Great Indian Chief of the West; Or, Life and Adventures of Black Hawk

by Benjamin Drake

Department at War, Oct. 24th. 1832.
Sir: The return of the President to the seat of government, enables me to communicate to you his sentiments in relation to the operations and result of the campaign, recently conducted under your orders, against the hostile Indians; and it is with great pleasure, I have received his instructions to inform you, that he appreciates the difficulties you had to encounter; and that he has been highly gratified at the termination of your arduous and responsible duties. Great privations and embarrassments, necessarily attend such a warfare, and particularly in the difficult country occupied by the enemy. The arrangements which led to the defeat of the Indians, were adopted with judgment and pursued with decision, and the result was honorable to yourself, and to the officers and men acting under your orders.

I will thank you to communicate to the forces that served with you, both regulars and militia, the feelings of the President upon this occasion. I have the honor to be very respectfully, your obt. servant.
Lewis Cass.
Gen. H. Atkinson, Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.

In the report of the Secretary at War which has just been referred to, there is the following statement of the causes which led to this contest. "The recent hostilities, commenced by the Sac and Fox Indians, may be traced to causes, which have been for some time in operation, and which left little doubt upon the minds of those acquainted with the savage character, that they were determined to commit some aggression upon the frontier. The confederated tribes of the Sacs and Foxes have been long distinguished for their daring spirit of adventure and for their restless and reckless disposition. At the commencement of the eighteenth century, one of these tribes made a desperate attempt to seize the post of Detroit; and during a period of forty years, subsequent to that effort, they caused great trouble and embarrassment to the French colonial government, which was only terminated by a most formidable military expedition, sent by that enterprizing people into their remote regions west of Green Bay. During the last war with Great Britain, this confederacy entered zealously into the contest, and was among the most active and determined of our enemies. After the peace their communication with the Canadian authorities was preserved; and, in every year, large parties of the most influential chiefs and warriors visited Upper Canada, and returned laden with presents. That this continued intercourse kept alive feelings of attachment to a foreign power and weakened the proper and necessary influence of the United States, is known to every one who has marked the progress of events and conduct of the Indians upon the north western frontier. The tribes upon the upper Mississippi, particularly the Sacs and Foxes and Winnebagoes, confident in their position and in their natural courage, and totally ignorant of the vast disproportion between their power, and that of the United States, have always been discontented, keeping the frontier in alarm, and continually committing some outrage upon the persons or property of the inhabitants. All this is the result of impulse, and is the necessary and almost inevitable consequence of institutions, which make war the great object of life. It is not probable, that any Indian seriously bent up on hostilities, ever stops to calculate the force of the white man, and to estimate the disastrous consequences which we know must be the result. He is impelled onward in his desperate career, by passions which are fostered and encouraged by the whole frame of society; and he is, very probably, stimulated by the predictions of some fanatical leader, who promises him glory, victory and scalps.

"In this state of feeling, and with these incitements to war, the Sacs and Foxes claimed the right of occupying a part of the country on Rock river, even after it had been sold to citizens of the United States, and settled by them. In 1829 and in 1830, serious difficulties resulted from their efforts to establish themselves in that section, and frequent collisions were the consequence. Representations were made to them, and every effort, short of actual hostilities, used by the proper officers, to induce them to abandon their unfounded pretensions, and to confine themselves to their own country on the west side of the Mississippi river. These efforts were successful, with the well disposed portion of the tribes, but were wholly unavailing with the band known by the name of the "British party." In 1831, their aggressions were so serious, and the attitude they assumed, so formidable, that a considerable detachment of the army, and of the militia of Illinois, was called into the field; and the disaffected Indians, alarmed by the preparation for their chastisement, agreed to reside and hunt, "upon their own lands west of the Mississippi river," and that they would not recross this river to the usual place of their residence, nor to any part of their old hunting grounds east of the Mississippi, without the express permission of the President of the United States, or the Governor of the state of Illinois.

"This arrangement had scarcely been concluded, before a flagrant outrage was committed, by a party of these Indians, upon a band of friendly Menomomies, almost under the guns of Fort Crawford. Twenty-five persons were wantonly murdered, and many wounded, while encamped in the Prairie du Chien, and resting in fancied security upon our soil, and under our flag. If an act like this, had been suffered to pass unnoticed and unpunished, a war between these tribes would have been the consequence, in which our frontiers would have been involved, and the character and influence of the government, would have been lost in the opinion of the Indians.

"Apprehensive, from the course of events already stated, and from other circumstances, that the disaffected band of Sacs and Foxes, would again harass and disturb the settlements upon our borders, and determined that the murderers of the Menomenies should be surrendered or taken, the department ordered General Atkinson, on the 7th of March last, to ascend the Mississippi with the disposable regular troops at Jefferson barracks, and to carry into effect the instructions issued by your direction. Still further to strengthen the frontiers, orders were given for the re-occupation of Chicago.

"The demand for the surrender of the Menomenie murderers was entirely disregarded: and the British party of the Sacs and Foxes recrossed the Mississippi, and assuming a hostile attitude, established themselves upon Rock river. The subsequent events are well known, and the result has already been stated in this report."

In the annual report of Maj. General Macomb to Congress, of November 1832, very much the same positions are taken in regard to the causes which led to this contest with the Indians, that are contained in the report from the War Department. Its leading object seems to be to place the United States in the right—the Indians in the wrong.

It is to be regretted that the Honorable Secretary, whose opinions and statements on all subjects connected with the Indians, carry with them great weight, had not been more explicit, in assigning the causes which led to the late war, with a portion of the Sacs and Foxes. It is not to be supposed that the Secretary would designedly omit any thing, which in his opinion, was necessary, to a fair presentation of this matter; but as the case stands, his statement does not, it is believed, do justice to the Indians. The Secretary says the Sacs and Foxes "have always been discontented, keeping the frontier in alarm, and continually committing some outrage on the persons or property of the inhabitants." Between the treaty of peace at Portage des Sioux, in 1816, and the attack of Major Stillman, in 1832, it is supposed that the Sacs and Foxes never killed one American; and, their aggressions upon the persons and property of the whites, consisted principally, in an attempt to retain possession of their village and corn-fields, when pressed upon by the white settlers, who, in violation of the laws of Congress and express treaty provisions, were committing outrages upon the Indians: The report of the Secretary further states, that the Sacs and Foxes "claimed the right of occupying a part of the country upon Rock river, even after it had been sold to citizens of the United States, and settled by them." But the report does not state that under the treaty of 1804, by which these lands were ceded, it is expressly provided that so long as they remain the property of the United States, the Indians of said tribes shall enjoy the privilege of "living and hunting upon them;" it does not state that for six or eight years before the government had sold an acre of land upon Rock river, the white settlers were there, in violation of the laws, trespassing upon these Indians, and thus creating that very hostility of feeling, which, is subsequently cited as a reason for the chastisement inflicted upon them by the United States: it does not state, that in the year 1829, government, for the purpose of creating a pretext for the removal of the Indians from Rock river, directed a few quarter sections of land, including the Sac village, to be sold, although the frontier settlements of Illinois had not then reached within fifty or sixty miles of that place, and millions of acres of land around it, were unoccupied and unsold: it does not state that instead of requiring the Indians to remove from the quarter sections thus prematurely sold, to other lands on Rock river, owned by the United States, and on which, under the treaty, they had a right to hunt and reside, they were commanded to remove to the west side of the Mississippi: it does not state, that the "serious aggressions" and "formidable attitude" assumed by the "British party," in 1831, consisted in their attempt to raise a crop of corn and beans, in throwing down the fences of the whites who were enclosing their fields, in "pointing deadly weapons" at them and in "stealing their potatoes:" it does not state that the murder of the Menominie Indians, at Fort Crawford, by a party of the "British band," was in retaliation, for a similar "flagrant outrage," committed the summer previous, by the Menominies, upon Peah-mus-ka, a principal chief of the Foxes and nine or ten of his tribe, who were going up to Prairie des Chiens on business and were within one day's travel of that place: it does not state that one reason assigned by the "British party" for refusing to surrender the murderers of the Menominies, was the fact that the government had not made a similar demand of that tribe for the murderers of the Sacs: it does not state that the "hostile attitude" assumed by the Sacs and Foxes, in 1832, after recrossing the Mississippi, and their establishment on Rock river, simply amounted to this; that they came over with their women and children for the avowed purpose of raising a crop of corn with the Winnebagoes—were temporarily encamped on that stream—had committed no outrage upon person or property—and were actually engaged in entertaining some guests with a dog-feast, when the Illinois militia approached their camp, and killed the bearer of a white flag, which Black Hawk sent to them, in token of his peaceable disposition. These may be unimportant omissions, in the opinion of the Secretary, but in looking to the causes which led to this contest, and the spirit in which it was conducted, they have been deemed of sufficient importance, to receive a passing notice, when referring to his report.

The opinion has been expressed more than once in the course of this work, that there was in reality, no necessity for this war. A firm but forbearing course of policy, on the part of the United States, towards this discontented fragment of the Sacs and Foxes, would, it is believed, have prevented any serious aggression upon our people or their property. Certain it is, that a few thousand dollars, superadded to a humane spirit of conciliation, would have effected the permanent removal of Black Hawk and his band, to the west side of the Mississippi: and, as the government was not contending with them, in support of its national faith, nor about to punish them for an insult to its national honour, there could have been no disgrace in purchasing the settlement of the difficulty, on such terms. It has been stated that in the spring of 1831, Black Hawk agreed to remove his band to the west side of the Mississippi, and relinquish all claims to the lands upon Rock river, if the United States would pay him six thousand dollars, with which to purchase provisions and other necessaries for his people; and that the Indian agent at St. Louis, was informed of this fact. Moreover, it has been publicly alleged that before the campaign against Black Hawk, in the summer of 1832, the President and Secretary at War, were both informed, that the "British Band" of the Sacs and Foxes, could be peaceably removed to the west side of the Mississippi for six or eight thousand dollars. The secretary was assured, in the presence of a member of congress, that the inquiry had been made by a person familiar with the Indians, and the fact of their willingness to remove upon these terms distinctly ascertained.[12]