The Black Hawk War - Deception and Demise
The systematic slaughter of the Native Americans from the time of Columbus to the time of Roosevelt has often been compared to the holocaust of Jews in nazi Germany. Millions of Native Americans were brutally tortured and murdered by an invasion of foreign forces so as to steal their land and recourses (Churchill,126). Those who were not exterminated were forcefully removed from their land (either at gunpoint, the point of a bayonet or by forged treaties) and driven off to federal prison camps called reservations (source). In the early nineteenth century, whites started moving into what is now the state of Illinois. This movement precipitated numerous clashes with the Indians, including Black Hawk's war. The defeat of Black Hawk removed a large obstacle to white settlement in the Old Northwest.In 1803, an exploratory push by Lt. Zebulon Pike, an American explorer, into the upper Mississippi valley signified the end of an era for the Sauks and their allies, the Foxes. The Indians debated whether to accommodate or resist the advance of the whites' frontier. One group, headed by Keokuk, a Sauk, argued for accommodation, but Black Hawk, another Sauk leader, fiercely opposed such a policy.Black Hawk's convictions were confirmed i
n 1804, when white settlers convinced the Sauk and Fox Indians to sign a treaty decreeing that they move west of the Mississippi. Some refused, however, and soon after the War of 1812, Black Hawk denounced the treaty and proclaimed the Indians' determination to retain their land. Despite the fact that Black Hawk was again trying to surrender, the soldiers, under General Atkinson, attacked. It was not considered a crime to kill the Indians and deprive them of their rights to their space and their way of life, just as the Jews were deprived of their lives in nazi Germany. Sadly, it is quite common for disputes such as these to be solved by violent, rather than diplomatic, means. The next decade witnessed a steady decline in the fortunes of the Sauks and the Foxes. But when the Indians claimed the land in June 1831, they were confronted by hundreds of soldiers who occupied Black Hawk's village, took over his own home, dug up the sacred Sauk and Fox burial ground to make more room for plowing and forced them to sign an agreement to evacuate (Tebbel,243). Those who did survive were caught and killed by the traditional enemies of the Sauk and Fox peoples - the Sioux. The Black Hawk War is an example of misunderstanding and deception between cultures that essentially lead to the elimination of the Sauk and Fox Indians. Black Hawk approached the boat under a white flag to negotiate. Black Hawk spurned this unhappy armistice and in April 1832, Black Hawk returned to Illinois with some four hundred braves and their families, hoping to gain additional support from other tribes. On July 28th, 1832, a force under General James D Henry engaged the Indians. When one of the peaceful emissaries he sent was shot down in cold blood, Black Hawk found himself in the midst of a war that ultimately destroyed his people. Complete disrespect of Native American culture by colonial white settlers prevented the white settler from even considering taking the Indians and their treaties with the Indians seriously.
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