CHAPTER X.
Fort Armstrong Built–Black Hawk as a Fault-Finder–Annihilation of the Iowas.
Black Hawk’s intermittent promises of good behavior and declarations of future tranquility were justly distrusted by the War Department, and rather than remain open to future disadvantage, it resolved to erect near his haunts a fort. Accordingly, on the 10th day of May, 1816, Gen. Thomas A. Smith and Brev. Lieut. Col. W. Lawrence, with a detachment of men, landed on Rock Island and soon thereafter, under the direction of the latter, began the construction of Fort Armstrong[[46]]–so called in honor of Gen. John Armstrong, then late Secretary of War.
Black Hawk witnessed these movements with dissatisfaction. The Indians had a superstitious veneration for the island, claiming, as will be seen from Black Hawk’s words:[[47]] “A good spirit had care of it, who lived in a cave in the rocks immediately under the place where the fort now stands, and has often been seen by our people. He was white, with large wings like a swan’s, but ten times larger. We were particular not to make much noise in that part of the island which he inhabited, for fear of disturbing him. But the noise of the fort has since driven him away, and no doubt a bad spirit has taken his place.” And in further contemplation of the beauties of the place and pleasures of this island to the Indians, Black Hawk was made to utter many fine sentiments, of a character to command our stanchest support and evoke a sympathy from one cover of this history to the other, had they been ingenuous and free from the suspicion that Col. Patterson may have allowed his generous nature to tint them a color not to be found in that Indian’s nature.
FORT ARMSTRONG.
Though hampered by various annoyances, the troops eventually completed Fort Armstrong and occupied it; their presence serving a healthy object lesson to quiet those British Sacs who were too fierce to be pacified while life lasted, and to stimulate a healthy and satisfactory trade between the remote points of the north and northwest and those to the south. It frequently has been alleged that Black Hawk and his people never received their annuities. This is untrue as the record of the time has disclosed.[[48]]
In November, 1820, we find the Sacs were drawing their annuities and had been on the 3d of each November; in fact, those annuities had been made permanent, and while bickerings about a fair division at times had been noticeable, the tribes and head men were satisfied.[[49]]
It may be well to add here, that when Rev. Jedediah Morse made the report just cited, he was a commissioner appointed by the President for the purpose of ascertaining the actual state of the Indian tribes of the northwest, and having visited Fort Armstrong in the summer of 1820, he found British flags still floating and English medals still worn almost exclusively in Black Hawk’s village. An exchange of these for American flags and medals had been recommended in a letter written to him November 20, 1820, from that post, and he adopted the suggestion in his report;[[50]] but the flags and medals continued in evidence, notwithstanding Morse’s report.
Following those manifestations, hostility to American rule was also expressed in mutterings and quiet threats in 1823, when Beltrami stopped there, and which he expressed in his books as follows: “For, both from instinct and from feelings transmitted from father to son, they cordially despise and hate them”[[51]] (the Americans), which certainly did not indicate that the treaty of 1804 was responsible for their hatred; it indicated also that the treaty of 1816 rested very lightly upon their shoulders and that the erection of Fort Armstrong was a wise precaution. If it may be thought that the treaty of 1804 made Black Hawk a fault-finder with the Americans, it may be well to introduce a specimen of his chronic affliction, found in the papers of Capt. T.G. Anderson, British Indian Agent, in Vol. 10, Wis. Hist. Coll’s., pp. 145, 146.
“Speeches of Black Hawk and Na-i-o-gui-man, at Drummond’s Island, July 12, 1821.
“Present, Lieut.-Col. Wm. McKay, British Indian Superintendent; Capt. Thos. G. Anderson, Clerk; Maj. James Winnett, and other officers of the Sixty-eighth British Regiment, together with Lieut. L. Johnston.
“The Black Hawk, Speaker:
“‘Father, I am not very able to speak–probably I may say something improper. I may have something to reproach my father with. I could not get any of my chiefs to come with me.[[52]] One of the Reynard or Fox chiefs accompanied me, and some of the Menominees who reside among us. My mind has been entirely taken up since I left home with the idea that every stroke of my paddle carried me nearer to my Great Father’s fire, where his soldiers, the red coats, would be charitable to me and cover my naked skin; and that in consequence of my not having been able for three years to step across the barriers, which separate us from them, I would receive a double proportion of my Great Father’s bounty.
“‘The Americans, my father, surround us, but we are ever ready to meet them. Now, my father, as we see you but seldom, I hope you will open your stores and give us more presents than you do to other Indians who visit you annually. Now I speak to you, my father, in hopes you will be charitable to us, and give us something to take to our wives and children. They are expecting to be warmed by the clothing of their Great Father.’
“Taking some strings of wampum, he added: ‘Father, I got this from the White Elk (Capt. McKee), to open a smoother path from our country to all your fires. I spoke to the Pottawattomies with it, and they were happy to accede to our proposals of friendship. Now, my father, we have always obeyed your voice and will ever listen to your counsels. With regard to the Indians, we have a good road from our country to your fires; but there are whites who appear strong, and tell us they will not allow us to see you any more. Should that be the case, we will be miserable. But if the road continues good, as Capt. McKee told us it would, we will see you every day’ (year). Delivered the wampum.
“Answer of the Superintendent:
“‘Children, I have listened to your discourse. Every word has entered into my ears. When you came here three days (years) ago, I gave you of your Great Father’s bounty a much greater proportion than I did to other Indians, and told you your presents would in future be given you at Amherstburg. You were displeased. You went away dissatisfied. I have again this year treated you well. You appear dissatisfied still, and want more. I now tell you that your presents are at Amherstburg, and that in future you must go there if you wish to receive your Great Father’s bounty. I have done everything in my power to please you and render you happy; but my efforts appear to have been thrown away upon you. Go home, and I do not wish to see dissatisfied children about me again. With respect to the road being stopped up as you say, that is news to me. I do not know that any steps have been taken to effect that; and, indeed, if you behave yourselves, as I have always recommended you to do, I do not believe you will be hindered from seeing your Great Father’s fires.’”[[53]]
It will be seen from that meeting with his friends that Black Hawk was a hard man to get along with, even with his friends. He returned home; but instead of behaving himself he joined Pash-e-pa-ho in a war which robbed the Iowas of their lands and exterminated their tribes, so that thereafter their nation became a tradition. If Black Hawk should be heard to complain of the loss of his lands to the Americans for a trifling price, how much more should others whom he had wantonly robbed and whose kin he had murdered be heard? Old men, young men, old women, young women and children in swaddling clothes were murdered in the most brutal manner; their homes were confiscated and their tribal name effaced from history, to be no more known of men. Aye, upon that bloody battlefield it was decreed that Black Hawk should be buried and from it a ghoulish hand should steal his body; a fitting retribution, one might justly say!
On the first day of May, 1823, the Iowas were celebrating their return from a successful hunt by feasts, games and horse-racing. The mellow sun had just arisen to witness their mock jousts and races. Intent upon the harmless tournament, none had noticed the gradual gathering in the neighboring grass and woods of the vicious Sacs during the night. The women and children had been left at the village, while the men, discarding their arms, gathered some distance away to enjoy their frolic, unarmed and unsuspecting. A race had been appointed for the most famous, and thus, while all were eagerly preparing for its issue, the murderous Sacs pounced upon them.
All that day the unequal struggle waged; the unarmed Iowas against their armed and powerful foes. Man after man went down before the fury of the victors. Home after home was made desolate from the blow of the tomahawk, the thrust of the spear and the ugly gash of the knife in the hands of the hideous, howling Sacs; very devils incarnate. Parties of twenty-five armed Sacs sought out a similar number of unarmed Iowas whose strength had been well nigh spent and slaughtered them. Fresh bands of the same number from the reserves did the like with other tired and spent defenders until evening approached, when, unsupported by the arms which had been left back at the village, and fighting against hopeless odds, the Iowas could no longer sustain an honest cause; then, and then only, as the mantle of evening fell upon that gory battlefield, with a few scattered exceptions, the last of the Iowas was sent to the hunting grounds of his dreams. The victorious Sacs fell upon the women, children, invalids and cripples and murdered all save a pitiful handful, which Black Hawk piously offered afterward to adopt into his tribe.
No one can estimate the number of dead. Pashepaho and Black Hawk have attempted the task, but when it is known that the ordinary wild Indian cannot comprehend numbers, we must leave all calculation open to conjecture. Suffice it to say, the Iowa nation was annihilated, its lands confiscated, and a scene of desolation was upon the land for many years thereafter.
Following the account of Fulton, we find on page 120 et seq. the following:
“When Mr. Jordan first saw the battleground in 1828, the graves of the slain still appeared fresh, as if they had not been made more than a year or two before. Black Hawk had often detailed to him the plan of the attack and the incidents of the engagement. Contrary to the usual Indian custom, this battle was brought on in the daytime. The battlefield is a level river bottom prairie, about four miles in length and two miles wide near the middle, narrowing to points at either end. The main area of the bottom rises about twenty feet above the river, with a narrow strip of lower land skirting the margin of the stream, covered with trees. The river bank was fringed with a dense growth of willows. Near the lower end of the prairie, and extending up to the bank of the river, was situated the Iowa village. Two miles above the town, near the middle of the prairie, was situated a small natural mound which was then covered with a growth of small trees and shrubs. In the rear of this mound lay a belt of wet prairie which was covered with a rank grass. Bordering this on the north, the land rises abruptly into broken bluffs covered with a heavy forest many miles in extent. It was through this forest that the Sac and Fox war party approached in the night before the attack, and secreted themselves in the tall grass mentioned, intending to remain in ambush through the day, and make observations to aid them in the attack which they contemplated making on the following night. From this position their spies could take a full survey of the situation of the village and watch the movements of the Iowas.
“Near the mound mentioned, the Iowas had their racecourse, where they were frequently wont to resort to engage in the amusement of horse-racing. Unfortunately for them, this day they had selected for their sports. Unconscious of the proximity of a lurking foe, they repaired to the racing ground, leaving most of their arms in the village with the old men, women and children, unprotected. The Sacs and Foxes, under the leadership of their wily old chief, Pash-e-pa-ho, perceived their advantage. He directed his subordinate in command, Black Hawk, with a band of young warriors to file off through the tall grass and avail themselves of the cover of the timber along the river bank, to reach the village with the utmost speed and there commence the battle. This movement was successfully executed, while Pash-e-pa-ho with his division made a simultaneous assault from their ambush upon the unarmed Iowas, who were engaged in their amusements at the racecourse. Black Hawk, with his warriors at the village, poured a furious volley upon the defenseless inhabitants, completing the slaughter with tomahawk and scalping knife. The unarmed Iowas at the racecourse attempted to reach the village, two miles distant, but most of them were slain in their flight by Pash-e-pa-ho’s warriors. The survivors reached their village only to find it in flames and to behold their slaughtered friends in the midst of the devouring element. So great was the advantage of their assailants that the Iowas could make but a feeble resistance. Their enemies, however, accorded to them the credit of making a brave but hopeless resistance and of yielding only because of the advantage their enemies had taken. The Iowas asked a parley and submitted their fate to the will of their conquerors. For a time they lived in the country as an integral part of the Sac and Fox nation. This condition of a conquered people they felt to be a galling one, and they complained of the tyranny of the Sacs and Foxes.”