BLACKHAWK
Black Hawk
(ca. 1767–October 3, 1838)
Sac and Fox War Chief
B
lack Hawk (Maka-
taimeshekiakiak)
was a distinguished
warrior in the War of
1812 and an inveterate
foe of American expan-
sion. Two decades later
he waged the last Indian
war of the Old Northwest
to curb white encroach-
ment upon his homeland.
Black Hawk was born
around 1767, a member
of the Thunder clan of
the Sac (Sauk) and Fox
Indians, and he grew up
at Saukenuk in north-
eastern Illinois. He joined
his first war party at the
age of 15 and fought in
successive wars and
raids against the neigh-
boring Osage and Chero-
kee tribes. A chief since
1788, Black Hawk had resented American in-
terference in Indian affairs and became stri-
dently pro-British in outlook. This conflicted
directly with most tribal elders, who were
friendly toward the United States and re-
ceived gifts and annuities in return. By 1804,
Black Hawk’s dislike turned to hatred when
then Indiana territorial Governor William
Henry Harrison persuaded several Sac and
Fox chiefs to sell most of their land east of
the Mississippi River. Black Hawk refused to
sign the treaty and remained at his village of
Saukenuk. When the War of 1812 erupted
eight years later, his warrior band joined
Tecumseh’s pantribal alliance in its struggle
against the whites. However, real Indian
unity proved fleeting. Despite Black Hawk’s
best efforts, the Sac and Fox nation split into
the “British band” under himself and a pro-
American faction allied
to Chief Keokuk.
Black Hawk fought
and helped defeat Gen.
James Winchester at the
Battle of Frenchtown in
January 1813 and subse-
quently attended the un-
successful siege of Fort
Meigs that May. How-
ever, when British forces
failed to dislodge Maj.
George Croghan from
Fort Stephenson in Au-
gust 1813, he grew disil-
lusioned and withdrew to
his homeland for the win-
ter. Black Hawk reen-
tered the fray in July
1814 when his warriors
ambushed and defeated a
detachment of the First
U.S. Infantry on Camp-
bell’s Island in the Missis-
sippi River. In September Black Hawk en-
joyed similar success when he drove off a
similar expedition under Maj. Zachary Taylor
at Rock River, Illinois. Black Hawk was
therefore very upset with his British allies
when they signed a peace treaty and aban-
doned all their western conquests to the
United States. Throughout the spring of 1815,
he raided several settlements near Fort
Howard, Missouri, in protest. His warriors
defeated a pursuing party of rangers at the
Battle of the Sinkhole in June 1815, the final
skirmish of the War of 1812. The following
year Black Hawk sullenly concluded a peace
treaty with the United States, the last war
chief to do so.
For the next 20 years, Black Hawk lived in
an uneasy truce with his white neighbors at
Saukenuk, but by 1829 the Illinois state gov-Black Hawk
Library of Congress