le er ott are gk az 1 e t tw 0 yke 4 chi f keokuk ia F 0 f abraham lincoln aw r X ll 11 chief waw ii U 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON T WAS just years ago that there was being fought in illinois and WIs coasin what has been called the most inglorious war from the standpoint of LQ its military WIL ILary and naval operations in which the united states was ever en this was the conflict which has a place in our history schoolbooks as the black hawk war but which scarcely deserves the dignity of that title except pt that it was a war between two irreconcilable points of view that of the american frontiersman and that of the ameri amerl can indian from the indian point of view chief black hawk was a patriot fighting bravely in defense of his ancestral home from the frontiersman s point of view he was only an other savage and bloodthirsty redskin who had to be gotten rid of to make way for the advance of civilization the leading figure in this now dimly rement tiered war was ma ala ka tal meshe me she ala klak or blach black hawk a chief of the sauk and fox in deans of whom keokuk or watchful fox vas the head chief by the treaty of november 3 1804 1604 made at st louis the sauk and fox rox agreed to surrender all of their lands east of the mississippi but it was not until the close of the war of 1812 when a wave of migration be gan to pour into illinois that the united states was ready to claim the land which it had ac quiren from the indians keokuk and the ma bority of his tribe bowed to the inevitable and moved across the mississippi to a new home in iowa but black hawk who had been a dis ciple of tecumseh the great shawnee and an ally of the british in the war of 1812 let it be known that would not move to iowa he main tallied that he had been deceived as to the terms of the st louis treaty and did not consider them binding upon him by 1831 so much friction between black hawks tribesmen and the illinois settlers had developed that governor reynolds considered it advisable to call out the militia to protect the altes 11 and property of the pioneers but general gaines military commandant in the west hap ing to avoid the expense of a demonstration with force summoned black hawk and his sub chiefs to a conference at fort armstrong on the mississippi the council was a stormy one ana resulted in no satisfactory settlement of the difficulties whereupon the mil tia on june 15 left their camp at rushville ill and marched upon black hawks hawk s village they found it de seated and burned all the lodges then gaines sent word to black hawk that the hostiles host lles should come in for a peace talk and on june 80 30 black hawk and 27 of his followers s ened a treaty with governor reynolds by which they agreed to refrain from hostile acts and to retire to iowa there was no trouble with them until early in 1832 when black hawk crossed over into illinois with some 2 indians of wl wi om oin it was estimated more than were warriors lors immediately the wildest rumors spread along the illinois frontier black hawk and 1000 blood thirsty savages were descend ng upon the set clements tie tle ments to kill scalp and burn the indian side of the story Is rather dif terent ferent under the terms of the treaty which black hawk had signed with general gaines tho the indians were to be supplied with corn in place of that which they had left in their fields when they went to iowa what had happened is a familiar incident in the history of our relations with the ind ans the government failed to leep keep its promise the amount of corn turned over to them was so meager that they began to buffer from hunger in that emergency a party of the sauk in the words of black hawk crossed r i al A q A 0 2 tk 4 Indian Memorial on the riner to steal some corn from their own fields moving with his band up the rock river black hawk was overtaken by a messenger from gen eral atkinson ordering him to return and the mississippi black hawk replied that he had not taken ta ken the warpath but was going on a friendly visit to the village of white cloud the winnebago prophet and continued his journey atkinson then sent imperative orders for him to return at once or he would pursue with his army and drive him back to this the indian leader protested that the general had no right to utter such a threat so long as his mis slon sion to the es was nas a peaceable one and that he intended to continue on his way continue he did until he x as met by some winnebago and pottawatomie chiefs in a coun ell they made it plain that they had no intention of jo ning with black haw ilaa k in any war upon the americans feeling that he had been betrayed by his indian friends the sauk leader resolved to send a flag fla g of truce to atkinson asking permission to descend the rock river the mississippi and return to his reserva alon in iowa in the meantime governor reynolds had called out the militia and one of the captains of the hastily organized companies elected by his own men was a lanky young storekeeper from new ew salem named abraham lincoln at about the time black hawk was hold ng his coonc I 1 with the other tribes a large force of the militia had mobilized under general whitesides near D xon s ferry at the request of maj isaiah stillman whites des sent a scouting party of about 20 men under stillman to try to locate the indians this party ascended the rock river to the mouth of sycamore creek and camped there ignorant of the fact that they were only a short d stance from black hawk s camp then occurred a tragic error the first in a war filled with tragic blunders black hawk sent three of his warriors under a flag of truce to ask for a conference stillman s und volunteers fired on them killing one then tol fol lowed the opera gouffe battle which has come down in history as stillman s run in which 40 ind ans sent 20 white men into heidling heid long fight inal eting a loss of about a dozen on the militia the news of this defeat spread een greater terror through the state governor reynolds called out more troops and from washington came the news that gen winfield scott had been ordered to the scene of the war with a thousand regulars while en route to illinois this army was attacked by the cholera and the mortality from that disease was greater than the total number billed killed and disabled by the in jefferson davis blaus during the entire war the war dragged on throughout the summer of 1832 1932 without any very decisive result except that the superior forces of the whites gradually began to wear down the indians finally the indian leader suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of an army commanded by gen james D henry in a battle on the wisconsin river losing 68 warriors killed and many more wounded and disabled black hawk now realized that the game was up with the remnants of his band he headed for the mississippi hoping to escape from the soldiers and find peace among his people al ready settled in iowa he reached the sippi at the mouth of the cad bad axe river on august I 1 with his starving warriors and his pitiful little band of women and children then occurred an incident which Is often spoken of as a naval engagement in an inland war while black hawk and his tribesmen were try ing to cross the river in canoes and on rafts a steamer the warrior hove into sight on board was a detachment of solders sold ers and one small cannon black hawk raised a white flag to ask for a parley and again the flag of truce was dishon dishonored ered by the white man the captain of the warrior asserted that he believed the flag was only a decoy used by the wily indians to lure him into an ambush go so he ordered the cannon to be unlimbered and it began shelling the indian camp As a result 23 ind ans were killed outright and many others were wounded the following day the pursuing troops under general which were joined by a detachment tach ment of regulars under col zachary taylor and an army of wisconsin volunteers came up and attacked black hawks camp the end Is not pleasant plea sint reading for it v was as an ind an mas sacre but contrary to the popular idea of that it was a massacre of indians by white men the weakened ind ans were no match tor for the whites finding that their attempts to surrender were useless they resolved to sell their aines as dearly as possible so tt ey put up a desperate resistance but were driven at the point of the bayonet into the river indian women with children clinging to them plunged into the river only to be dro drowned or shot down by sharp shooters on the banks the thu warrior returning from prairie du chien added to the carnage by raking the shore with canister more than ind ans were killed or drowned and only about ro 0 were taken prisoners black hawk hank and his chief escaped to the north and sought refuge among the Winnebago es A short time later he sur rendered to general street at prairie du chien and was sent down the river to jefferson bar racks mo as a prisoner of v w ar the man placed in charge of him was a young lieutenant the son in law of colonel ta tailor lor his ills name was jefferson davis and of this man who nho later be came president of the confederacy black hawk said he was a good and brae young chief with whose conduct I 1 was nas much pleased and he treated me with great kind kindness nes after be ng imprisoned in fortress monroe va for a short time black hawk was allowed to return to the sauk and fox reservation in iowa there he d ed on october 3 1838 and there he was burled buried in accordance with the cus toms of his people se black hawk hanik slept in peace at last but not in the soil which he loved so well that of the beautiful rock river country in northern illinois but his spirit broods over that land in the form of a giant concrete statue of an ind an the work of lorado taft which stands on a high bluff near oregon rl over looking the pock rock river although it is commonly referred to as the black hawk statue the sculptor has repeatedly said that it Is In tendel to symbolize the indian a spirit unconquered while still the conquered race even so it mav appropriately be a memorial to black hawk of the sauk saul and foxes for his was such a spirit X by western newspaper union I 1