Black Hawk State Historic Site
Black Hawk State Historic Site | |
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Map of the U.S. state of Illinois showing the location of Black Hawk State Historic Site | |
Location | Rock Island, Illinois |
Coordinates | 41°28′02″N 90°34′18″W / 41.4673°N 90.5718°W |
Owner | Illinois Historic Preservation Division |
The Black Hawk State Historic Site, in
Under the Sauk
The Sauk nation occupied this site as their principal village, called "Saukenuk". It was a well-drained area, suitable for growing corn. The Sauk had arrived by 1750, probably after the Fox Wars (1712-1733).[2] When the explorer Jonathan Carver reached Saukenuk in 1766, he called it "the largest and best built Indian town" he had ever seen, "more like a civilized town than the abode of savages."[3]
The Sauk successfully farmed the area during part of the year and spent the winters in camps down and across the Mississippi collecting fur-bearing animals. Sauk hunters skinned their catches and sold the peltry to fur traders from the Great Lakes. From 1763 on, these traders were mostly British, and from the 1780s on, most of them were employees or contractors of the Canada-based North West Company. In the spring, the Sauk gathered in sugar camps for maple sugaring before returning to the village (left empty since the fall) to plant crops and bury their dead.
The Sauk developed military and economic ties with British North America. Due to these ties, the Sauk expected British military assistance. Some of the Sauk traveled every year to British forts on far-away Lake Superior and near Detroit for trading and gift-giving.
A disputed 1804 St. Louis Treaty between Quashquame and William Henry Harrison led to the transfer of Illinois lands to the U.S. Government, including Saukenuk. The Sauk did not consider this treaty valid, and they continued to live at the village.[4]
When Thomas Forsyth arrived in Saukenuk in 1817, he described it as the most populous Indian village he had ever seen.[5]
By 1826, an estimated 4,800 Sauk lived in and around Saukenuk. Others who passed through, such as William H. Keating, noted that the village was not limited to the Sauk. Keating estimated only about 20% of the warriors that the Sauk could muster had pure Sauk ancestry.[6] It was the largest single settlement in the new U.S. state of Illinois. This is how Black Hawk described Saukenuk:
Our village was situated on the north side of Rock river, at the foot of its rapids, and on the point of land between Rock river and the Mississippi. . . . The land around our village, uncultivated, was covered with blue-grass, which made excellent pasture for our horses. Several fine springs broke out of the bluff, near by, from which we were supplied with good water. The rapids of Rock river furnished us with an abundance of excellent fish, and the land, being good, never failed to produce good crops of corn, beans,
squashes. We always had plenty – our children never cried with hunger, nor our people were never in want. Here our village had stood for more than a hundred years.[7]
The Black Hawk War
The spread of American settlers into Illinois and up the Mississippi River doomed the village. In multiple treaties, many of the Sauk had signed land cessions that sold the land under Saukenuk to the new American nation. Part of the tribe established new villages in Iowa and in Missouri nearer their winter hunting grounds.
The campaign of 1832 led to a complete victory for the
A statue of Black Hawk was raised on the site in 1892, and the Civilian Conservation Corps redeveloped and improved the park in 1934–1942.
The village site today
The last couple of blocks on the southern portion of 11th street Rock Island (
John Hauberg Museum of Native American Life
The
life mask.Singing Bird Nature Center
The Singing Bird Nature Center offers educational programs in the northwest section of the park.[8] One section of the building is dedicated to the study of local native birds. The nature center is named after Black Hawk's wife Asshewaqua meaning Singing Bird.[9]
References
- ^ "Black Hawk". Illinois Historic Preservation Division. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
- ISBN 9780805077582.
- ISBN 9780805077582.
- ^ Channick, Herbert S. (1998) "William Henry Harrison Steals Western Illinois From the Sauk and Fox" Illinois Heritage 1(2):6-10.
- ISBN 9780805077582.
- ISBN 9780805077582.
- ^ Quaife, Milo Milton, ed. Life of Black Hawk (New York City; Dover Publications, 1994), page 33.
- ^ "Singing Bird Lodge Nature Center," Black Hawk State Historic Site, "Singing Bird Nature Center". Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2008-11-05. (accessed November 4, 2008).
- ^ Pitcel, Chuck, "Biography of Black Hawk," "Biography of Black Hawk". Archived from the original on 2008-10-17. Retrieved 2008-11-05. (accessed November 4, 2008).