Black Hawk (Sauk Leader) - As Sauk Leader

As Sauk Leader

Although not a hereditary chief, Black Hawk filled a leadership void within the Sauk community. When Quashquame ceded much of the Sauk homeland in 1804 to the United States, including the main village Saukenuk, he was viewed as ineffective. Black Hawk wrote in his autobiography:

It subsequently appeared that they had been drunk the greater part of the time while at St. Louis. This was all myself and nation knew of the treaty of 1804. It has since been explained to me. I found by that treaty, that all of the country east of the Mississippi, and south of Jeffreon was ceded to the United States for one thousand dollars a year. I will leave it to the people of the United States to say whether our nation was properly represented in this treaty? Or whether we received a fair compensation for the extent of country ceded by these four individuals? I could say much more respecting this treaty, but I will not at this time. It has been the origin of all our serious difficulties with the whites.

Because of his role in the disputed 1804 treaty, the tribe reduced their support of Quashquame and made him a minor chief. "Quasquawma, was chief of this tribe once, but being cheated out of the mineral country, as the Indians allege, he was denigrated from his rank and his son-in-law Taimah elected in his stead." Although Quashquame and Black Hawk were at odds, Black Hawk did not directly challenge the civil chief. They apparently remained on good terms as Black Hawk rose in importance and Quashquame faded. Quashquame avoided confrontation with the U.S., while Black Hawk did not. After Black Hawk led an aborted takeover of Fort Madison in the Spring of 1809, Quashquame worked to restore relations with the United States Army the next day.

Quashquame attempted to placate the U.S., telling Gen. William Clark during a meeting in 1810 or 1811:

My father, I left my home to see my great-grandfather, the president of the United States, but as I cannot proceed to see him, I give you my hand as to himself. I have no father to whom I have paid any attention but yourself. If you hear anything, I hope that you will let me know, and I will do the same. I have been advised several times to raise the tomahawk. Since the last war we have looked upon the Americans as friends, and I shall hold you fast by the hand. The Great Spirit has not put us on the earth to war with the whites. We have never struck a white man. If we go to war it is with the red flesh. Other nations send belts among us, and urge us to war. They say that if we do not, the Americans will encroach upon us, and drive us off our lands.

During the run up to the War of 1812, the US viewed Quashquame as loyal, or at least neutral, while Black Hawk was considered the leader of the British-allied Sauk. Quashquame led all Sauk non-combatants during the war. Black Hawk thought this was an ideal arrangement:

... all the children and old men and women belonging to the warriors who had joined the British were left with them to provide for. A council had been called which agreed that Quashquame, the Lance, and other chiefs, with the old men, women and children, and such others as chose to accompany them, should descend the Mississippi to St. Louis, and place themselves under the American chief stationed there. They accordingly went down to St. Louis, were received as the friendly band of our nation, were sent up the Missouri and provided for, while their friends were assisting the British!

A rift appeared within the Sauk after the war. In 1815 Quashquame was part of a large delegation that signed a treaty confirming a split between the Sauk along the Missouri River and the Sauk who lived along the Rock River at Saukenuk. The Rock River group of Sauk was commonly known as the British Band; they formed the core of warriors who participated in the Black Hawk War. About 1824 Quashquame sold a large Sauk village in Illinois to a trader Captain James White. White gave Quashquame "a little sku-ti-apo and two thousand bushels of corn" for the land, which later became Nauvoo, Illinois. This sale likely aggravated Black Hawk and other Sauk who wanted to maintain their claim on Illinois.

As Quashquame was eclipsed by his son-in-law Taimah as the Sauk chief favored by the U.S., his voice of compromise could no longer compete with Black Hawk’s resistance. When Caleb Atwater wrote about his visit to Quashquame in 1829, he depicted the leader as feeble, more interested in art and leisure than politics, but still advocating diplomacy over conflict. In the summer of 1830, Black Hawk began his incursions into the disputed territory of Illinois, eventually leading to the Black Hawk War.

Black Hawk's frequent rival was Keokuk, a Sauk war chief held in high esteem by the U.S. government, which viewed him as a calm and reasonable Sauk leader willing to negotiate, unlike Black Hawk. Black Hawk despised Keokuk, and viewed him as cowardly and self-serving, at one point threatening to kill him for not defending Saukenuk. After the Black Hawk War Keokuk was designated the main Sauk leader by the U.S.