The Black Hawk State Historic Site, in
Rock Island, Illinois
Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is now called Arsenal Island. The population was 37,108 at the 2020 census. Located on t ...
, is adjacent to the historic site of the village of Saukenuk, the home of a band of Native Americans of the
Sauk nation. It includes the
John Hauberg Museum of Native American Life. The state park is located on a bluff overlooking the
Rock River in western Illinois. It is most famous for being the birthplace of the Sauk warrior
Black Hawk Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to:
Animals
* Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856
* Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus''
* Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii''
* Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus urub ...
. The disputed cession of this area to the U.S. Government was the catalyst for 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 ...
.
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
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...
. The Sauk had arrived by 1750, probably after the
Fox Wars
The Fox Wars were two conflicts between the French and the Fox (Meskwaki or Red Earth People; Renards; Outagamis) Indians that lived in the Great Lakes region (particularly near the Fort of Detroit) from 1712 to 1733.In their book ''The Fox Wars' ...
(1712-1733). When the explorer
Jonathan Carver
Jonathan Carver (April 13, 1710 – January 31, 1780) was a captain in a Massachusetts colonial unit, explorer, and writer. After his exploration of the northern Mississippi valley and western Great Lakes region, he published an account of his exp ...
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."
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
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five 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
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...
. In the spring, the Sauk gathered in sugar camps for
maple sugar
Maple sugar is a traditional sweetener in Canada and the northeastern United States, prepared from the sap of the maple tree (" maple sap").
Sources
Three species of maple trees in the genus '' Acer'' are predominantly used to produce mapl ...
ing 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
British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestow ...
. 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
Quashquame (alt: "Quawsquawma, Quashquami, Quashquammee, Quash-Qua-Mie, Quash-kaume, Quash-quam-ma", meaning "Jumping Fish") (c. 1764 – c . 1832) was a Sauk chief; he was the principal signer of the 1804 treaty that ceded Sauk land to the Unit ...
and
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
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.
When
Thomas Forsyth Thomas Forsyth may refer to:
* Thomas Forsyth (footballer) (1892–?), Scottish amateur footballer
* Thomas Forsyth (Indian agent) (1771–1833), American frontiersman, trader, and Indian agent
* Thomas Forsyth (New Zealand politician) (1868–1941 ...
arrived in Saukenuk in 1817, he described it as the most populous Indian village he had ever seen.
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. It was the largest single settlement in the new U.S. state of
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 Rock ...
. This is how Black Hawk described Saukenuk:
The Black Hawk War
The defeat of the British in the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...
and the spread of American settlers into Illinois and up the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
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
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
and the state of Illinois. Many of Black Hawk's followers were killed and the Quad Cities region was completely opened to settlement. However, many white Americans admired Black Hawk's courage in defense of his band's ancestral lands, and the native leader was elevated to the rank of a
folk hero
A folk hero or national hero is a type of hero – real, fictional or mythological – with their name, personality and deeds embedded in the popular consciousness of a people, mentioned frequently in folk songs, folk tales and other folklore; a ...
.
A statue of Black Hawk was raised on the site in 1892, and the
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a ...
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 (
U.S. Route 67) now cover the former site of the Sauk village of Saukenuk, with ''Black Hawk State Historic Site'' and ''John Hauberg Museum of Native American Life'' slightly to the east. Saukenuk had strong ties with the Meskwaki village to the north, what is now downtown Rock Island. Vandruff Island in the Rock River to the south of the village was also a place in which villagers spent their days. The island is now mainly a 180-foot-deep quarry with some residential development on the west side. The historic site is served by
Illinois Route 5
Illinois Route 5 (IL 5) is a four-lane road in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, that runs from U.S. Route 67 (US 67) in Rock Island to the interchange of Interstate 80 (I-80) and the toll-free portion of I-88, a distanc ...
, which intersects with
Interstate 74 in nearby
Moline, Illinois
Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Islan ...
.
John Hauberg Museum of Native American Life
The
Hauberg Museum specializes in Sauk and
Mesquakie cultural objects and artifacts. The museum is located in a lodge constructed in 1934 by the
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a ...
and was named after John Hauberg, a philanthropist from
Rock Island. Exhibits include full-size replicas of Sauk winter and summer houses,
dioramas
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...
depicting Native life typical of the period from 1750 to 1830, trade goods, jewelry and domestic items, and several Black Hawk artifacts, including his
tomahawk
A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and Eur ...
, two of his clay
tobacco pipe
A tobacco pipe, often called simply a pipe, is a device specifically made to smoke tobacco. It comprises a chamber (the bowl) for the tobacco from which a thin hollow stem (shank) emerges, ending in a mouthpiece. Pipes can range from very simp ...
s, and a
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...
bust
Bust commonly refers to:
* A woman's breasts
* Bust (sculpture), of head and shoulders
* An arrest
Bust may also refer to:
Places
* Bust, Bas-Rhin, a city in France
*Lashkargah, Afghanistan, known as Bust historically
Media
* ''Bust'' (magazin ...
fashioned from a
plaster
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...
life mask.
Singing Bird Nature Center
The Singing Bird Nature Center offers educational programs in the northwest section of the park. 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.
[Pitcel, Chuck, "Biography of Black Hawk," (accessed November 4, 2008).]
References
External links
Illinois Historic Preservation AgencyBlack Hawk State Historic Site
{{Protected Areas of Illinois
1927 establishments in Illinois
Buildings and structures in Rock Island, Illinois
Illinois State Historic Sites
Nature centers in Illinois
Tourist attractions in Rock Island, Illinois
Native American museums in Illinois
Museums in Rock Island County, Illinois
Civilian Conservation Corps in Illinois
Protected areas of Rock Island County, Illinois
Protected areas established in 1927