Hawk, Black
Born c. 1767
Saukenuk, Virginia Colony
(present-day Rock Island, Illinois)
Died October 3, 1838
Iowaville, Iowa
Native American resistance leader and warrior
"I fought hard, but your guns were well aimed. The bullets flew.... My warriors fell around me; it began to look dismal. I saw my evil day at hand."
Black Hawk was a powerful leader of the Sauk (also called Sac) and Fox American Indians located in northwestern Illinois and southern Wisconsin in the early nineteenth century. Black Hawk was one of the few Sauk who urged his people to fight the settlement of whites in the region. Despite his fierce resistance, Black Hawk was forced to surrender after the Massacre at Bad Axe River in 1832. His autobiography is one of the best records of the Native American experience.
Becoming a Warrior
Black Hawk was born around 1767 in Saukenuk, a village of approximately one thousand people located near the convergence of the Rock River and the Mississippi River in present-day Illinois. He was given the name Ma-ka-tai-me-shekia-kiak (Black Sparrow Hawk); his father, Pyesa, a member of the Thunder clan, was the keeper of the Sauk band's medicine bundle (a bundle containing items associated with the religious life of the tribe).
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