Science Source ftp Apr 2015

Black Hawk, born Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, (1767 - October 3, 1838) was a war leader and warrior of the Sauk American Indian. Although he had inherited an important historic medicine bundle from his father, he was not a hereditary civil chief. Black Hawk earned his status as a war chief or captain by his actions. During the War of 1812, Black Hawk had fought on the side of the British against the United States, hoping to push the latter's settlers away from Sauk territory. As a consequence of the 1804 treaty, the Sauk and Fox tribes had ceded their lands in Illinois and in 1828 removed west of the Mississippi. Black Hawk and other tribal members disputed the treaty. He led his "the British Band", against European-American settlers in the 1832 Black Hawk War. The band was composed of about 1,500 men, women, and children from the Sauk, Meskwaki, Fox, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Ottawa nations; about 500 of that number were warriors. After the war, he was captured by U.S. forces and taken to the eastern U.S. He and other war leaders were taken on tour of several cities. Black Hawk told his story to an interpreter; aided also by a newspaper reporter. The first Native American autobiography to be published in the United States, his book became an immediate bestseller and has gone through several editions. He died in 1838 at age 70 or 71.