Py-e-sa, Black Hawk’s father, the hereditary medicine man of his tribe, had held the medicine bag for many years and his ability as a discreet, fearless and upright man cannot be controverted. Regarding a campaign by the young men so far from home as hazardous in the extreme, he joined this expedition, and with his people paddled his canoe night and day down the Mississippi River until the enemy was reached upon the Merameg River, south of St. Louis, in vastly superior forces. The battle which followed was stubbornly waged, but in it, as in so many others, the ferocity of the attack put the Cherokees to flight, leaving twenty-eight of their number dead upon the field, while the Sacs lost but seven braves. But one of those seven was Py-e-sa, whose loss was never thereafter supplied to the great Sac nation. Had he been spared to treat of subsequent questions with the whites, his moderation had unquestionably sustained Keokuk’s position and the campaigns of 1831 and 1832, with their trains of slaughter, would have been averted. In this engagement Black Hawk himself killed three outright and wounded many more.
By the death of Py-e-sa, Black Hawk fell heir to the medicine bag, with its attendant responsibility. He immediately returned to his village, blackened his face and remained tranquil for the succeeding five years of his life, with no more stimulating employment than hunting, fishing and meditation. During this period of inaction, Black Hawk maintains, the Osages were constantly harassing his people by incursions into his country, carrying with each invasion a predatory warfare extremely distressing and galling. These became so frequent and offensive that, as Black Hawk has told us, “the Great Spirit took pity on them” (the Sacs), upon which event he took to the field. Here, at the head of a small party, he overtook a few struggling Osages, so feeble that he simply made them prisoners and handed them over to the Spanish father at St. Louis. With this famous act of clemency he continued his plan of total destruction of the offending Osages.
About the year 1800, the Iowa nation, having accumulated many grievances against the Osages, made common cause with the Sacs for the purpose of waging a war of extermination. Raising a force of about one hundred, which joined the Sac forces, numbering now about five hundred more, the two allies marched upon the unsuspecting Osages, who were unarmed and wholly unprepared for defense. They valiantly defended their homes and families and fought with the desperation known only to those who have waged such defenses against overpowering odds. One by one and dozen by dozen and score by score fell dead before the terrific attacks of the most terrible of Indian fighters, until there was none left to fill the gaps made in their ranks by the tomahawk and spear. Forty lodges were destroyed and every inhabitant save two squaws was put to death. Then, returning home, a great feast was made, at which Black Hawk exploited his personal valor to his friends. In this engagement he killed seven men and two boys with his own hand.
During those five years of meditation following his father’s death resentment had but slumbered. They killed his father, ’tis true, but it had been done defending themselves. The Sacs as a nation had no quarrel with the Cherokees. But immediately he returned from his war upon the unsuspecting Osages, Black Hawk collected another party and moved down the river against them. In due season the enemy’s country was reached and invaded, but, roam as they would, no more than five unknown people could be found, four men and one squaw. The men, after a short detention, were released, and the squaw was taken back to Black Hawk’s village on Rock River.
The futility of this campaign rankled in Black Hawk’s heart for a time, and to recoup his lost, or at least suspended reputation, he planned, in the year 1803, about the ninth moon, the most extensive campaign of his life against the combined forces of the Chippewas, Osages and Kaskaskias. No just reason existed for this war; none of the tribes of these nations had trespassed on Sac territory or rights, and none had offended in any other particular. Black Hawk was piqued at his last miscarriage and he simply made war against these people for the sake of war, and bloody indeed it proved to be. During its continuance seven pitched battles were fought, together with numerous skirmishes, in all which more than one hundred of the enemy perished. Here again Black Hawk boasts of personally killing with his own hands thirteen of the bravest warriors in the enemy’s ranks. His ferocity in these engagements is the best evidence for the statement that the glory of Black Hawk was placed above every other consideration.
In 1763 France ceded Louisiana to Spain, though Senor Rious, the Spanish agent, did not formally take possession of St. Louis and the upper Louisiana country until 1768, and even then St. Ange, the French Governor, continued to perform official acts until 1770. In 1800 Napoleon took it away again, retaining it until 1803, when it was purchased by the United States.[[11]] During the Spanish domination Black Hawk had been a periodical visitor to St. Louis, accepting frequent presents and forming what might be termed a devotion to the Governor, whom he designated as his “Spanish Father.”
After the conclusion of his last war, he paid this Spanish father a friendly visit at St. Louis. Spanish and French domination had ended and the Americans were just then taking possession of the country, much to his regret and, as might be imagined, disgust. Here are his comments: “Soon after the Americans arrived I took my band and went to take leave for the last time of our father. The Americans came to see him also. Seeing them approach, we passed out of one door as they entered another and immediately started in our canoes for our village on Rock River, not liking the change any more than our friends appeared to at St. Louis. On arriving at St. Louis, we were given the news that strange people had taken St. Louis and that we should never see our Spanish father again. This information made all our people sorry.”
CHAPTER II.
British Intrigue Against the Frontiers–Hatred of the Americans–Treaty of 1804.