USA > Iowa > Henry County > The history of Henry county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 39
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as might naturally arise from an attempt to spell an Indian word by sound. The Major spelled the name Muck-a-ta-mish-e-ki-ak-ki-ak, and the reader will observe the general similarity in the two methods. Probably Mr. Jordan's way is the correct one. The literal translation of the name into English is a black hawk.
Another error exists concerning the official position of the man. He was not a chief, either by inheritance or election. His father was a leading spirit, perhaps a prophet or a man of commanding influence in the councils of the Sacs. At an early age, Black Hawk was allowed to don the war-paint, because of his having slain an enemy of his tribe. This rather traditionary statement comes unsupported, but is given for what it is worth. The story runs that the youth was but sixteen years old when he hung his first scalp upon his wigwam.
In character the Indian boy was brave, cautious and ambitious. He aspired to rank and sought the gratification of his passion for power by stealthy means. He possessed marvelous oratorical abilities, in that gift equaling the great speaker Keokuk. As a warrior, he was dependent more upon strategy than upon the qualities which white men deem essential to military prowess ; but Black Hawk was not a cruel or blood-thirsty man, who slew merely for the sake of slaughter. He was a paradox in some characteristics, and the report given by Mr. Jordan, of his latter days, contradicts the generally believed accounts of his early methods of self-promotion. However, one can accept the statements of his friend without too great a tax on one's credulity, when it is remembered that the last years, and not the first, were spent in this vicinity. Black Hawk the youth was very different from Black Hawk the old and defeated man.
History teaches that Black Hawk's efforts at generalship were failures, when military method was required. His power lay in sudden and fierce attacks, with dramatic strategy and rush of mounted braves. It was by such means, and the employment of his great eloquence in council, that he gained his rank as a leader. He assumed the place of authority over Keokuk, his ranking officer, and maintained his hold upon his men without ever claiming to be a chieftain. He called himself a Brave, and delighted in the title.
The Sacs and Foxes, according to their traditions, once dwelt upon the shores of the great lakes. Gradually they were pushed westward, until in time they came to occupy a large portion of Northern Illinois. In spite of the pressure of the whites, this band occupied a site on the east shore of the Missis- sippi, near Rock River. Here Black Hawk was, in 1832, the controlling spirit. " He was never a chief, either by inheritance or election," declares Maj. Beach, "and his influence was shared by a wily old savage, of part Winnebago blood, called the Prophet, who could do with Black Hawk pretty much as he pleased ; and also by a Sac named Na-pope, the English of which is Soup, and whom the writer found to be a very friendly and manageable old native, as was also Black Hawk."
As relevant to the history of the Indian occupation of this region, we quote from a paper prepared by Uriah Biggs, and published in the " Annals of Iowa," the following authentic account of Black Hawk's first battle. The battle-field was on the present site of Iowaville, which was long ago the prin- cipal seat of the Iowa nation of Indians, and was where Black Hawk after- ward died. At the time of the massacre, Black Hawk was a young man, and the graphic account of his first steps toward chieftainship, as related by Mr. Biggs, is made up of the details given by the Indians who participated in the battle : " Contrary to long-established custom of Indian attack, this battle was brought on in daytime, the attending circumstances justifying this departure
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from the well-settled usages of Indian warfare. The battle-field is a level river- bottom prairie, of about four miles in length and two miles wide, near the mid- dle, narrowing down to points at either end. The main area of the bottom rises, perhaps, twenty feet above the river, leaving a narrow strip of low bottom along the river, covered with trees that belted the prairie on the river-side with a thick forest, and the river-bank was fringed with a dense growth of willows. Near the lower end of the prairie, and near the river-bank, was situated the Iowa village, and about two miles above the town, and near the middle of the prairie, is situated a small natural mound, covered at that time with a tuft of small trees and brush growing on its summit.
"In the rear of this mound, lay a belt of wet prairie, which, at the time here spoken of, was covered with a dense crop of rank, coarse grass ; bordering this wet prairie on the north, the country rises abruptly into elevated and broken river-bluffs, covered with a heavy forest for many miles in extent, por- tions of it thickly clustered with undergrowth, affording a convenient shelter for the stealthy approach of the cat-like foe. Through this forest the Sac and Fox war-party made their way in the night-time, and secreted themselves in the tall grass spoken of above, intending to remain in ambush through the day, andmake such observations as this near proximity to their intended victims might afford, to aid them in the contemplated attack on the town during the following night. From this situation their spies could take a full survey of the situation of the village, and watch every movement of the inhabitants, by which means they were soon convinced the Iowas had no suspicion of their presence.
"At the foot of the mound above noticed, the Iowas had their race-course, where they diverted themselves with the excitements of the horse, and skilled their young warriors in cavalry evolutions. In these exercises, mock battles are fought, and the Indian tactics of attack and defense, of victory and defeat, are carefully inculcated, by which means a skill in horsemanship is acquired which is rarely excelled. Unfortunately for them, this day was selected for these equestrian sports, and, wholly unconscious of the proximity of their foes; the warriors repaired to the race-ground, leaving the most of their arms in the village, and their old men and women and children unprotected.
"Pashapaho, who was chief in command of the enemy's forces, perceived. at once the advantage this state of things afforded for a complete surprise of his now doomed victims, and ordered Black Hawk to file off with his young warriors through the tall grass, and gain the cover of the timber along the river-bank, and, with the utmost speed reach the village and commence the battle, while he remained with his division in the ambush, to make a simulta- neous assault on the unarmed men, whose attention was engrossed with the excitement of the races. The plan was skillfully laid and most dexterously prosecuted. Black Hawk, with his forces, reached the village undiscovered and made a furious onslaught upon its defenseless inhabitants, by firing one general volley into their midst, and completing the slaughter with the toma- hawk and scalping-knife, aided by the devouring flames with which they en- gulfed the village as soon as the fire-brand could be spread from lodge to lodge. "On the instant of the report of fire-arms at the village, the forces under Pashapaho leaped from their couchant position in the grass, and sprang tiger- like upon the astonished and unarmed Iowas in the midst of their racing sports. The first impulse of the latter naturally led them to make the utmost speed to reach their arms in the village, and protect, if possible, their wives and children from the attacks of merciless assailants.
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"The distance from the place of the attack on the prairie was two miles, and a great number fell in the flight by the bullets and tomahawks of their- adversaries, who pressed them closely with a running fire the whole way, and they only reached their town in time to witness the horrors of its destruction. Their whole village was in flames, and the dearest objects of their lives lay in slaughtered heaps amidst the devouring element, and the agonizing groans of the dying mingled with the exulting shouts of a victorious foe, filled their hearts with a maddening despair. Their wives and children who had been spared the general massacre were prisoners, and, together with their arms, were in posses- sion of the victors, and all that could now be done was to draw off their shat- tered and defenseless forces and save as many lives as possible by a retreat across the Des Moines River, which they effected in the best possible manner, and took a position among the Soap Creek hills.
"The complete success attending a battle does not always imply brave. action, for, as in the present instance, bravery does not belong to a wanton attack on unarmed men and defenseless women and children. Yet it is due to Pashapaho, as commander of an army, to give him full credit for his quick perception of the advantages circumstances had placed within his reach, and for his sagacity in at once changing the programme of attack to meet occurring- events, and the courage and intrepidity to seize these events and insure his success. The want of these essential qualities in a commander has occasioned the loss of many a battle in what is courteously termed civilized warfare.
" The Iowas, cut off from all hope of retrieving their loss, sent a flag of truce to Pashapaho, submitting their fate to the will of their conqueror, and a parley ensued, which resulted in the Iowas becoming an integral part of the Sac and Fox nation ; but experiencing the ill-usage that is the common fate of a con- quered people, they besought the United States authorities to purchase their undivided interest in the country, and thus allow them to escape from the tyranny of their oppressors. The purchase was accordingly made in 1825, and they removed to the Missouri River, and have so wasted in numbers as to scarcely preserve their existence as an independent tribe. The sole cause of this war- was the insatiable ambition of the Sac and Fox Indians, as this was their first acquaintance with the Iowa nation or tribe."
"My first and only interview with Black Hawk," continues Mr. Biggs, " was at Rock Island, at the time of the treaty for the Iowa Reserve, in 1836, about one year before his death. I was introduced to him by his intimate acquaint- ance and apologist, the late Jeremiah Smith, of Burlington. He asked where I resided, and being told on the Wabash River, in Indiana, he traced on the sand the principal Western rivers, showing their courses and connections, and exhibiting a general knowledge of the prominent features of the topography of the Western States.
" The interview occurred after his first visit to Washington, where he was taken by way of the Ohio River to Pittsburgh, and returned by Philadelphia, Baltimore, Albany, Buffalo and Detroit, affording him a good opportunity to form a salutary impression of the military resources of the United States, and also to acquire a general knowledge of its geography. Its great military strength seemed to arouse his keenest observation, and furnished the main topic of his remarks upon the country as he passed through, as well as on his return to his tribe. The colloquy at this interview afforded an occasion to express his bitter reflections upon this painful theme. Mr. Smith, unfortunately for the repose of Black Hawk's feelings, and unconscious of its effect, mentioned the writer of this sketch as a surveyor of public lands, a character always unwelcome among
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the Indians. This remark I much regretted, as Black Hawk's countenance was instantly covered with gloom, and he rather petulantly said : 'The Shomokoman was strong, and would force the Indians to give up all their lands.'
" The colloquy here ended, as this barbed arrow, inadvertently thrown hy Mr. Smith, had occasioned a tumult in Black Hawk's mind that rendered fur- ther conversation on his part disagreeable. The impression of the writer in regard to Black Hawk's personal appearance were those of disappointment. He was attired in a coarse cloth coat, without any semblance of fit or proportion, with his feet thrust into a pair of new stoga shoes that were without strings, and a coarse wool hat awkwardly placed on his nearly bald pate, and presenting a very uncouth and rather ludicrous personal bearing.
" This toggery, perhaps, had its share in lowering my previously-estimated claims of Black Hawk to distinction among the celebrated men of his race. ' The fine head, Roman style of face, and prepossessing countenance,' that so favorably impressed the distinguished author of the 'Sketch-Book,' on visiting him while a prisoner in Jefferson Barracks, were no longer apparent to my dull ·comprehension.
" It would, indeed, be difficult to find a name in history that attained so great a notoriety, associated with such limited mental endowment and true mili- tary skill. Every prominent act of his life gave evidence of the lack of sound discretion and prudent forethought. We find him as early as 1804 visiting the Spanish Governor at St. Louis, at the time the United States agents called to accept the transfer of the authority of the country. Black Hawk being informed of the purpose of their visit, refused to meet these agents of the new government, he passing out of one door as they entered at the other, and embarking with his suite in their canoes and hastening away to Rock Island, saying he liked his Spanish father best. This was a mere whim, as he had, as yet, no acquaintance with the Government and people of the United States. He, however, at once determined on hostility to both ; and this ill-ad- vised and hasty determination was his ruling passion while he lived.
"Lieut. Pike, on behalf of the Government, made him a friendly visit to Rock Island, the following year, and, as a token of friendship, presented Black Hawk with an American flag, which he refused to accept. He embraced the first opportunity that offered to form an alliance with the British authorities in Canada, and eagerly attached himself and 500 warriors of his tribe to the British standard, at the commencement of the war of 1812. Here, his lack of capacity to command an army, where true courage and enduring fortitude were requisite to success, was fully demonstrated. His warlike talents had hitherto been only tested in stealthy and sudden onslaughts on unprepared and defense- less foes ; and, if successful, a few scalps were the laurels he coveted, and he retired, exulting in the plunder of a village and these savage trophies. His campaigns against the Osages and other neighboring tribes, lasted only long enough to make one effort, and afforded no evidence of the fortitude and patient skill of the able military leader. His conduct under the British flag as ' Gen. Black Hawk ' showed him entirely wanting in the capacity to deserve that title. He followed the English army to Fort Stephenson, in expectation of an easy slaughter and pillage ; but the signal repulse the combined forces still met by the gallant Col. Croghan, completely disheartened him, and he slipped away with about twenty of his followers to his village on Rock River, leaving his army to take care of themselves.
" He entertained no just conception of the obligations of treaties made between our Government and his tribe, and even the separate treaty by himself
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and his ' British Band,' in 1816, was no check on his caprice and stolid self- will, and its open violation brought on the war of 1832, which resulted in his complete overthrow, and ended forever his career as a warrior.
" The history of his tour through the United States as a prisoner, is a severe reflection upon the intelligence of the people of our Eastern cities, in regard to the respect due to a savage leader who had spent a long life in butchering his own race, and the frontier inhabitants of their own race and country. His journey was, everywhere throughout the East, an ovation, falling but little short of the respect and high consideration shown to the nation's great benfactor, La Fayette, whose triumphal tour through the United States happened near the same period. But as an offset to this ridiculous adulation in the East. when the escort reached Detroit, where his proper estimate was understood, Black Hawk and his suite were contemptuously burned in effigy. But due allowance should be made for the ignorance concerning true Indian character, among the Eastern people, as their conceptions are formed from the fanciful creations of the Coopers and Longfellows, immensely above the sphere of a blood-thirsty War Eagles and the filthy, paint-bedaubed Hiawathas of real savage life.
" Black Hawk died in the fall of 1838, near Iowaville, the scene of his triumph, under Pashapaho, over the Iowas, in the early part of his warlike career. He was buried in a sitting posture, in a frail tomb made of wooden slabs set upon the ground in the form of an inverted V. His war-club-a shaved post four or five feet high-was placed in the front of his rude tomb, upon which a great number of black stripes were painted, corresponding with the number of scalps he had taken during life. Openings were left in his tomb so that his friends and curious visitors could witness the process of decay. Some- time after the removal of his friends higher up the river, and after the flesh had wasted away, a Dr. Turner, of Van Buren County, removed his skeleton to Quincy, Ill., and had the bones handsomely polished and varnished, preparatory to connecting them by wires in the skeleton form. When Black Hawk's wife heard of the exhumation, she affected great and incontrollable grief, and poured out the burden of her sorrows to Robert Lucas, Governor of the Territory, and ex officio Superintendent of Indian affairs, who promptly recovered the bones and placed them in a box in his office at Burlington, and dispatched a message to the bereaved family, then staying on the Des Moines, some ninety miles dis- tant. A cavalcade was soon in motion, bearing the disconsolate widow and a retinue of her friends to Burlington. On the evening of their arrival, the Gov- ernor was notified of their readiness to wait upon him, who fixed the audience for 10 A. M. the next day. Several visitors were in attendance. The box containing the august remains opened with a lid, and when the parties were all assembled and ready for the awful development, the lid was lifted by the Gov- ernor, fully exposing the sacred relics of the renowned chief to the gaze of his sorrowing friends and the very respectable auditors who had attended to wit- ness the impressive scene.
" The Governor then addressed the widow, through John Goodell, the inter- preter of the Hardfish band, giving all the details of the transfer of the bones from the grave to Quincy and back to Burlington, and assured her that they were the veritable bones of her deceased husband ; that he had sympathized deeply with her in her great affliction, and that he now hoped she would be consoled and comforted by the return of the precious relics to her care, under a strong confidence that they would not again be disturbed where she might choose to entomb them. The widow then advanced to the lid of the box, and, without the least apparent emotion, picked up in her fingers bone after bone,
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and examined each with the seeming curiosity of a child, and, replacing each bone in its proper place, turned to the interpreter, and replied that she fully believed they were Black Hawk's bones, and that she knew the Governor was a good old man, or he would not have taken the great pains he had manifested to oblige her, and, in consideration of his great benevolence and disinterested friendship, she would leave the bones under his care and protection. The con- ference then closed, and the distinguished visitors took leave of the Governor and the assembled auditors. This scene was detailed by the Governor to the present writer while standing at the side of the famous box soon after its occurrence.
" On the accession of Gen. Harrison to the Presidency, Gov. Lucas was removed from the gubernatorial office of the Territory, and removed his private office into the same room with Dr. Enos Lowe, now of Omaha City, Neb. An historical society was organized in Burlington about this time, and an effort was made to get these relics into their cabinet and under the control of their society. This arrangement was never formally affected; but, in the course of events, they happened to be in the same building with the society's collection, and the whole were consumed in the burning of the building, which occurred later."
On page 74 of this volume, is given the generally accepted version of the causes which led to the Black Hawk war of 1830; but that story is vague and unsatisfactory. On page 157 another, and, in the main, a correct account is given. From Mr. Jordan we learn facts of more than local interest in this dis- puted case, and give them here.
Somewhere about 1828-29, a man named Watts, while driving cattle through this region, about where Iowaville now is, was beset by Indians. Watts had with him a man whose name is not remembered now. This man was killed by a savage. The murder was committed on Indian territory, and a demand was made on Black Hawk for the criminal. He was delivered up to the United States authorities and taken to St. Louis, where he was tried and condemned. Some of the tribe went to St. Louis to intercede for their companion, but did not accomplish their purpose. The Indian was hanged. However, while the Indians were in St. Louis they fell victims of sharpers, who obtained a pro- fessed title to Black Hawk's village, on the Rock River, by presents of less value than the Government price of the land. When the embassy returned. with their ill-gotten trinkets, Black Hawk was wroth and denounced the fraud. Subsequently, probably the next spring, on the opening of the season of 1830, the men who had obtained such title to the land came on, and drove the Indian women and children from the village, during the temporary absence of the braves. Black Hawk made issue with the fraudulent possessors of his home, and offered to stake thirty of his braves against thirty white soldiers to test the question of title by a fight. The offer was declined by the military, but the whites said they would pit the United States army against the Indians of his tribe. Black Hawk took up the gauntlet, and hence the famous, but disastrous, Black Hawk war.
This version, it will be seen, substantially corroborates the story obtained by research in Illinois.
Of the Black Hawk war it is not within the province of this sketch to speak; it belongs to the history of Illinois, and has been repeatedly written up. After the defeat of Black Hawk, in 1832, he was captured and taken to Prairie du Chien. After an imprisonment in Jefferson Barracks, and, subsequently, in Fortress Monroe, whither he was taken, he was returned at the intercession of
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Keokuk to this region. In his old age, Black Hawk sought the company of the garrison, his band was broken up, and the once great chief was left alone in his declining years. Maj. Beach relates the following incident derived from personal observation :
"Black Hawk's lodge was always the perfection of cleanliness-a quite unusual thing for an Indian. The writer has seen the old woman busily at work with her broom, by time of sunrise, sweeping down the little ant-hills in the yard that had been thrown up during the night. As the chiefs of the nation seemed to pay him but little attention in the waning years of his life, Gen. Street, the Agent, looked out for his comfort more carefully than otherwise he would have thought it needful to do, and, among other things, gave him a cow- an appendage to an Indian's domestic establishment hitherto unheard of. The old squaw and daughter were instructed in the art of milking her, and she was held among them in almost as great reverence as the sacred ox Apis was held among the ancient Egyptians.
"This was in the summer of 1838, when the Agency was in process of erection, and Black Hawk had established his lodge on the banks of the Des Moines, about three miles below Eldon. Close by was the trading-house of Wharton McPherson, with whom the writer stayed one night in August of said year (1838), and, as he rode past the lodge, Mme. Black Hawk was compla- cently sitting up on a log by the side of her cow, under a heavily-branched tree, industriously brushing the flies and mosquitoes from the bovine with a rag tied to the end of a stick. Mr. Mc Pherson said this was her daily occupation in fly-time, often following the animal around as it grazed at a distance. This was the last occasion that ever the writer had an interview with Black Hawk, as he died within two months of that time (September 15, 1838), and was even then so infirm that he could barely move about his wigwam."
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