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CHAPTER VII
THE SACS AND FOXES
There is evidence to show that early in the
seventeenth century the Foxes occupied the country along the
Atlantic coast now embraced in the State of Rhode Island. Later
they moved to the valley of the St. Lawrence River and thence to the
vicinity of Green Bay, where they were found by Jean Nicolet in
1634. In 1667 Claude Allouez, a French Jesuit, found on the Wolf
River in Wisconsin, a village of Musquakies, which contained
a thousand warriors, and nearly five thousand persons. The
Musquakies seemed to realize that the invasion of the west by French
trappers and missionaries threatened the eventual occupation of
their lands by the whites, and from the first they waged war against
the French intruders and were nearly the only tribe with whom the
French could not live in peace. The English and Dutch were seeking
to gain possession of the far west, and they bribed some of the
Indian tribes to assist them. They succeeded in forming an alliance
with the Musqukies and other tribes, for teh purpose of
exterminating the French. The French, on the other hand, formed an
alliance embracing the Hurons, Ottawas, Pottawattamies, Sacs,
Illinois, Ojibwas and other tribes who greatly outnumbered the
Musquakies and their allies and a long war followed.
In 1712 the Foxes joined the Iroquois in an attack
upon the French fort at Detroit but were defeated with heavy losses.
They were driven by the French out of that part of the country and
settled on Fox River in the vicinity of Green Bay. They continued
their war on the fur traders and explorers, but met with a
disastrous defeat on a battle field which was given the name of
"Hill of the Dead." The Foxes lost hundreds of their bravest
warriors at this place and the remnant of them retreated to the
valley of the Wisconsin River.
In the early years of this war the Kickapoos and
Mascoutines were allies of the Foxes, but they were finally won over
by the French, and in 1732 joined the Hurons, Iroquois and Ottawas
against their former friends. In this unequal conflict the Foxes
were nearly exterminated, so that in 1736 their warriors were
reduced to little more than one hundred. The Foxes now formed a
close alliance with the Sacs, in the nature of a confederacy; each
tribe, however, reserved the right to make war or peace without the
consent of the other. The headquarters of the Foxes was at Prairie
du Chien and the Sacs at Prairie du Sac, in Wisconsin. The Foxes
had villages on the west side of the Mississippi, while the Sacs
remained on the east side. The Sacs could muster about three
hundred warriors, and the Foxes about three hundred and twenty. The
Sacs had long before occupied the region about Saginaw, in Michigan,
calling it Sauk-i-nong, from which came Saginaw. They called
themselves Sau-kies, signifying "Man with a red badge." Red was
the favorite color used by them in personal adornment. The Indian
name of the Foxes was Mus-qua-kies, signifying "Man with a yellow
badge." The name Fox originated with the French, who called them
Reynors. The river in Wisconsin where these Indians had their home,
was called by the French "Rio Reynor," as will be seen on the early
French maps. When the English wrested the country from France, they
gave the river its English translation Fox. The early English
writers called the tribe Reynards. In the latter part of the
eighteenth century the Sacs joined the Miamis in an attack upon St.
Louis. The Foxes appear to have remained in the vicinity of the
lead mines of Galena and Dubuque, for in 1788 they ceded to Julien
Dubuque for mining purposes the right to a strip of land northward
from the Little Maquoketa in Iowa.
The first treaty made by the United States with the
Indians of the Northwest was on the 9th of January, 1789, at Fort
Harmar on the Muskingum River in Ohio. It was conducted by Arthur
St. Claire, then Governor of Northwest Territory, on part of the
government. The Indian tribes represented were the Pottawattamies,
Chippewas, Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas and Sacs.
The territory embracing Iowa was represented by two
Sac chiefs. The objects of the treaty were to fix the boundary
between the United States and the several Indian tribes. It was
agreed that the Indians should not sell their lands to any person or
nation other than the United States; that persons of either party
who should commit robbery or murder, should be delivered up to the
proper tribunal for trial and punishment. By this treaty the United
States extended protection and friendship to the Pottawattamies and
Sacs.
When Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike ascended the
Mississippi River with his exploring party in 1805, he found four
Sac villages. The first was at the head of the Des Moines rapids on
the Iowa side and contained thirteen lodges; the second was on the
Illinois side about sixty miles above; the third was near the mouth
of Rock River; and the fourth was on the lower Iowa River. The
Foxes had three villages: one on the west shore of the Mississippi
River above Rock Rapids, one twelve miles west of the Dubuque lead
mines and another near the mouth of Turkey River. Lieutenant Pike
reported their numbers as follows: The Foxes, 1,750, of which 400
were warriors, 500 women and 850 children; Sacs, 700 warriors, 750
women and 1,400 children; making a population of 2,850.
The Sac village on Rock River was one of the oldest
in the upper Mississippi Valley. Black Hawk, in his autobiography,
says it was built in 1831; it was named Saukenuk. This was for more
than fifty years the largest village of the Sacs and contained in
1825 a population of not less than eight thousand. The houses were
substantially built, and were from thirty to one hundred feet in
length and from sixteen to forty feet in width. They were made with
a frame of poles covered with sheathing of elm bark fastened on with
thongs of buckskin. The doorways were three feet by six and before
them were suspended buffalo skins. These houses were divided into
rooms separated by a hall extending the length of the building.
Fire-pits were provided with openings for the smoke. The beds were
made of skins of animals thrown over elevated frames of elastic
poles. Half a mile east of the town is a bold promontory rising two
hundred feet from the bed of Rock River. This was known as "Black
Hawk's Watch Tower," and was the favorite resort of the great Sac
chieftain. here he would sit smoking his pipe, enjoying the grand
scenery spread out before him; the beautiful valley of Rock River,
the mighty current of the Mississippi and the bluffs of the Iowa
shore fringed with forests. Here he was born and it was the home of
his father, Py-e-sa, one of the great Sac chiefs. It is to his
credit that he clung to his old home and fought his last hopeless
battles against overwhelming numbers of well-equipped white troops
in defense of his native land.
On the 27th of June, 1804, William H. Harrison,
governor of Indiana Territory and of the Louisiana District, being
also superintendent of Indian affairs, was instructed by President
Jefferson to negotiate with the Sacs and Foxes for a portion of
their lands. In November Harrison met five Sac and Fox chiefs at
St. Louis, and obtained their signatures to a treaty which granted
to the United States fifty-one million acres of their land,
embracing a region east of the Mississippi River extending from a
point nearly opposite St. Louis to the Wisconsin River, for the
insignificant sum of $2,234 worth of goods and one thousand dollars
in money a year.
Black Hawk and several other chiefs repudiated this
treaty and claimed that the chiefs making it had no authority to
dispose of this immense tract of land, including the site of the
principal and oldest village of the Sac nation. The chiefs were
sent to St. Louis to secure the release of a prominent member of
their tribe and Black Hawk always asserted that they had no right to
thus dispose of their choicest lands. When it was claimed that he
had subsequently ratified the treaty of 1804 with his own signature
he asserted that he had been deceived, and did not intend to dispose
of their lands. There can be no doubt that the whites violated the
terms of the treaty which stipulated that the Sacs should remain in
undisturbed possession of the lands until they were surveyed and
sold to white settlers.
In 1808 adventurers began to enter the Indian
country attracted by reports of rich mines of lead, and frequent
collisions occurred between them and the Indians. In order to
protect the whites a fort was built, which was named in honor of the
President. The building of this fort without their consent, in
undisputed Indian territory on the west side of the Mississippi
River, was a clear violation of the treaty and could only be
regarded as an act of hostility. The Indians resented its
occupation as a violation of the treaty of 1804 and young Black Hawk
led a party of Sac and Fox warriors in an assault upon it, which was
repulsed by the garrison. When the war of 1812 against Great
Britain began, the Sacs and Foxes were sent into Missouri to be out
of reach of British influence. But they soon crossed the river and
became allies of the English army. In 1813 a stockade was built
near the present town of Bellevue, in Jackson County, Iowa, in order
to hold the country from the hostile Winnebagoes, Sacs and Foxes.
In 1814 Major Zachary Taylor was sent with a
detachment of 334 soldiers up the Mississippi River by boats, with
orders to destroy the corn fields of the Sacs and Foxes and burn
their villages on the Rock River. The Indians were located on both
sides of the Mississippi in the vicinity of Rock Island and
Davenport. They rallied from all points to the attack. A
detachment of British soldiers from Prairie du Chien joined them and
the battle lasted three hours. The Indians led by Black Hawk fought
with great courage to save their homes and Taylor was driven back
with heavy loss and compelled to retreat. Black Hawk had become an
ally of the British upon a promise that they would aid him to drive
the Americans out of the valley which he claimed and refused to
abandon. But when the war closed and the British were unable to aid
him farther, he returned to his old home on Rock River and found
that Keokuk had become a chief of the party friendly to the
Americans.
In 1815 a large council of Sacs and Foxes assembled
near the mouth of the Missouri River at which the treaty of 1804 was
ratified, but Black Hawk refused his assent to it and withheld his
signature, as did many of the minor Fox chiefs. They would not
consent to the barter of their country and ultimate removal from it.
Black Hawk made no resistance to the erection of Fort Armstrong in
1816 as a portion of his tribe under Keokuk had determined to give
up their lands on the east side of the river and move to the Iowa
side. Settlers now began to come in under the protection of the
soldiers and open farms in the Rock River Valley and vicinity. But
the old war chief, Black Hawk, with about 500 followers, held his
village and lands on Rock River.
In 1824 the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United
States all lands lying between the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers
south of the north line of Missouri, excepting a small portion lying
at the junction of these rivers afterward known as the "half-breed
tract," which they reserved for the families of the whites who had
married Indian wives. In 1825 an agreement was reached in council
held at Prairie du Chien fixing the southern boundary of the Sioux
country, separating their hunting grounds from those of the Sac, Fox
and Iowa Indians, on the south. It began at the mouth of the Upper
Iowa River, extending westward to its fork in Winneshiek County,
thence west to the Red Cedar in Black Hawk County, thence west to
the east fork of the Des Moines in Humboldt County, then in a direct
line west to the lower fork of the Big Sioux in Plymouth County,
following that river to its junction with the Missouri.
In 1828 the Sioux and Winnebagoes, then in alliance,
sent an invitation to the Sac and Fox chiefs near Dubuque to meet
them in council and forever bury the hatchet. The Fox chiefs,
unsuspicious of treachery, started toward the place of meeting. On
the second evening as they were in camp for the night on the east
shore of the Mississippi near the mouth of the Wisconsin River, they
were fired upon by more than a thousand Sioux warriors. Rushing
from their hiding place, the treacherous Sioux killed all but two of
the Foxes, who plunged into the Mississippi and swam to the west
shore, carrying news of the massacre to their village. Stung to
desperation by the act of treachery, the Foxes prepared to avenge
the murder of their chiefs. A war party was organized, led by the
newly elected chief, Ma-que-pra-um. They embarked in canoes and
stealthily landed in the vicinity of their enemies, concealed by the
dense underbrush. Toward midnight they swam the river and crept up
silently upon the sleeping foe. Nerved with the spirit of
vengeance, they silently buried their tomahawks in the heads of
seventeen Sioux chiefs and warriors and escaped to their canoes
without loss of a man. The war between the Sioux and Sacs and Foxes
was waged for many years.
THE BLACK HAWK WAR
The followers of Black Hawk always repudiated the
treaty of 1804, feeling that they had been wronged; but the white
settlers who were swarming around them, fearing hostilities,
demanded their removal. Collisions took place and, in 1830, when
Black Hawk and his tribe returned from their annual hunting
excursion, they found their lands had been surveyed and sold to
white settlers. Their cabins had been seized and occupied and their
own women and children were shelterless on the banks of the river.
Black Hawk drove the white intruders out of the village and
restored the wigwams to their owners. The whites called upon
Governor Reynolds of Illinois for assistance and he called upon
General Gaines to bring an army strong enough to expel the Indians.
On the 25th of June, 1831, General Gaines with
sixteen hundred mounted soldiers took possession of the Sac village,
driving the Indians from their homes to the west side of the
Mississippi River. On the 30th Governor Reynolds and General
Gaines, at the point of the bayonet, dictated terms with the Sac
chiefs by which the Indians were prohibited from returning to the
east side of the river without permission of the United States
authorities. It was now too late to plant corn again and autumn
found the Indians without food for winter.
In April, 1832, Black Hawk with his followers,
including women and children, crossed to the east side of the
Mississippi, near the mouth of Rock River. He declared the purpose
of his journey was to join the Winnebagoes in raising a crop of
corn. As they were proceeding toward the country occupied by their
friends, the Winnebagoes, General Atkinson, in command at Fort
Armstrong, on Rock Island, sent a messenger to Black Hawk,
commanding him to return immediately to the west side of the river.
Black Hawk refused to comply with the order, stating that his
people were suffering greatly for food. He sent word to General
Atkinson that they were on a peaceable journey to visit the
Winnebagoes who had invited them to come and help raise a crop of
corn. Governor Reynolds, upon hearing of the return of the Sacs,
called out the militia to aid the regulars at Fort Armstrong in
driving them out of the State. General Samuel Whiteside was placed
in command of the Illinois militia, numbering about two thousand.
One of the captains serving under him was Abraham Lincoln,
afterward President of the United States. Serving under General
Atkinson were Lieutenant-Colonel Zachary Taylor, who was elected
President in 1848, Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, afterward President
of the Southern Confederacy, and Captain W. S. Harney, afterward a
distinguished general. The militia burned the Indian village at
Prophetstown and then joined the regulars under General Atkinson.
The combined army numbered about two thousand four hundred, while
Black Hawk had less than five hundred warriors.
Black Hawk's little band was now near Dixon's Ferry,
about forty miles from Kishwacokee. Major Stillman, with two
hundred and seventy-five mounted volunteers, was anxious for a fight
and General Whiteside sent him out in the direction f the Sac camp
to make observations. Black Hawk hearing of Stillman's approach
sent three young men with a flag of truce to conduct Major Stillman
into camp, that they might hold a conference. Five more young
warriors were sent by the Sac chief to watch the reception of his
messengers. When the messengers bearing the flag of truce reached
Major Stillman's camp, they were taken prisoners and one of them was
shot. As the second party of five approached the camp, they were
fired upon and two of them killed. The others escaped and reported
to Black Hawk the slaughter of his messengers. The Sac chief had
but forty warriors with him, the main body was in camp ten miles
distant. The three Indians who escaped were pursued by the militia
into Black Hawk's camp. The fearless old chief concealed his forty
warriors in the brush and prepared for battle. As Major Stillman
approached with his entire force, the Indians in hiding opened fire
upon them and gave their terrific war whoop. The volunteers fired
one volley and then fled in a wild panic as the forty Sac warriors
poured hot shot into their broken ranks. Eleven of the volunteers
were killed. As they fled, their provisions and camp equipage were
abandoned. The fugitives scattered into little parties and never
ceased their wild fight until thirty miles were placed between them
and the enemy. Fifty of them kept on until they found shelter in
their homes, spreading alarm as they ran their horses, reporting an
overwhelming force of Indians in close pursuit. The wanton murder
of the messengers and the attack upon his camp enraged Black Hawk,
and he prepared as best he could to defend his people to the last.
After several battles against greatly superior
numbers, the Indians were gradually driven to the Wisconsin River.
General Henry Dodge, with two brigades of mounted men, now came
upon the remnant of the tribe and killed sixty-eight. The Indians
fought with great bravery, and when driven to the river bank, made a
heroic stand against overwhelming odds, checking for several hours
the pursuit.
While the warriors were inspired to the most
determined resistance by their undaunted old chief, the squaws
stripped bark from the trees, making frail boats of it in which they
placed the small children and household goods. Swimming the deep
waters, guiding their precious freight and leading their ponies,
they reached a sheltered island. When the women, children, ponies
and baggage were thus sheltered from the enemy, one-half of the
warriors held their foes in check, while the other half plunged into
the current, each holding his gun above his head with one hand,
swimming with the other, until they reached the opposite shore.
They then opened fire upon their pursuers, until those on the other
shore could cross in the same manner. Black Hawk stood calmly on
the river bank next to the enemy directing this retreat, which was
accomplished in the most skillful manner. Jefferson Davis, who was
serving under General Dodge and witnessed this heroic defense by
Black Hawk's little band, was greatly impressed with the skill of
the old chief in holding the pursuing army in check while his women
and children crossed the river. A few years before his death Mr.
Davis wrote as follows:
"This was the most brilliant exhibition of
military tactics that I ever witnessed; a feat of most consummate
management and bravery in face of an enemy of greatly superior
numbers. I never read of anything that could be compared with it.
Had it been performed by white men it would have been immortalized
as one of the most splendid achievements in military history."
Black Hawk modestly says of this desperate struggle
at the river:
"In this skirmish, with fifty braves, I
defended and accomplished my passage over the Wisconsin, with a loss
of only six men, though assailed by a host of mounted militia. I
would not have fought there, but to gain time for our women and
children to cross to an island. A warrior will duly appreciate the
disadvantage I labored under."
Sixty-eight of the Sacs fell in this brilliant
retreat and battle; but the remnant of the tribe was saved for the
time. An attempt was made t escape on rafts and canoes down the
Wisconsin River, but the white soldiers from safe shelter on the
shore killed men, women and children in their fight. Many were
drowned and others sought shelter in the woods and died of
starvation.
On the first of August, Black Hawk had gathered the
shattered remnants of his band on the banks of the Mississippi and
offered to surrender. But the soldiers who crowded the steamer
"Warrior" were ordered to fire upon the white flag Black Hawk had
raised in token of surrender. Twenty-three of his people were thus
killed while offering no resistance. The next day the Indians were
attacked by the combined forces of Generals Dodge, Henry, Alexander
and Posey and shot down again without mercy. Men, women and
children were killed like wild animals as they sought to escape by
swimming the river. More than three hundred Indians were thus
massacred and the slaughter was dignified by the name of the
"battle of Bad Axe." Black Hawk and a few of the people escaped but
were captured by treacherous Indians, delivered up to Colonel
Zachary Taylor and by him sent to Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis.
Thus ended the Black Hawk war in which the whites lost about two
hundred killed, the Indians about five hundred men, women and
children. The cost to our government was about $2,000,000.
Black Hawk was taken by his captors to Washington in
1833, and when presented to General Jackson, he stood unawed before
the President, remarking, "I am a man, you are only another." He
then addressed the President as follows:
"We did not expect to conquer the whites.
They had too many men. I took up the hatchet to avenge injuries my
people could no longer endure. Had I borne them longer without
striking my people would have said Black Hawk is a squaw; he is too
old to be our chief; he is no Sac. These reflections caused me to
raise the war-whoop. The result is known to you. I say no more.
The prisoners were taken to Fortress Monroe where
they were kept until the 4th of June, when they were released by
order of the President. They were then conducted by Major Garland,
of the United States Army, through several of the large cities to
have impressed upon them the great power of the nation. Crowds of
people gathered to see the famous Sac chieftain and his braves. As
they were conveyed down the Mississippi River to Fort Armstrong and
along the shores of their old homes and hunting grounds, the
dauntless old chief sat with bowed head. The memory of the power
and possessions of his race in former years came over him as he
looked for the last time upon the familiar shores, woods and bluffs.
Here he had reigned over the most powerful tribes of the west.
Here his father had ruled before him. Here he had dwelt in
happiness from boyhood. Here he had taken his one young wife to his
cabin and lived faithful to her all the years of his life. Here for
half a century he had led his warriors to scores of victories. he
was returning a prisoner shorn of his power, to be humiliated before
his hated rival, Keokuk.
Upon landing at Fort Armstrong, Keokuk was seen
gayly decorated as the chief of the Sacs and Foxes, surrounded by
his chosen band of personal attendants. Black Hawk was required to
make a formal surrender of his authority as chief of his nation, to
his triumphant rival and enemy. It was the bitterest moment of his
life and he only bowed to the humiliation at the command of his
conquerors, when powerless to resist. He retired with his faithful
wife, two sons and a beautiful daughter to the banks of the Des
Moines River near Iowaville. There he lived a quiet life,
furnishing his home in the style of white people. He cultivated a
small farm, raising corn and vegetables for his family. His cabin
stood near the banks of the river shaded by two majestic trees. He
saw his once proud and warlike nation dwindling away year by year.
Under his despised rival they were selling their lands to the
whites and spending the money in drunkenness and degradation.
Here on the old battle field, where years before he
had wrested the country from the powerful Iowas, the proud Sac
chieftain now brooded over his fallen fortunes. his last appearance
in public was at a celebration at Fort Madison, on the 4th of July,
1838, where the following toast was given in his honor: "OUR
ILLUSTRIOUS GUEST, BLACK HAWK - May his declining years be as calm
and serene as his previous life has been boisterous and warlike."
In responding the old chief said:
"It has pleased the Great Spirit that I am
here to-day. I have eaten with my white friends. It is good. A
few summers ago I was fighting you. I may have done wrong. But
that is past. Let it be forgotten Rock River Valley was a
beautiful country. I loved my villages, my corn fields and my
people. I fought for them. They are now yours. I was once a great
warrior. Now I am old and poor. Keokuk has been the cause of my
downfall. I have looked upon the Mississippi since I was a child.
I love the great river. I have always dwelt upon its banks. I
look upon it now and am sad. I shake hands with you. We are now
friends. I may not see you again. Farewell."
He died on the third day of October following, and
was buried on a spot long before selected by himself on the banks of
the Des Moines River near the northeast corner of Davis County. His
age was about seventy-two.
Mrs. Maria Peck, of Davenport, who made a careful
study of the famous Sac chieftain, writes in the "Annals of Iowa" as
follows:
"In Black Hawk was incarnated the very spirit of
justice. He was as inflexible as steel in all matters of right and
wrong, as he understood them. Expediency formed no part of his
creed, and his conduct in the trying emergency that ended in the
fatal conflict was eminently consistent with his character. No
thought of malice or revenge entered his great soul. The contest
was waged with no other purpose in mind than to protect his people
in what he believed was their inalienable right to the wide domain
that was being wrested from them. It matters not whether his skin
was copper-colored or white, the man who has the courage of his
convictions always challenges the admiration of the world, and as
such pre-eminently the noble old Sac war chief will ever stand as an
admirable figure."
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