Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian WomenSabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)
History
Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women
Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)
Indians of North America -- Biography; Indians of North America -- Wars
But the United States and Great Britain had been at peace many years.
The British father told Nahpope that if the Sacs never had sold their
land, of course they had a right to live upon it. That was all.
On the way back, Nahpope stopped to see Wa-bo-kie-shiek, or White
Cloud, who was half Sac and half Winnebago, and a great medicine-man or
prophet. He had a village at his Prophet's Town, thirty-five miles up
the Rock River, in Illinois.
White Cloud pretended to rival the Open Door of the Shawnees. He fell
into a trance, and cut several capers, and spoke a message from the
Great Spirit. Let Black-hawk go to war. The Great Spirit would arouse
the Winnebagos and the Potawatomis and the British, and the Americans
would be driven away! White Cloud said this out of his own heart,
which was black toward the Americans.
He invited Black-hawk to visit him and the Winnebagos and the
Potawatomis, raise a summer crop and talk with the Great Spirit.
Much rejoiced, Nahpope hastened to tell the news to his chief. When
Keokuk heard it, he advised Black-hawk to stay at home. The prophet
White Cloud was a mischief maker and a liar.
Black-hawk was inclined to listen, and to wait until he was more
certain of the other nations who might join with him. But the young
men of his band were hot. Unless he did something, Keokuk would appear
to be stronger than he. His people looked to him to get back their
village and their grave-yard. The black mark on his face had not been
wiped off.
None of Keokuk's Sacs or the Foxes would help him. So in April of 1832
he took his men and their families and started up the river from Fort
Madison, Iowa, for Rock River. The warriors were on horses, the women
and children in canoes.
By the last treaty that he had signed, Black-hawk had promised not to
cross to the east side of the Mississippi without the permission of the
United States. Now he said that he was going up the Rock River, to the
country of the Winnebagos, his friends, to visit among them and plant
corn and beans.
On the way up the Rock River he was ordered back, by word from General
Henry Atkinson, commander at Fort Armstrong.
Black-hawk replied that he had a right to travel peacefully, the same
as white persons. He was going to the Winnebago country, for the
summer.
The general sent another word, that if Black-hawk did not turn around,
soldiers would make him turn around.
Black-hawk replied that he was at peace and would stay at peace unless
the soldiers attacked him. He told his men not to fire first.
Pretty soon he met some Winnebagos and Potawatomis. They said that
their nations never had sent him any message talking war. They wished
no trouble with the United States. Wabokieshiek had lied.
So Black-hawk decided to give his guests a dog-feast, and then return
home. He was an old man of sixty-five, and he was too weak to fight
alone. He was getting tired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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