Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume XIV (1898)

              il8 wisconsin historical collections vol abraham lincoln in the black hawk war by alfred augustus jackson black hawk was chief of a band of sac indians the sacs are supposed to have come from canada at an early date.1 they lived for a long time in the vicinity of rock island their main village was located at the junction of the rock and mississippi rivers this village black hawk says had existed for over a hundred years.2 in this vil lage he claims to have been born in 1767 3 the sacs and poxes formed a sorb of confederacy and lived together in friendly relations in 1804 a treaty was made with the sac and fox indians at st louis by gen william henry harrison by which these tribes relinquished their claims to the lands bounded by the mississippi the illinois and the wisconsin rivers the tribes were not immediately removed from the lands described in the treaty but were permitted to live and hunt upon them so long as the government owned them al though this treaty was ratified several times black hawk always insisted that his people had not consented to the document and were not bound by it.5 1 life of ma-ka-tai-me-she~kia-kiak or black hawk dictated by himself st louis ed 1882 p 11 this will be referred to later as u black hawk's autobiography see also wis hist colls iii p 136 for bibliography of the black hawk war see id xii p 217 note 2 black hawk's autobiog p 58 3 ibid pp 11 16 4 indian treaties u s stat at large vii p 84 6 black hawk's autobiog p 8