author
Sauk chief Black Hawk
1767–1838
A Sauk war leader remembered for defending his people's homeland as U.S. expansion pushed across the Midwest, he became the central figure of the 1832 Black Hawk War. His story also survives through an autobiography that helped shape how later generations understood the conflict and his life.
1 Audiobook
Autobiography of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black Hawk
by Sauk chief Black Hawk
About the author
Born around 1767 at Saukenuk, near the Rock River in what is now Illinois, Black Hawk was a Sauk leader and warrior whose Sauk name is often rendered as Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak. He was not a hereditary civil chief, but he became an important leader through his skill in war and his influence within his community.
He is best known for resisting the loss of Sauk homelands after disputed treaties and growing pressure from U.S. officials and settlers. In 1832, he led a band of Sauk, Meskwaki, Kickapoo, and others back across the Mississippi into Illinois, a move that set off the Black Hawk War; after the conflict, he was captured and taken east, where crowds came to see him as a famous and controversial figure.
Later in life, Black Hawk dictated an autobiography, making his voice one of the best-preserved among Native leaders of his era. He died on October 3, 1838, in what was then Iowa Territory, and he remains an important figure in the history of Native resistance, the Midwest, and early nineteenth-century America.