TREATIES WITH THE SAC CHIEFS. 17 The Sacs and Foxes remained for some time in the vicinity of Green Bay. But as early as 1718 they had obtained a firm footing on Rock river. A party of young men descended the Rock to its mouth, and upon their return they presented a favorable report of the country. The entire tribe then migrated to the southwest, drove the Kaskaskias from the country, and founded a village on the point of land at the confluence of Rock and Mississippi rivers. At the beginning of this century the Sacs and Foxes occupied lands in northwestern Illinois lying between the Winnebagoes and the Mississippi river. In 1804 a treaty was negotiated at St. Louis between William Henry Harrison and five chiefs of the Sac and Fox nation. Mr. Harrison was then governor of the Indiana Territory, and of the district of Louisiana, superintendent of Indian affairs for the district, and commissioner plenipotentiary of the United States for concluding the treaty. By this treaty the Sacs and Foxes ceded their land on Rock river and territory elsewhere to the United States. The treaty provided that the Indians should retain these lands until they were required for settlement. During the war of 1812 with England, through the influence of Colonel Dixon, a British officer at Prairie du Chien, a portion of this tribe allied itself with the English. This faction was called the "British Band," and Black Hawk was its acknowledged leader. The other portion of the tribe remained peaceable during the war, and reaffirmed the treaty of 1804 at Portage des Siouxs, in September, 1815. The hostile warriors. professed repentance for their violation of good faith, and at St. Louis, in May, 1816, they confirmed the treaty of 1804. A small party, however, led by Black Hawk, persistently denied the validity of the treaty of 1804 as well as all subsequent agreements. He contended that certain chiefs, while at St. Louis in an intoxicated condition, were induced to sell the Indian country without the consent of the nation. Competent authorities have differed concerning the equity of the treaty of 1804; but the Sacs and Foxes as a nation never disavowed it. On the contrary, they reaffirmed it in the treaties of 1815 and 1816. Amicable relations existed between the Sac and Fox nation and the United States from the close of the war with England until 1830. In July of that year Keokuk, another Sac chief, made a final cession to the United States of the lands held by his tribe east of the Mississippi. According to this treaty, his people were to remove from Illinois to the country west of the B Mississippi, and they quietly removed across the river. This treaty was negotiated without the consent of Black Hawk, and he determined to resist the order of the government for the removal of his tribe west of the Mississippi. This resistance brought affairs to a crisis. During the winter of 1830-31 Black Hawk and his tribe left their village, as usual, and crossed the Mississippi on a hunting expedition, to procure furs wherewith to pay their debts to the traders, and buy new supplies of goods. They re-crossed the river in April, and on their return they found their village in possession of the pale-faces. The United States had caused some of these lands, which included the chief town of the nation, to be surveyed and sold. A fur-trader at Rock Island had purchased the very ground on which their village stood. Black Hawk ordered the settlers away, and destroyed their property. A truce was arranged, but it did not permanently settle the difficulty; and May 18 eight settlers addressed a memorial to Governor Reynolds, in which they stated their grievances. The governor immediately communicated with General Gaines, of the United States army, who was then in command of the military district. General Gaines repaired to Rock Island in June, with a few companies of regular soldiers. Upon ascertaining the critical situation, he called upon Governor Reynolds for mounted volunteers. The governor honored the requisition, and in response to his call fifteen hundred volunteers from the northern and central counties rallied to his support at Beardstown, and were placed under command of General Duncan, of the state militia. This army, after a few days' march, joined General Gaines below Rock Island, where the two generals formed a plan of action. General Gaines took possession of the village June 26; but Black Hawk and his band had quietly departed during the night in their canoes for the western shore of the Mississippi, where they raised the white flag of truce. They subsequently re-crossed the river, and thus claimed protection. June 30 General Gaines negotiated a treaty with Black Hawk and his chiefs and braves, by which they agreed to remain forever on the western side of the river; and never to re-cross it without permission from the president of the United States or the governor of the state. Notwithstanding the treaty, in the spring of 1832 Black Hawk attempted to re-assert his right to his former territory. Hostilities began in April, when Black Hawk and his band DEFEAT AT STILLMAN'S RUN. 19 re-crossed the Mississippi, under pretense of paying a visit to his Winnebago friends in Wisconsin. The manifest purpose of this visit was to form an alliance with the Winnebagoes in offensive warfare. General Atkinson, who was then in command of Fort Armstrong, sent messengers to warn Black Hawk to return. The warrior did not heed the warning, but continued his march until he reached Dixon's Ferry, where his braves encamped. The news of Black Hawk's return to Illinois reached Governor Reynolds, who raised a force of eighteen hundred men, under command of General Whiteside. This army arrived at Dixon on the 12th of May. Meanwhile Black Hawk had departed and encamped on Rock river thirty miles above. While at Dixon an ambitious officer named Stillman asked the privilege of making a reconnoissance on Black Hawk's camp. It was granted with reluctance, and Major Stillman started with two hundred and seventy-five men on the adventure. When the volunteers approached the camp of Black Hawk, he sent a party of six men to meet them, under protection of a white flag. By some mistake, undisciplined volunteers fired upon them, and two were killed while in retreat. Black Hawk was justly indignant, and he resisted the attack with his usual spirit. The result was the slaughter of eleven volunteers, and the others fled in confusion. This was the first blood drawn in the Black Hawk war. On the following day General Whiteside led his entire force to the scene, near a creek since called "Stillman's Run." To this day the visitor to the little village of Stillman Valley is shown the spot where the eleven soldiers are supposed to have been buried. No stone marks the place, and it is known only by tradition. The news of the Indian war spread rapidly throughout the east, and the administration sent nine companies to the scene, under command of General Scott. He arrived at Fort Dearborn in Chicago, July 8. The cholera had broken out among his men on the way, and he was thus detained at the fort. As soon as the cholera had subsided General Scott removed his quarters from Fort Dearborn to the banks of Desplaines river. From there he sent the main body, under command of Colonel Cummings, to the site of Beloit, then a deserted Winnebago village. At that point orders came from the general in chief command for the army to march down Rock river to Fort Armstrong on Rock Island, at which place General Scott had arrived by a hasty march across the country by way of Naperville. |