The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-07-06
THE BLACKHAwK WAR.
A Brief and Interesting History OF this
Celebrated War.
[From the Chicago Inter ooeanl

of the Sacs and Foxes at st. Louis in
1904, the Indians coded all their lands
i'm Illinois TO the United States for the
paltry annuity of 81, 900 and goods 10
the value Of 80, 234. 80. In a treaty
made in 1892, covering various matters,
clause was introduced confirming the
cession of 1904. Still the Government
did not demand actual possession Of
these lands. In 1880, Keokuk, Black
Hawks rival, negotiated treaty, in
which the Government recognized him
as the head chief of the Sacs and Foxes,
and in which he clearly coded all the
lands in question. Black Hawk, who
had always opposed any cession of ter
ritory to the whites, was not present at
this convention, and he and his follow
ers, constituting q minority of the tribe,
but really representing the portion
most concerned, the actual occupants
of the great village at Rock Island, pro-
tested against the validity of this and
the previous cessions.
Returning in April, 1881, from the
winters hunt in the North. Black
Hawks band found that their chiefs
former friend, an Indian fur-trader at
Rock Island, had purchased OF, the Gov
eminent the ground on which this
ancient village stood in the forks of the
Mississippi and Rock river, and with
his associate spectators were preparing
to cultivate the Indian field OF some 700
acres adjoining the village. 1t seems
marvellous that Black Hawk could so
far restrain his people as to persuade
them to submit to a compromise by
which they yielded possession of half
this field for the season to the spec
ulators. But the latter were not sat-
isfed, and both parties soon grew
irritated. Gov. Reynolds, of this State,
was asked to interfere. Soon after the
militia were called out. On the 9TH of
June. Gen. Gaines, of the regular army,
commanding at Fort Armstrong, on
Rock Island, summoned the Indians to
a council when he commanded them to
leave the east side of the Mississippi.
Black Hawk refused but as the State
militia, to the number of about 1,600,
under command of Gen. Joseph Dun
can, drew near, he saw that his few
hundred warriors would be over
whelmed, and on June "a, during the
night, the Indians deserted their village,
which the Americans a few days later
utterly destroyed On June 80, Black
Hawk and his party signed a treaty by
which for the first time he individually
joined in the REIMBURSEMENT of the
lands in dispute. The next winter
found him and his band in destitute,
starving condition, owing to their being
driven from their cornfelds at season
when it was too late to plant elsewhere.
In the spring, in defiance of the treaty,
he and 36S warriors with their families,
crossed the Mississippi and passed up
Rock river, to plant corn, as they said,
in the Winnebago country, in Southern
Wisconsin. Gen. Atkinson, in com
mand of the regular troops at Fort
Armstrong, warned them to return.
Gov. Reynolds again called out the
militia, and placed them under command
of Gen. Samuel Whiteside. Nothing
seriously occurred until the 14th of
May, when the rash conduct of party
of 275 volunteers under Mai. Stillman
provoked a fight with some sixty of
Black Hawks warriors, near the mouth
of the Kishwaukee, a few miles south
of Rockford The whites were panic
stricken, and fled with the loss of eleven
!
of the militia that already their time of
enlistment had nearly expired, and, not
liking this taste of Indian war, they be-
came mutinous, and had to be dis
charged. Gen. Atkinson could do little
with his mere handful of regular troops,
so he intrenched his company at Dixon
and remained there, while Black Hawks
followers, reinforced by a few Whine
bago, Ottawa and Pottawatomie braves,
roamed over the country committing
outrages on defenseless settlers, a num-
Der of whom were killed. Affairs grew
serious. Gov Reynolds called for
1000 militia. In July the regulars and
militia, all under the chief command Of
Gen. Atkinson, drove Black Hawk up
Rock river and across to the Wisconsin
river, where Gen. James ID. Henry, the
chief hero of this war, In command of a
brigade of Illinois militia, overlook him
at Wisconsin Heights, and inflicted the
first serious punishment the Indians had
suffered. Over fifty warriors were
killed, and the entire body of them was
badly demoralized. Escaping across
the Wisconsin with great loss, they fed,
leaving their dead and dying and aban-
doned articles along their trail. The
whole army followed in hot pursuit
and on Aug. ., Gen. Henry again struck
their main force and drove them into
the Mississippi at the mouth of the Bad
Axe Here the regulars and the rest
of the army joining in, soon cut them
to pieces. Gen. Winfield Scott took
command five days later, on Aug. 7,
1881, and not long afterward negotiated
treaty of peace. Black Hawk and
two of his sons, with several of his
principal warriors, were held as host
ages for q time. After detention at
Fortress Monroe until June of the
next year, he was released. During his
captivity he was taken TO all the prin-
cipal cities, where his fate elected a
good deal of sympathy. After his re-
turn he lived peaceably with his tribe
in Iowa until his death, Oct. 3, 1888, in
the 10th year of his age. He was buried
at Iowaville, Iowa.
Yalenciennes Lace.
1t is fact not commonly known even
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