Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1906-09-26

he same cause for var with the Sacs,
and, after taen. to tie Ninnebagoes,
Sioux. Kickapoos and many others.
That Black Hawk was a wise and val
liant leader all the Indians conceded,
and his proposals were heard by some
of the tribes with eagerncss and by all
of them with respect. At II time his
~confederacy embraced nine tribes, the
most formidable in the northwest, IL we
exclude the Sioux md the Chippeways,
who were themselves inclined to ac-
cede. Early In ISL thc first chief of
the C%hippeways exhibited a miniature
tomahawk, red with yermllion, which,
having been accepted from Black
Hawk, signincd an alliance between
them, and away up Mt Leech lake an
obscure but numerous band showed
some whites a few British medals
painted In imitation of blood, which
meant that they were to follow the
warpaths Of Black Hawk.
In 1881 Black Hawk had crossed the
river in small force, but had retired be-
fore the advance of General Gaines,
commanding the United States post at
Rock Island. He then promised to re-
main on the other side and to keep
quiet for the future. But early in the
spring of 1882 he reappeared with
greater numbers, pushed straight into
the Rock river valley and said he had
come to plant corn. He was now sixty
seven years Of age. He thought his
great plots were all right and his allies
fast and true. They would fight a few
bloody battles, and then he would sit
down In his old age and see the corn
grow where he had seen it in his youth.
But the old chief reckoned too much
upon Indian fidelity. He committed the
fatal error of trusting to their patriot
ism instead of their interests. General
Atkinson, now in command at Rock
Island, set the troops in motion. The
governor issued his call for volunteers;
and, as the Indians by this time had
committed some frightful barbarities,
the blood of the settlers was boiling
and the regiments were almost instant
ly filled with the best possible material.
So soon as these facts became known
the allies Of Black Hawk, both the Sc
cret and the open, fell away from him
and left him, with the Sacs and the
Foxes, to meet his fate.
Black Hawk was born on the Rock
river, in Wisconsin, In the year 1857.
His grandfather lived near Montreal.
whence his father Pyesa had emigrat-
ed, but not until he had become thor
oughly British in his views and feel
ings. All his life long he made annual
journeys to the councils of the tribes
at Maiden, where the gifts and persua-
sions of British agents confirmed him
in his inclination to the British inter-
ests. When Pyesa was gathered to his
fathers, his son took his place as the
chief of the Sacs, hated the Americans,
loved the friendly British II went
yearly to Maiden, precisely as he
thought Pyesa would have had him do.
But Black Hawks mind was infinitely
superior to Pyesa's. His sentiments
We're loftier, his heart more susceptible.
He had the gift of the seer, the power
of the orator, with the high courage
and the profound policy of a born war
rior and a natural ruler. He had brood
ed over the early history Of his tribe,
and to his views as he looked down the
vista of years the former times seemed
so much better than the present that
the vision wrought upon his suscepti-
BILE Imagination, which pictured it to be
the Indian golden age. He had some
remembrance Of q treaty made by Cen
eral Harrison in 1904, to which his peo-
pie had given their assent, and his feel
ings were with difficulty controlled
when he was required to leave the
Rock river valley in compliance with a
treaty made with General Scott. That
valley. however, he peacefully aban-
doned, with his tribe, on being notified.
and went to the west of the Mississippi,
but he had spent his youth in that To-
cality, and the more he thought Of it
the more determined he was to return
thither. He readily enlisted the sympa-
thies of the Indians, who are ever
prone to ponder on their real or imagi-
nary wrongs, and 1t may be readily
conjectured that what Indian counsel
could not accomplish Indian prophecy
would. He had moved when summon
ed to move because he was then UMPIRE
aus