Black Hawk

(1767 - 1838)

Born in present-day Illinois in 1767, Black Hawk resisted the ceding of fifty million acres to the U.S. government in 1804. He fought on the side of the British during the War of 1812 and in 1832 led a faction of Sauk and Fox American Indians into U.S. territory in Illinois, resulting in the Black Hawk War, which ended with his capture. Over the course of the following year, Black Hawk asked interpreter Antoine LeClaire to take down his story. It was published in 1833 as The Life of Black Hawk, five years before he died.