would do us justice. I next called on the great chief at Detroit, and made the same statement to him that I had to the chief of our British Father. He gave the same reply. He said, if we had not sold our lands, and would remain peaceably on them, that we would not be disturbed. This assured me that I was right, and determined me to hold out, as I had promised my people.

I returned from Malden late in the fall. My people were gone to their hunting ground, whither I followed. Here I learned that they had been badly treated all summer by the whites; and that a treaty had been held at Prairie du Chien. Ke-o-kuck and some of our people attended it, and found out that our Great Father had exchanged a small strip of the land that was ceded by Quash-qua-me and his party, with the Pottowattomies, for a portion of their land, near Chicago; and that the object of this treaty was to get it back again; and that the United States had agreed to give them sixteen thousand dollars a year, forever, for this small strip of land—it being less than the twentieth part of that taken from our nation, for one thousand dollars a year! This bears evidence of something I cannot explain. This land they say belonged to the United States. What reason, then, could have induced them to exchange it with the Pottowattomies, if it was so valuable? Why not keep it? Or, if they found that they had made a bad bargain with the Pottowattomies, why not take back their land at a fair proportion of what they gave our nation for it? If this small portion of the land that they took from us for one thousand dollars a year, be worth sixteen thousand dollars a year forever, to the Pottowattomies, then the whole tract of country taken from us ought to be worth, to our nation, twenty times as much as this small fraction. Here I was again puzzled to find out how the white people reasoned; and began to doubt whether they had any standard of right and wrong!

Communication was kept up between myself and the Prophet. Runners were sent to the Arkansas, Red river and Texas—not on the subject of our lands, but a secret mission, which I am not, at present, permitted to explain.

It was related to me, that the chiefs and headmen of the Foxes had been invited to Prairie du Chien, to hold a council to settle the differences existing between them and the Sioux. That the chiefs and headmen, amounting to nine, started for the place designated, taking with them one woman—and were met by the Menomonees and Sioux, near the Ouisconsin and all killed, except one man. Having understood that the whole matter was published shortly after it occurred, and is known to the white people, I will say no more about it.

I would here remark, that our pastimes and sports had been laid aside for two years. We were a divided people, forming two parties. Ke-o-kuck being at the head of one, willing to barter our rights merely for the good opinion of the whites; and cowardly enough to desert our village to them. I was at the head of the other party, and was determined to hold on to my village, although I had been ordered to leave it. But, I considered, as myself and band had no agency in selling our country—and that as provision had been made in the treaty, for us all to remain on it as long as it belonged to the United States, that we could not be forced away. I refused, therefore, to quit my village. It was here, that I was born—and here lie the bones of many friends and relations. For this spot I felt a sacred reverence, and never could consent to leave it, without being forced therefrom.

When I called to mind the scenes of my youth, and those of later days—and reflected that the theatre on which these were acted, had been so long the home of my fathers, who now slept on the hills around it, I could not bring my mind to consent to leave this country to the whites, for any earthly consideration.

SOURCE: Black Hawk. Life of Black Hawk. Chicago: R. R. Donnelly and Sons, 1916.