In 1832, facing white expansion, the Sauk warrior Black Hawk attempted to forge a pan-Indian alliance to preserve the homelands of the confederated Sauk and Fox tribes on the eastern bank of the Mississippi. Here, Patrick J. Jung re-examines the causes, course, and consequences of the ensuing war with the United States, a conflict that decimated Black Hawk's band. Correcting mistakes that plagued previous histories, and drawing on recent ethnohistorical interpretations, Jung shows that the outcome can be understood only by discussing the complexity of intertribal rivalry, military ineptitude, and racial dynamics.

Discusses the life and times of the Sauk chief who led his people in a struggle to prevent the advance of white settlers in Illinois that culminated with the Black Hawk War of 1832.

In the spring of 1832, when the Indian warrior Black Hawk and a thousand followers marched into Illinois to reoccupy lands ceded to American settlers, the U.S. Army turned to rival tribes for military support. In order to grasp Indian motives, Hall explores their alliances in earlier wars with colonial powers and in intertribal conflicts.

A stirring retelling of the Black Hawk War that brings into dramatic focus the forces struggling for control over the American frontier Until 1822, when John Jacob Aster swallowed up the fur trade and the trading posts of the upper Mississippi were closed, the 6,000-strong Sauk Nation occupied one of North America's largest and most prosperous Indian settlements. Its spacious longhouse lodges and council-house squares, supported by hundreds of acres of planted fields, were the envy of white Americans who had already begun to encroach upon the rich Indian land that served as the center of the Sauk's spiritual world. When the inevitable conflicts between natives and white squatters turned violent, Black Hawk's Sauks were forced into exile, banished forever from the east side of the Mississippi River. Longing for what their culture had been, Black Hawk and his followers, including 700 warriors, rose up in a rage in the spring of 1832, and defiantly crossed the Mississippi from Iowa to Illinois in order to reclaim their ancestral home. Though the war lasted only three months, no other violent encounter between white America and native peoples embodies so clearly the essence of the Republic's inner conflict between its belief in freedom and human rights and its insatiable appetite for new territory. Kerry A. Trask gives new and vivid life to the heroic efforts of Black Hawk and his men, illuminating the tragic history of frontier America through the eyes of those who were cast aside in the pursuit of the new nation's manifest destiny.

Of all the Native American leaders who attempted to resist the westward expansion of the United States and further white settlement during the 19th century, few fought as long or as hard as Black Hawk, a leader of the Sauk in the present-day Midwest. Though he is no longer as well-known as his contemporary Tecumseh, or subsequent Native American leaders like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo, his eventual surrender and trip east as a prisoner turned him into one of the first Native American celebrities in the country. Long before curious Americans came out in throngs to get a glimpse of him, Black Hawk played a crucial role in some of the seminal events of the 19th century, including the negotiations of several treaties and the War of 1812. Today, of course, he is best known for leading a band of about 1,500 during the Black Hawk War in 1832, a series of small battles fought in the Wisconsin territory after Black Hawk led his people east across the Mississippi River in an attempt to reclaim his people's old lands in Illinois. One of the earliest battles in the war resulted in a shocking defeat of American militia and one of America's most notorious losses before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but the fighting ultimately lasted only a few months, culminating in a massacre of Native Americans at the Battle of Bad Axe. During the fighting there, American soldiers literally pushed the Native Americans back to the Mississippi River and then shot men, women and children as they attempted to cross the river to safety. Given the limited amount of fighting, the Black Hawk War was hardly a war in the traditional sense, but it is still well-known among Americans today, and it was truly a seminal moment in American history. Black Hawk's defeat essentially ended all Native American resistance east of the Mississippi River and opened up the rest of Illinois and Wisconsin to white settlement. The war also provided an opportunity for some of the era's most famous Americans to get military experience, including several U.S. Senators, several Territorial Governors, future Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and most famously, Abraham Lincoln.