Black Hawk (Sauk Leader) - War of 1812

War of 1812

Black Hawk served as a war leader of a band of Sauk at their village of Saukenuk. He had always been opposed to ceding Native American lands to white settlers and their governments. In particular, he denied the validity of Quashquame's 1804 treaty between the Sauk and Fox nations and then-Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory. The treaty ceded territory, including Saukenuk, to the United States. This treaty was subsequently disputed by Black Hawk and other members of the tribes because the full tribal councils had not been consulted, nor did those representing the tribes have authorization from their councils to cede lands. Black Hawk participated in skirmishes against the newly constructed Fort Madison in the disputed land; this was the first time he fought directly with U.S. forces.

The War of 1812 involved forces of Great Britain and its North American colonies in present-day Canada against the United States. Preoccupied with Napoleon, the British depended upon Native American allies to help them wage war in remote areas. Colonel Robert Dickson, an English fur trader, amassed a sizable force of Native Americans at Green Bay to assist the British in operations around the Great Lakes. Most of the warriors he assembled were from the Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Kickapoo, and Ottawa tribes. Dickson appealed to Black Hawk and his band of about 200 Sauk warriors. When Black Hawk arrived, he was given command of all the Natives gathered at Green Bay, presented with a silk flag, a medal, and a written certificate of good behavior and alliance with the British. In addition, Dickson bestowed upon Black Hawk the rank of brevet Brigadier General. Twenty years later, after the Battle of Bad Axe, the certificate was found carefully preserved, along with a flag similar to the one Dickson gave to Black Hawk.

During the war, Black Hawk and his warriors fought in several engagements with Major-General Henry Procter on the borders of Lake Erie. Black Hawk was at the battle of Fort Meigs, and the attack on Fort Stephenson. The British and the Indian Confederacy, led by Tecumseh, were repulsed with great losses to the British.

Black Hawk despaired over the waste of lives caused by the use of European attack methods; soon after, he quit the war to return home. Back in Saukenuk he found that his rival Keokuk had become the tribe's war chief. Black Hawk rejoined the British effort toward the end of the war and participated alongside British forces in campaigns along the Mississippi River near the Illinois Territory. At the Battle of Credit Island and by harassing U.S. troops at Fort Johnson Black Hawk helped to push the Americans out of the upper Mississippi River valley. Black Hawk fought in the Battle of the Sink Hole in May 1815, leading an ambush on a group of Missouri Rangers. Conflicting accounts of the action were given by the Missouri leader John Shaw and by Black Hawk.

After the War of 1812 ended, Black Hawk signed a peace treaty in May 1816 that re-affirmed the treaty of 1804, a provision of which Black Hawk later protested ignorance.