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Before the War
The Fox (Mesquakie) Indians numbered about 1,600 and the Sauk about 4,800. Both tribes lived mostly along the Mississippi River, from the Des Moines River north to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. -
U.S. Treaty
The U.S. concluded the Treaty of St. Louis with the Sauk and Fox. When it was signed, the U.S. believed it had bought all Sauk and Fox lands east of the Mississippi, though the treaty allowed the tribes to stay on it until asked to leave by the U.S. government. Many Sauk and Fox leaders, however, considered it invalid because its two signers had not been authorized to speak for the whole tribe at the time it was drawn up. Even its signers contended they had never ceded anything north of the Rock -
Promises of the British
During the War of 1812, most Sauk and Fox (and Ho-Chunk) supported the British, with Black Hawk in command. The British promised that a U.S. defeat would restore the 1795 boundaries of the Treaty of Greenville and remove Americans from their lands. -
Black Hawk on the Move
Black Hawk's band crossed the Mississippi near the mouth of the Des Moines River (at the Iowa-Missouri border). It moved north up the Illinois shore, intending to make a stand at Saukenuk or move up the Rock River to join forces with the supposed Indian and British allies. -
Indian Raiding Party
Battle of the Pecatonica. 22 militia soldiers defeated a Sauk raiding party of 11 warriors who were foraging for supplies. The main body of Black Hawk's band was north of Lake Koshkonong at the time. -
Battle of Wisconsin Heights. Ca
60 Sauk warriors held off 700 troops under Henry Dodge while the Indian non-combatants crossed the river to safety. Before dawn, Sauk leader Neapope, concealed in a tree, verbally offered to negotiate a surrender; the troops lacked an interpreter and ignored him. -
masacre at Bad Axe
Overnight, U.S. troops caught up with the Sauk and charged them at dawn from the bluffs, firing indiscrimately at warriors, women, children, and the elderly. The steamboat Warrior returned to the scene about 10:00 a.m,, firing its cannon at the Indians who vainly sought cover on the riverbank and the islands until by noon only a small number were left alive. About 90 Sauk made it across the Mississippi, where 68 were killed by the Sioux (allied with the U.S.). -
Peace Treaty
A peace treaty was signed, requiring the Sauk and Fox to stay west of the Mississippi and cede a 50-mile-wide strip of the Iowa shore. -
Imprisonment
Black Hawk and The Winnebago Prophet were imprisoned at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. -
Aftermath
the Sauk and Fox lived on the Iowa River, where Keokuk was their principal chief and where Black Hawk died in 1838. Between 1836 and 1846 they were forced further west in Iowa, and their population fell from 6,000 to 2,477.