CHAPTER XIII
FIGHTING AGAINST FATE
BLACK HAWK AND HIS WAR
LACK HAWK was born on Rock River, in Illinois, about the year 1767. When only fifteen years old he took the scalp of an enemy and soon gained so much fame on the war path, that he became one of the foremost of leaders, and often headed parties of his people against other tribes. It was claimed by the majority of the chiefs and sachems of the Sacs and Foxes that the treaty made with Governor Harrison in 1804, by which their lands east of the Mississippi were sold, was executed on the part of the Indians by a few chiefs, who had no authority of the nation to whom the act was unknown until some time later. When, therefore, the Americans built a fort on the Mississippi, the Indians were angry and tried to cut off the garrison.
When Illinois became a State, in 1818, hundreds of emigrants flocked thither. They came so fast that their settlements surrounded the territory occupied by the Sacs and Foxes. Trouble is sure to come when such a state of affairs exists. The Indians looked upon the white people as intruders—as they certainly were—while the new comers were anxious to be rid of their unwelcome neighbors, and did all they could to make their situation uncomfortable. They thought that by doing this, they would force the Indians to "pull up stakes" and go elsewhere. But the true owners stayed where they were. When they were absent on a hunt, the settlers tore down the fences and turned the Indians' cattle into their cornfields, whose crops were trampled and destroyed. In 1827, during another absence of the warriors and their families, some miscreants set fire to their village and nearly fifty houses were laid in ashes.
AN INDIAN CATTLE RAID
Two months after these events, General Atkinson entered the Winnebago country with a military force and captured the chief and six Winnebagoes who were thrown into prison until they could be tried. The chief died in jail. After a long time four were found guilty and two acquitted, the former being sentenced to be hanged. Black Hawk was accused of being one of the party who fired on the keel boats, but was set free for lack of evidence. Not long afterward, when all danger was past, he confessed that he was guilty as charged.