Life of Black Hawk

Life of Black Hawk (1833) is the autobiography of Sauk leader Black Hawk. It was dictated by Black Hawk himself to US army interpreter Antoine Le Claire. Black Hawk relates the story of his life and of his tribe during the early 19th-century conflicts between the Indigenous nations and the white settlers. He details his tribe’s involvement in the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, his active resistance against his people’s removal from their homeland that led to the Black Hawk War, and his eventual surrender. Black Hawk’s account is the first published memoir by an Indigenous American that illuminates Indigenous people’s experiences during colonial expansion, and it remains a seminal text in Indigenous literature and studies. Black Hawk was a war leader of the Sauk tribe, an Indigenous nation originally inhabiting the land in what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin. By the 19th century, the tribe had settled along the Mississippi River, now between Rock Island, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. After the enforcement of racist removal policies by the United States government, the tribe moved west of the Mississippi and ultimately settled in Oklahoma.

According to Antoine Le Claire’s note, Black Hawk wished to publish his life story so that white people would learn why he fought against the United States. Le Claire was his interpreter and translator. Several editions followed the first publication of Black Hawk’s autobiography. The text’s original scribe, John B. Patterson, edited and revised an edition in 1882. Patterson claimed he and Le Claire read the English transcript to Black Hawk who was pleased with the narrative. The accuracy of the text is often contested as translations and the subsequent editions certainly diverged from Black Hawk’s original oral account.

This study guide refers to the 2008 e-book edition by Penguin Books. This edition by Penguin books reproduces the 1833 first edition of Black Hawk’s memoir.

Content Warning: The text contains outdated and derogatory terminology about Indigenous people, which this guide avoids reproducing. It also references racist and violent actions committed by white people and the nations of the United States, France, Spain, and Great Britain.

Summary

Black Hawk, born in 1767, is a member the Sauk tribe who established himself as a potent warrior and earned the status of a war leader. After becoming a prisoner of war to the United States in 1833, Black Hawk decided to relate his life story to US interpreter Antoine Le Claire. His intention, he states, is to make known the reasons that led him to war with the white settlers and the United States government; he explains that he wishes to counter misrepresentations of himself. Black Hawk states his pride was wounded during the last years of his life.

Black Hawk begins his recounting. He was born in 1767 in Saukenuk village, in present day Rock Island, Illinois. The tribe’s original lands were near Montreal, but the tribe was driven away due to wars and later built and settled in the Sac village. Then, the Meskwaki (Fox) tribe united with them. Black Hawk’s great-grandfather Na-nà-ma-kee, a chief, had dreamed that one day he would meet a white man who would be the tribe’s father. Na-nà-ma-kee met a Frenchman who offered gifts to the tribe. Na-nà-ma-kee earned the medicine bag and a superior status as the war leader of the nation.

As a young man, Black Hawk established himself as a brave warrior in battle against the Osage. When his father died, he inherited the medicine bag. In 1804, the Americans had gained authority in the region. When the Sauk sent a party of men into St. Louis to ask the American officials for the release of a Sauk prisoner, they came back having signed the Treaty of 1804 without the tribe’s knowledge. According to the treaty, the Sauk ceded their homeland. The party had been intoxicated during the meeting, and the prisoner was killed.

The British warned the Indigenous tribes that the Americans would take their lands to secure their alliance in the War of 1812. Black Hawk’s main motive in joining the war was to defend his homeland against American imperialism. During the war, Black Hawk noticed the different ethics of warfare between the Sauk and the white people. After the American victory, conflicts started as the settlers began to move into the Sauk land.

Black Hawk mourns the loss of his traditional way of life and offers an extended description on Sauk customs, ceremonies, and their cultural ideas as well as a mythical story about corn.

Black Hawk himself signed another treaty misunderstanding its terms. Black Hawk describes several instances of violent confrontations between the settlers and the Sauk. White settlers would give whiskey to the Sauk men and deceive them by taking their provisions and weapons as an exchange. The Sauk gradually lost their ability to sustain themselves, as settlers occupied and fenced their corn fields for their own use, stripping the tribe of one of their main food sources. The Sauk hunters were affected by the addiction to alcohol and abandoned their hunting habits, which also impacted the tribe’s self-sufficiency.

As the United States government exerted constant pressure for the removal of the Sauk, the tribe was divided. Ke-o-kuck, a Sauk leader, accepted the tribe’s removal thinking it would keep the people safe, while Black Hawk determined to resist and remained in his homeland despite constant threats. Ke-o-kuck moved west with his party, while Black Hawk decided to return to the Sauk village with his band after hunting. Black Hawk tried to avoid armed conflict, but as the army tried to inhibit the tribe’s advance to the village, he asserted their rights to self-defense. Black Hawk sent a party of his men to negotiate peace, but the army killed them, causing the outbreak of the war.

A prolonged period of violent conflict followed, and initially Black Hawk led successful attacks against the US military. However, due to lack of provisions and food, the Sauk reached a desperate condition that ultimately led to their defeat in a final massacre. Black Hawk became a prisoner of war, and the president ordered his tour of the eastern states. Black Hawk reflected on the differences between the Sauk and the white American way of life, criticizing white culture and the unjust treatment of Indigenous Americans. He also anticipated that colonial expansion would continue further west. Ultimately, Black Hawk accepted that his years as a war leader ended and wished for peace between the Sauk and the white people.