Portal:Illinois/Selected biography/26

1837 illustration of Black Hawk from History of the Indian Tribes of North America

Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak in the Sauk language, (1767 – October 3, 1838) was a war leader of the Sauk American Indian tribe in what is now the Midwest of the United States. He earned his status as a war chief or captain by leading raiding and war parties as a young man, and a band of Sauk warriors during the Black Hawk War of 1832.

Black Hawk was born in 1767 in the village of Saukenuk on the Rock River (present-day Rock Island, Illinois). During the War of 1812, Black Hawk had fought on the side of the British against the U.S., hoping to push white American settlers away from Sauk territory. Later he led a band of Sauk and Fox warriors, known as the British Band, against European-American settlers in Illinois and present-day Wisconsin in the 1832 Black Hawk War. After the war, he was captured by U.S. forces and taken to the eastern United States. Shortly before being released from custody, Black Hawk told his story to an interpreter; aided also by a newspaper reporter, he published Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk, Embracing the Traditions of his Nation.... Black Hawk died in 1838 in what is now southeastern Iowa. He has been honored by an enduring legacy: his book, many eponyms, and other tributes. (Read more...)