The Indian Creek Massacre occurred on May 21, 1832 with the attack by a party of Native Americans on a group of United States settlers in LaSalle County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

following a dispute about a settler-constructed dam that prevented fish from reaching a nearby

Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a ...

village. The incident coincided with the

Black Hawk War The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (Fox), and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", cross ...

, but it was not a direct action of the Sauk leader Black Hawk and conflict with the United States. The removal of the dam was asked, was rejected by the settlers and between 40 and 80 Potawatomis and three Sauks attacked and killed fifteen settlers, including women and children.Paging Back Tale of Indian Creek Massacre...

Two young women kidnapped by the Indians were ransomed and released unharmed about two weeks later. The tension of the massacre and the war prompted

settlers A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settl ...

to seek protection at frontier forts under the control of the militia. Three men were arrested for the killings, but the charges were dropped when their alleged role in the massacre could not be verified by the witnesses. Today, the site of the massacre is marked by memorials in Shabbona County Park in LaSalle County, about north of

Ottawa, Illinois Ottawa is a city located at the confluence of the navigable Illinois River and Fox River in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States. The Illinois River is a conduit for river barges and connects Lake Michigan at Chicago, to the Mississippi ...

Background

The Indian Creek massacre resulted from a dispute between U.S. settlers and a

Native American village along the Indian Creek in LaSalle County,

. In the spring of 1832, a blacksmith named William Davis dammed the creek to provide power for his sawmill. Meau-eus, the principal chief of the small Potawatomi village, protested to Davis that the dam prevented fish from reaching the village. Davis ignored the protests and assaulted a Potawatomi male who tried to dismantle the dam. The villagers wanted to retaliate, but Potawatomi chiefs Shabbona and Waubonsie advised a compromise that the villagers fish below the dam. Meanwhile, in February 1832, a Sauk leader named Black Hawk wanted to resettle on land ceded to the United States by the disputed Treaty of St. Louis (1804). Black Hawk thought that the Potawatomi in Illinois would support the resettling since they had grievances about the United States expansion into Native American territory. Potawatomi leaders feared that the United States had become too powerful to be opposed by their force. Potawatomi chiefs urged their people to stay neutral in the coming conflict, but, as in other tribes, chiefs did not have the authority or power to compel compliance. Potawatomi leaders worried that the tribe as a whole would be punished if any Potawatomi supported Black Hawk. At a council outside

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on May 1, 1832, Potawatomi leaders including

Billy Caldwell Billy Caldwell, baptized Thomas Caldwell (March 17, 1782 – September 28, 1841), known also as ''Sauganash'' ( ne who speaksEnglish), was a British-Potawatomi fur trader who was commissioned captain in the Indian Department of Canada duri ...

"passed a resolution declaring any Potawatomi who supported Black Hawk a traitor to his tribe". In mid May, Potawatomi leaders told Black Hawk that he did not have their support. Black Hawk led a group of Sauks,

Meskwaki The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...

s, and

Kickapoos The Kickapoo people ( Kickapoo: ''Kiikaapoa'' or ''Kiikaapoi''; es, Kikapú) are an Algonquian-speaking Native American and Indigenous Mexican tribe, originating in the region south of the Great Lakes. Today, three federally recognized Kick ...

known as the "

British Band The British Band was a mixed-nation group of Native Americans commanded by the Sauk leader Black Hawk, which fought against Illinois and Michigan Territory militias during the 1832 Black Hawk War. The band was composed of about 1,500 men, wom ...

", to cross the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, ...

from Iowa into the U.S. state of Illinois. Black Hawk's motives were ambiguous, but it is said that he was apparently hoping to avoid bloodshed.

Coming storm

Hostilities in the

began on May 14, 1832, when Black Hawk's warriors soundly defeated Illinois militiamen at the

Battle of Stillman's Run The Battle of Stillman's Run, also known as the Battle of Sycamore Creek or the Battle of Old Man's Creek, occurred in Illinois on May 14, 1832. The battle was named for the panicked retreat by Major Isaiah Stillman and his detachment of 275 I ...

. Potawatomi Chief Shabbona worried that Black Hawk's success would encourage Native attacks on American settlements, and that Potawatomis would be held responsible. Soon after the battle, Shabbona, his son, and his nephew rode out to warn nearby American settlers, that they were in danger. Many people fled to

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

for safety, but William Davis, a settler from Kentucky, who had built the controversial dam, convinced some of his neighbors they were not in danger. Twenty-three people, including the Davis family, the Hall family, the Pettigrew family and several other men, remained at the Davis settlement.Jung, 95.

Attack and massacre

During the late afternoon of May 21, 1832, a party of about forty to eighty Potawatomis, with three Sauks from Black Hawk's band accompanying them, approached the Davis cabin, vaulted the fence and sprinted forward to attack.Lewis, James.
The Black Hawk War of 1832
", Abraham Lincoln Digitization Project, ''Northern Illinois University'', p. 2B. Retrieved August 6, 2007. Several male settlers were working in the fields and in the blacksmith's shop, rushed to the house during the attack and were killed. Six of the young men escaped the slaughter by fleeing. Fifteen settlers were killed and scalped. One victim was scalped twice, from the hair on his head, to his beard. "The men and children were chopped to pieces," writes historian Kerry Trask, "and the dead women were hung up by their feet" and their bodies mutilated in ways too gruesome for contemporary observers to record in writing. Most modern scholars do not identify the leader of this attack. According to historian Patrick Jung, the attack was led by the Potawatomi man who had been assaulted at the dam by Davis, but Jung did not identify this Potawatomi by name. Historians Kerry Trask and John Hall identified the man who had been assaulted as Keewassee, but they did not specifically indicate his participation in the attack, or any leader of the attack. Historian David Edmunds wrote that the attack was led by Toquame and Comee, two Potawatomi warriors. Jung said that Keewasse, Toquame, and Comee were three Sauk warriors were merely accompanying the Potawatomis during the attack. In 1872, amateur historian Nehemiah Matson wrote that the raid was led by a man named Mike Girty, who was believed to be the mixed race son of

Simon Girty Simon Girty (November 14, 1741 – February 18, 1818) was an American-born frontiersman, soldier and interpreter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who served as a liaison between the British and their Indian allies during the American Revolution. ...

. Matson's validity as a source was questioned as early as 1903 in a book by Frank E. Stevens that indicated "The statement by Matson that one Mike Girty was connected with the Indian Creek massacre is incorrect." In 1960, Matson's work was questioned, by scholars, as a valid source, as he indiscriminately mixed fact and legend. Modern scholarly accounts of the Black Hawk War and the Indian Creek massacre make no mention of Mike Girty.

Kidnapping

Two young women from the settlement, Sylvia Hall (age 19) and Rachel Hall (age 17), were spared by the attackers and taken northwards. At one point, Sylvia fainted when she recognized that one of the warriors carried her mother's scalp. After a hard journey of about 80 miles, they arrived at Black Hawk's camp. The Hall sisters were held for eleven days. Most of the time was spent at Black Hawk's camp where they were treated well. In his memoirs dictated after the war, Black Hawk insisted that the three Sauks with the Potawatomis had saved the Hall sisters' lives. Black Hawk recounted: A

Ho-Chunk The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hoocągra or Winnebago (referred to as ''Hotúŋe'' in the neighboring indigenous Iowa-Otoe language), are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Io ...

chief named White Crow negotiated their release. Like some other area Ho-Chunks, White Crow was trying to placate the Americans while clandestinely aiding the

. U.S.

Indian agent In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the government. Background The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the United States first included development of ...

Henry Gratiot paid a

ransom Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or the sum of money involved in such a practice. When ransom means "payment", the word comes via Old French ''rançon'' from Latin ''re ...

for the girls of ten horses,

wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western N ...

, and corn. The Hall sisters were released on June 1, 1832, at the Blue Mound Fort.

Aftermath

The Indian Creek massacre was the most significant publicized incident during the Black Hawk War. The killings triggered panic in the settler population who abandoned settlements and sought refuge in frontier forts, such as

Fort Dearborn Fort Dearborn was a United States fort built in 1803 beside the Chicago River, in what is now Chicago, Illinois. It was constructed by troops under Captain John Whistler and named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. T ...

in Chicago. Indian creek massacre memorials in Shabbona County Park

On May 21 or 22, the people in Chicago, including those who had fled there, dispatched a company of militia scouts to ascertain the situation in the area between Chicago and Ottawa, along the Chicago to Ottawa trail. The detachment, under the command of Captain Jesse B. Brown, came upon the mangled remains of the 15 victims at Indian Creek on May 22. They buried the dead and continued to Ottawa where they reported their grisly discovery.A.T. Andreas, ''History of Chicago: From the earliest period to the present time'' (Chicago, 1884)
1:269
As a result, the Illinois militia used the event to draw more recruits from Illinois and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgin ...

. After the war, three men were charged with murders at Indian Creek and were issued warrants at the LaSalle County Courthouse for Keewasee, Toquame, and Comee. The charges were dropped when the Hall sisters could not identify the three men as part of the attacking party. In 1833, the

Illinois General Assembly The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 18 ...

passed a law granting each of the Hall sisters of land along the

Illinois and Michigan Canal The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago P ...

as compensation and recognition for the hardships they had endured.Document 8 – Donation of Land to Rachel Munson, A Former Indian Captive
," Document: May 11, 1834, Illinois State Archives, ''Illinois Secretary of State''. Retrieved August 6, 2007. In 1877, William Munson, who had married Rachel Hall, erected a monument where the victims of the massacre were interred."Monument Unveiled".
''Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the year 1907'' (Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical Library, 1908), 332–35. The monument, located north of

, Illinois, cost $700. In 1902, the area was designated as Shabbona Park, and $5,000 was appropriated by the Illinois legislature for the erection and maintenance of a new monument. On August 29, 1906, a 16-foot granite monument was dedicated in a ceremony attended by four thousand people. Shabbona County Park, not to be confused with Shabbona Lake State Park in DeKalb County, is located in northern LaSalle County, west of

Illinois Route 23 Illinois Route 23 (IL 23) is a north–south state highway in northern Illinois. It runs from Illinois Route 116 in Pontiac north to U.S. Route 14 south of Harvard. This is a distance of . Illinois 23 was established in 1918 as one of the ...

Notes

References

* *Clifton, James A. ''The Prairie People: Continuity and Change in Potawatomi Indian Culture 1665–1965''. Lawrence, Kansas: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1977. . *Edmunds, R. David. ''The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire''. University of Oklahoma Press, 1978. . *Hall, John W. ''Uncommon Defense: Indian Allies in the Black Hawk War''. Harvard University Press, 2009. . *Jung, Patrick J. ''The Black Hawk War of 1832''. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. . *Nichols, Roger L. ''Black Hawk and the Warrior's Path''. Arlington Heights, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, 1992. . *Scanlan, Charles Martin
''Indian Creek Massacre and Captivity of Hall Girls''
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: REIC Publishing, 1915. *Stevens, Frank E
''The Black Hawk War: Including a Review of Black Hawk's Life''
Chicago, 1903. *Trask, Kerry A. ''Black Hawk: The Battle for the Heart of America''. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2006. . {{Black Hawk War (1832) 1832 in the United States Battles and skirmishes of the Black Hawk War in Illinois DeKalb County, Illinois LaSalle County, Illinois Massacres by Native Americans 1832 in Illinois May 1832 events