Η αυτοβιογραφία του Μαύρου Γερακιού

by Black Hawk, Στάθης Ανδρέου (Μετάφραση)

Ήταν η εποχή του μεγάλου αποικισμού της Άγριας Δύσης από τους λευκούς. Το 1832, μια μικρή ομάδα Ινδιάνων με αρχηγό το Μαύρο Γεράκι αρνήθηκε να εγκαταλείψει το χωριό της στην περιοχή των Μεγάλων Λιμνών, στα σύνορα ΗΠΑ-Καναδά, παρά τις εντολές από την αμερικανική κυβέρνηση. Ενάντιά τους εστάλη έφιππη πολιτοφυλακή και ο τακτικός στρατός. Το μέλλον ήταν προδιαγεγραμμένο. Μέσα από μια καταδίωξη ανάμεσα στους ορμητικούς παραποτάμους του Μισισιπή και τα απέραντα λιβάδια - μια διαδρομή θανάτου που θυμίζει την Κάθοδο των Μυρίων - η πορεία κατέληξε σε μια μαζική σφαγή στο Μπαντ Αξ και το Μαύρο Γεράκι συνελήφθη. Το παρόν κείμενο αποτελεί την καθ' υπαγόρευση αυτοβιογραφία του ή αλλιώς, τη δική του εκδοχή των πραγμάτων σε μια προσπάθεια αποκατάστασης της αλήθειας.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Classics, Audiobook, Native American

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1833

About the author

born 1767

Black Hawk, originally Makataimeshekiakiak, a noted leader of Sauk, fought with the British against the Americans in the war of 1812 and opposed policies of Keokuk of accommodation with the government of the United States; its troops in a brief known conflict of 1832 defeated him.

Zachary Taylor served as an officer of Army in the war of 1832 against Black Hawk.

Keokuk, leader of Sauk, aided the United States in the war of 1832 against Black Hawk and negotiated peace between his people and the Lakota in 1837.

chief

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_H...

Reviews

[Fabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The modern reader has much to learn from The Life of Black Hawk. Historically, it represents an invaluable time capsule; the psychology of the Native American, an authentic chief no less, is, if not a more all-encompassing portrait of devastating war than The Diary of Anne Frank at least its equal--in its inherent sincerity and pathos. Never forgetting that the autobiography is actually a life story thrice filtered (from the Sac chief’s remembering tongue directly to the interpreter, then edited by yet a third man) it does contain a straightforward voice that vacillates easily between regret and grief, with a tone that is undeniably oppressed. The Sac chief’s main intention is “to vindicate [his] character from misinterpretation” (xxiii) but he does more than this: he gives us a grave full of atrocities committed by self-righteous, indolent fuckin white people. That, on top of musings, and questions open to discussion, and confessions, all accomplish what only the best of autobiographies can: to teach; usually, to warn against bad decisions that ruin lives, by transporting the reader directly to the writer’s specific place and time--& access to the pervading emotion of that pin-point.

By posing questions such as

“All our country… was ceded to the united States for one thousand dollars a year! I will leave it to the people of the United States to say, whether our nation was properly represented in this treaty? Or whether we received a fair compensation for the extent of country ceded by those four individuals?” (10)

to the general audience, Black Hawk immediately makes us question too our very claim to land. The entire continent was eradicated of its people, and many injustices have been committed then and since. Giving us the particular decisions for his specific actions, explaining over and over why he desisted from moving his tribe out of danger or from going to war much earlier (“There was no reconverted plan to attack the whites at that time--but I am of the opinion now, had our party got into the fort, all the whites would have been killed” [11]). The messiness that characterizes books like “The Prairie” is felt here too, as alliances change at random, as enemies are made all too frequently between the people at the frontier.

Finally, a disclosure on his tribe’s customs and deviations from Old World conventions are the nuggets of knowledge which contribute to its intrinsic patina of sadness. Allegiances to the Kickapoos, Ottawas, Pottowatomies and Winnebagoes gives proof of camaraderie, which the Americans and British often lacked. (Of the races, which is most human? the reader is inspired to wonder.) “The whites may do bad all their lives,” Black Hawk writes, “and then, if they were sorry for it when about to die, all is well!” (32) The knocking-down of religion, and of other institutions such as marriage (as the memorable crane dance [34-5] goes on to describe unions formed out of love, & not of duty) contrasts considerably with the absurd endorsement to General Scott for the presidency (77) and then his suggestion of clearing the country of “black skins.” (78) Black Hawk is prejudiced, himself. There is, alas, no hero in a man whose hand “had ever been raised against any but warriors”, though still remains intolerant of others. But one feels certain that this was more the doing of the two (white) men who adapted the true tale, than that of Black Hawk himself.

[E. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introduction, by J. Gerald Kennedy
Suggestions for Further Reading
Map of the Black Hawk War of 1832
A Note on the Text
Title Page of 1833 Edition

--Life of Black Hawk, or Mà-ka-tai-me-she-kià-kiàk: Dictated by Himself

Notes

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than anything I've ever read about Native American history, Black Hawk's autobiography gave me a sense of how strange and violent a period the late 18th/early 19th century was in the upper Midwest. What hit me here as revelatory was the utter crowded-ness of this supposed wilderness, where there was an ever-changing confusion of alliances and feuds, and where friends could become enemies overnight, and where English and American and French and Sauk and Cherokee and Osage and Chippewa all met with unexpected frequency, in places far from any familiar sense of community, and where they might be faced at any moment with the choice to either kill one another, or pass on, or something in between.

A fascinating, harrowing window into this confused and tragic part of history.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I explained to them the manner the British and Americans fought. Instead of stealing upon each other, and taking every advantage to kill the enemy and save their own people, as we do, (which, with us, is considered good policy in a war chief,) they marched out, in open daylight, and fight, regardless of the number of warriors they may lose! After the battle is over, they retire to feast, and drink wine, as if nothing had happened; after which, they make a statement in writing of what they have done—each party claiming the victory! and neither giving an account of half the number that have been killed on their own side. They all fought like braves, but would not do to lead a war party with us. Our maxim is, "to kill the enemy and save our own men." Those chiefs would do to paddle a canoe but not to steer it.

2020 is shaping up to be a rather tedious year, one that may well be rendered even more so by the fact that I spent the first chunk of it reading Three Kingdoms and will likely spend the rest of it comparing subsequent reads to it whenever I am able. After spending over 2000 pages with endless strategy, circumvention, trickery, brutality, and a code of ethics that encompassed legal mass slaughterings of entire lineages, cannibalism, and sneak attacks while frowning on the type of excessive military tactics that would be deemed war crimes today, my brain is still in a cultural relativism mode that weighs scalping against imperialism in a witnessing of how intentional provocation paves the way to sanctioned genocide. It's an old, old, old story, and yet most of my engagements with it are so far removed in terms of perspective, space, and time that I don't see myself ever learning everything there is to know before I kick the bucket.

We have men among us, like the whites, who pretend to know the right path, but will not consent to show it without pay!

My comparison of this to TK is also because of how political everything is, except these politics are a prelude to the terms 'environmental racism', 'white man's burden', and 'settler state'. The quality of the land, the justice of the sustained warfare, and what comes when one nation values property on the basis of both ability to need and what one can carry, and one nation privatizes everything in the name of rhetoric and some chicken scratch on a piece of paper. Land is unknowingly signed away by those not in leadership in exchange for one of their own, allies crumple upon themselves as racism overcomes xenophobia, and even playing the white man's game of guns and white flags is no guarantee if their numbers are great enough and one's luck is bad enough. Black Hawk knew his people, the noncombatants especially, would either starve from lack of sustained agriculture or be wiped out by enemy nations, white and otherwise, upon displacement, and that's exactly what happened. Those who say that it's different, imagine going back to the time of the War of the Roses and telling everyone that they were savages to be fighting for such stupid reasons. Better yet, do all you can to play one off of the other while stealing their land and slowly but surely wiping them out. The world would suffer for it, you say? Imagine that.

Had I paid the price that my regular book sale asked for when it included this edition in its special collection room, it would have been 150% more than the most expensive work I'd acquired from a book sale yet. As it stands, no one snapped it up for such, so I received it at a third of the original sale cost and a fifth to a tenth of what the edition is selling for online. Perhaps one of the paywall relaxations I've heard about with regards to academic databases has made one of the editions of this heavily telephoned work, both translated and 'translated' if you get my meaning, available to those with an interest but less money and time to spend on being able to read it. Perhaps a bunch of white people will moan and groan about Black Hawk's screwed up comments about black people near the very end and throw the baby out with the bathwater. For sure there needs to be some moaning and groaning done, but it's awfully convenient for that section to come at the very end, just as it's awfully convenient for Black Hawk to dedicate to this work to the man who he describes as abjectly humiliating him during the course of Black Hawk's surrender. Subjectivity upon subjectivity upon subjectivity. Still, academia has been seriously corroborating various parts of the account since at least the 1980s, and I don't see any general pronouncement that people not read Herodotus cause of how full of it he is at times. So, an extremely valuable and depressing book, as I expected it to be. I conveniently had it on hand for challenge-fulfilling and propaganda-counteracting purposes, and it fulfilled all those and more. The only question now is, how to navigate from here to the next indigenous-related work that has more worth to it then the Kleenexes commonly passed around for popular consumption these days.

What do we know of the manner of the laws and customs of the white people? They might buy our bodies for dissection, and we would touch the goose quill to confirm it, without knowing what we are doing.

P.S. I actually have a different edition (ISBN 0813826373), but I won't be switching it till it's fixed.

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this, although parts were confusing. If I had read a book with a map, parts could have been easier to understand. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Brett Barry. In addition, the terms used for different people were confusing. The war strategies were confusing. Some of the language was also confusing. I believe if you read the book it would be easier to figure out the terms and locations.

The different tribes fight each other, the English and the Americans were fighting and the tribes supported different sides alternately. Black Hawk disputed the agreement that said all Native Americans were to stay west of the Mississippi. His village was on the eastern side and they had never received remunerations. The British had promised one thing, the Americans another and communication was poor. Sometimes I could not agree with how the Native Americans thought, such as their n need for revenge, how bravery should be defined or how human lives should be forfeited for honor, but their beliefs are well portrayed. I could understand why hostilities arose. I also understood how the settlers’ behavior must be seen as dishonest and wrong. Black Hawk was a leader that wanted peace with reasonable conditions for both sides.

What I liked most was the description of the Sauk village life. I also enjoyed Black Hawk’s descriptions of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and other new colonial cities, of railroads and steamships. The time period is the end of the 1700s.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a free audibook download from audible.com's "Christmas in July" sale for members. I guess I got what I paid for it. The reading (by Brett Bailey, I believe) was lovely, but the content itself was--although at times beautifully poetic and spiritual--mostly just frustrating. Time and time again, Black Hawk and his people show themselves to be gullible and complacent when it comes to the "promises" and treaties made by the Americans. I just want to shake him and tell him that twice is a coincidence, but three times is a pattern! Enough with the forgiveness bullshit! For the love of god, don't sign anything with the damn goose quill! Episode after episode, instance after instance, the Native Americans kowtow to the white men's (false) promises. Black Hawk is always apologizing and demurring ("I said that which I did not intend") rather than doing what is best for himself and his people. Alas and alack, it's too late now.

[Max Murphy · Rating 1 out of 5]

As with many pieces of American literature, it functions best as a figure of history. Black Hawk was an interesting man, and his story is heartbreaking and complex. Learning about it is worth your time, but that includes texts outside of this book. The book itself was important at its time as a trailblazer of American Indian lit, but now it doesn't jump much off the page compared to other Native texts that are written in more compelling prose.

One major problem is that the story was (understandably) dictated, not written, by Black Hawk. It was written and edited by men outside his people, translated into English in ways that have been criticized as not entirely accurate. This is all the subject of academic debate I'm not qualified to wade into, but it was evident throughout the book that I was not really reading the original words the man spoke, and I sensed a level of disconnect that ruined the story for me.

There's also troubling underlying themes, as Black Hawk towards the end of his life actually spoke highly of the white people that imprisoned him and used him as a tourist attraction. He was dragged around to wave at crowds who were curious about him. According to some accounts, he sorta leaned into it and showed up in ceremonial garbs. Obviously this is a complex matter, involving threats of death, the sensationalized wonder of American society, and a man who throughout his life, showed (self-admitted) signs of cowardice. Black Hawk was a complicated guy, who maybe gave into his oppressors and then told this story to announce his grudge against them was over. I'm not saying that makes him a bad guy, but it makes the reading experience tough.

Ultimately I see this book as best studied rather than read, and Black Hawk a figure to be examined and deconstructed rather than revered. That being said, it's an incredibly important text and history buffs may find it worth their time. If you are only going to read one piece of Native literature, there are likely better options.

[Graeme · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd say it's tough to rate this book. How do you rate it? It's the story of the life of Black Hawk, the Sauk warrior who led an insurrection in the American Midwest in the early 19th century.

Now then. Let's see. Essentially, Black Hawk was the driving force behind the Black Hawk War of 1832, during which he led a band of warriors and, I suppose it's safe to say, tribespeople in a series of skirmishes with the United States government that got pretty nasty on both sides. Eventually he was captured and imprisoned, but became a minor celebrity after a tour of the eastern USA shortly thereafter.

The book is his account of his life as dictated to a government translator of the day. So there's always a sense in which we're beholden unto the the translator for accuracy, both in terms of Black Hawk's words and his sentiment, or intention.

Generally, the book does feel accurate, mind you, with our narrator not pulling any punches when he discusses being swindled out of land by the Federal Government's underhandedness. And the handy thing is the plentiful annotation throughout, cross-referencing the text with historical document and archive accounts of events mentioned in Black Hawk's narration.

Fascinating? Well, not particularly. As a cover-to-cover read, it's not particularly riveting. Not a lot of tension or literary device used, bar exclamation marks at Black Hawk's frequent outrage!

Where it works well, though is as a supporting text to a course about American history, which is actually how I've come to have the book. It's 'good', but not as a read you simply 'must have'.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Hawk was the Sauk tribe leader who remained hostile throughout the American advance into the Midwest, aiding the British both in 1812 and beyond, all the way up until his eventual surrender in 1832.

Soon after he hung up his tomahawk he dictated this autobiography, and it really does read as though he's talking directly to you without any attempt to edit, sanitise or make any chronological sense of the way he remembered things.

The French were the first whitemen his people came across, a happy encounter fondly remembered by the tribe. There was trading, but no conflict over land. That soon changed though. But why did he favour the British over the Americans? Here's his explanation:

'I had not made up my mind whether to join the British or remain neutral. I had not discovered yet one good trait in the character of the Americans who had come to the country. They made fair promises but never fulfilled them, while the British made but few, and we could always rely implicitly on their word.'

I don't doubt that the American's lied and deceived the native tribes at every turn, infact we know they did, but I would be very surprised if the British did anything different. (I'm British myself by the way, our Imperial history is a story of genuine decency and rank hypocrisy in equal measure.)

Overall I think this observation neatly summarises the facility with which the Americans conned the Native Americans out of their land:

'How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.'

Black Hawk was involved in countless skirmishes during his time, the scourge of the forts. Of all the things that he couldn't understand about the behaviour of the whiteman he was simply amazed by their method of fighting by marching towards the enemy out in the open:

'Our maxim is: "Kill the enemy and save our own men." Those chiefs will do to paddle a canoe but not to steer it.'

You have to admit that he makes a lot of sense there. Whenever I see battle scenes from the 18th and 19th century I can't help thinking about lambs to the slaughter and wondering why everybody didn't break ranks and leg it stage left.

For all the scalpings and double-dealing, for me the saddest part of Black Hawk's tale was this passage about the requisitioned Sauk island where the Americans built Fort Armstrong:

'A good spirit had charge of it, which lived in a cave in the rocks immediately under the place where the fort now stands. This guardian spirit has often been seen by our people. It was white, with large wings like a swan's, but ten times larger. We were particular not to make much noise in that part of the island which it inhabited, for fear of disturbing it. But the noise at the fort has since driven it away, and no doubt a bad spirit has taken its place.'

This is first-hand history in the raw, and utterly invaluable for it. The only disappointment was a complete lack of the pictorial language usually associated with the Native American. I love that idiom, only I don't know how entirely authentic it was?

A few handy footnotes either confirmed or gave an alternative account to Black Hawk's recollections, as well as bringing some clarity to the timescale, which otherwise could have easily been a span of two months instead of the twenty plus years it actually was.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was originally published in 1833 (dictated by Chief Black Hawk to his translator, Antoine Leclair) and was an immediate best seller. A no holds barred and unflinching narrative of the great Sauk leader, 'The Autobiography of Black Hawk' stands as one of the very first accounts of the conflict between American indians and white settlers. Historically, this is an important work because it stands as one of the first native narratives of the war of attrition fought against American indians. It is a moving, but also a very important piece of our National story.

Black Hawk, in this autobiography, emerges as a multifaceted, strong, and even sometimes inconsistent leader, whose introspective honesty gives us a depth to both his own life story the story of of the Sauks, during the Black Hawk War.

[Ai Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting to read, especially given that I spent four years on Meskwaki lands, but I definitely need some guidance through it in terms of how to read it (it was accompanied, for this course, with a reading by Mark Rifkin entitled "Documenting Tradition: Territoriality and Textuality in Black Hawk's Narrative," that I found to be a useful guide,) and found it to be fairly confusing at times. I do still think it's a really important read for anyone who lives on those lands, as Black Hawk's experience is so often glossed over or barely talked about. If you're a fan of Chicago hockey, I'd say you doubly need to read this.

[aimee!]

An interesting and, frankly, vital historical artefact. But a total drag to read.

[Victor Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audible recently made a free audiobook version of this work available to its members. I love "free" and was interested in the character of Black Hawk, so I was pleased to listen to this brief 3-1/2 hour work. Black Hawk lived from the late 1790s to the mid 1830s. He wrote his autobiography about 1833 and included the relocation of his Sac and Fox tribes from an area near Montreal to an area near Rock Island on the Mississippi. The story narrates the tribe's encounters with the French, the English, the Spanish, and, finally, the Americans. In 1804, the Americans swindled the tribe out of its lands east of the Mississippi. The treaty of 1804 was later used to forcibly relocate the tribe west of the river. Many of the tribe were killed when Black Hawk defended his lands. Ironically, Black Hawk was then treated to a grand tour that included visits to Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Albany. On this tour he was treated like a great celebrity, although he and his tribe had been treated with extreme cruelty and indifference in his home territory by the agents of the U.S. government and the settlers.

Much of the abuse of the Indians by the U.S. is not news to us, but to hear the details of the abuse in the words of an Indian of that time period is quite moving. Also interesting is Black Hawk's description of the Mississippi and the Wisconsin Rivers in the early 1800s, the various tribes who inhabited the area, and the nobility of the lifestyle of the American Indian.

[Graychin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s not many people that get a war – even a small one – named after them. The Black Hawk War of 1832 was small, but it made a mark. Already in his declining years, Black Hawk, a war chief of the Sacs, led a band of 500 braves and a similar number of women and children up the Rock River of Illinois and Wisconsin to reclaim territory that had been taken from them by a disputed treaty. Over six thousand American militiamen (including Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis), as well as native allies, pursued them.

When it was over, half of Black Hawk’s followers were dead. Black Hawk himself surrendered and was taken eastward to meet President Jackson. He was paraded through Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York City and was everywhere greeted by spellbound throngs. Some of these were sympathetic to his cause, offering him gifts and encouragement, others just wanted to see a real live Indian warrior, while such a thing still existed.

The next year, back among his tribe where they had relocated on the west side of the Mississippi, Black Hawk dictated his life story, and the story of a war he felt he had been cornered into fighting. Laying out his case, Black Hawk is careful most of the time to report only things he witnessed with his own eyes. It’s heart-breaking stuff, some of it really shameful. The insights that Black Hawk provides into Native American ethics and philosophy, and his take on Anglo-American culture, are fascinating.

[Neil Hanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting historical perspective, and I did enjoy that aspect of it. But it's pretty dry reading. Also, this was clearly translated as it was written 100+ years ago, since the writing style and language bears no similarity to anything other than English spoken in those days. I suspect this was standard fare for that time and place, so I don't want to be too critical. It's just that the use of a language imparts the real story, and translating the words into "high English" means the heart and soul of what might have been the story of Black Hawk is lost. Still, history weanies like me still enjoy it a bit.

[G. Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting, harrowing read. The end section was particularly tragic as Black Hawk realizes no promises made are to be kept and his people's lands have been sold off and his people are being taken away. I don't think any reparations could have made up for the loss of his lands, but he also mentions that no money from this is going to the Sauk but only to the white men.

The book depicts a violent world where death is common, as is attack and the treatment of women (generally being taken prisoner) in the book is so casual they might as well be horses.

The Sauk fight to try to get invading white people out of their lands, and they fight bravely, trying to respect their enemies at the same time, but when they eventually lose and are taken prisoner, they are put in chains. Black Hawk makes some very interesting comments about Christian faith and how these people who call themselves Christian don't appear to follow the teachings, a point which sadly still stands today. You can call yourself what you want but if your actions don't line up with that label, you're just a hypocrite.

An interesting, if harrowing read.

[Tamer Goueli · Rating 2 out of 5]

سيرة ذاتية للصقر الأسود أحد زعماء الهنود الحمر الذين حاولوا مقاومة الاستيطان الأمريكي لأراضي الهنود الحمر في أوائل القرن ال��اسع عشر. كتاب لطيف لأنه يقدم الصورة من وجهة نظر الهنود بدلا من وجهة النظر المعتاده للمستعمر. يحكي الزعيم تاريخه في المقاومة بالرغم من رغبته المستمره في السلام, واضطراره لأن يحارب في صفوف البريطانين ضد أمريكا. الأهم من وجهة نظري أنه دفعني لمراجعة الدعابة الرائجة منذ سنوات "أن العرب هم هنود حمر العصرالحديث".المرعب أن التشابه يصل أحيانا الي درجة التطابق, و أن الدعابة تتحول بالـتأمل الي حقيقه مخيفة. نفسس السذاجة فاي التعامل مع معطيات الحضارة الحديثه, نفس الانقسام و التحزب و التحالف مع العدو ضد الاخوة, نفس المهادنة و التخاذل في وقت المواجهه, و للاسف نفس الاعتماد علي الخرافه والمجد المندثر بدلا من العمل الجاد. و يبدو أن العامل الوحيد الذي منع اندثار العرب حتي الان هو اعدادهم و ان كانت لن تغني عنهم شيئا في ان يتحولوا الي هنود حمر أحياء و لكن بلا حياة.

[Heather(Gibby) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a crucial read to get a true account of historical events.

[cait · Rating 4 out of 5]

so good but it just made me sad :/

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book—the full title of which is Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk, Embracing the Traditions of his Nation, Various Wars In Which He Has Been Engaged, and His Account of the Cause and General History of the Black Hawk War of 1832, His Surrender, and Travels Through the United States. Also Life, Death and Burial of the Old Chief, Together with a History of the Black Hawk War—was the first autobiography of an American Indian leader published in the United States and therefore something of a phenomenon when it appeared in 1833.
Black Hawk was born in 1767 on the Rock River in Illinois, as a member of the Sauk (Sac) tribe, which at that time populated lands east of the Mississippi River, in Illinois and Wisconsin. His reminiscences were edited by a local newspaper reporter, J. B. Patterson, and recount Black Hawk’s experiences with the French, the British, the American settlers, and other tribes.
What turned him against the Americans was an 1804 treaty, which an unauthorized group of Sauks signed, that unilaterally gave away their lands, providing American settlers the legal right (as if such niceties mattered) to appropriate them, and forcing the Indians to resettle to the west.
I found by that treaty, that all of the country east of the Mississippi, and south of Jeffreon [the Salt River in northern Missouri, a tributary of the Mississippi] was ceded to the United States for one thousand dollars a year. I will leave it to the people of the United States to say whether our nation was properly represented in this treaty? Or whether we received a fair compensation for the extent of country ceded by these four individuals?
Because of this opposition, Black Hawk fought with the British during the War of 1812. Twenty years later, when he was 65 years old and after a trail of broken promises, he led a band of Sauk warriors against settlers in Illinois and Wisconsin in the 1832 Black Hawk War.
Eventually, he was captured and gave up the warrior life. He traveled extensively in the United States on a government-sponsored tour, marveling at the size of the major cities, the railroads, the roads. In his attempts to negotiate with military leaders, provincial governors, and even the Great Father in Washington, he interacted personally with many of the leading politicians and military men of the day. President Andrew Jackson (a major character in Steve Inskeep’s recent book about another betrayal of the Indians, Jacksonland) desired that Black Hawk and other chiefs see these sights, in order to convince them of the might of the United States.
Black Hawk provides his point of view quite clearly and compellingly. To no avail, of course. According to the University of Illinois Press, “Perhaps no Indian ever saw so much of American expansion or fought harder to prevent that expansion from driving his people to exile and death.” His prowess as a warrior chief is now honored by the U.S. military, which has named several ships after him, as well as the Black Hawk helicopter.

[Li · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tragic look into the window of time where native life, as it previously had been, was coming to an end, while the beginning events of what would eventually become the “United States of America,” were starting. Black Hawk shares his memories of life within his community and relations with other Indigenous clans, including a very moving and human story of how another clan forgave and, in goodwill, sent back one of his clan’s young men that had done a wrong to the other clan. Black hawk talks about how his group had friendly relations with the British, but came to distrust the (white) Americans because they would not keep their word in trade dealings. He communicates the challenges of playing politics, detailing the many times his people were cheated, lied to, tricked, or otherwise taken advantage of and not treated fairly. Even though his story is communicated through at least two other white men, both of whom I am sure injected their own bias or interpretation in the story, I personally still got a lot out of reading it. As an immigrant to the “USA,” I have a lot of positive thoughts about the US and its role in the modern world. However, Black Hawk’s story, and the stories of so many other oppressed groups in the history of the US, challenge me on many levels to think critically about the past, and who really benefits from the systems we now have in place.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazon review:
One of the most respected personages in Native American history, BLACK HAWK (1767-1838), Sauk war chief of the Native American tribe in Illinois, was already a renowned name in the early 1800s, having fought for the British during the War of 1812. By 1832, when Black Hawk led warriors against encroaching European settlers on Sauk lands, he was so well-known that the engagement became known as the Black Hawk War. In his 1833 autobiography, Black Hawk-dictating to American newspaper editor JOHN BARTON PATTERSON (1805-1890)-tells his tale, from the "Indian wars" as he saw them to his capture, in 1832, by American forces and his subsequent meeting with President Andrew Jackson and grand tour of the United States. A provocative look at Black Hawk's wisdom and, ironically, his misunderstanding of the politics of the United States, this is a fascinating firsthand account of one of the foundational philosophical battles of American history.

[Kristel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Hawk dictated his autobiography through amanuensis Antoine LeClair which was originally published in 1833. He was a Sauk leader and in his own words describes the conflict in 1832 as Americans came into the land east of the Mississippi and took the land away from his people. Black Hawk gives a good description of the Native American Culture as well as the trouble trying to do business with the US government. Of course the citizens weren't admirable in their behavior either.. It was interesting to learn about this area of Illinois and Wisconsin. Also to see the American culture as viewed through Black Hawk. Especially interesting was his solutions for the black problem.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh Oh Oh....this book made my heart weep. The Indians received such a raw deal. This was truly tragic. Black Hawk fell for every promise that was given. Each one echoed just as hollow as the previous one. And for every honorable white man that they found, there were 10 more that weren't. One of my favorite quotes goes something like, "When someone shows you who they really are, believe them the first time." I mean for crying out loud, I was inwardly screaming, "Learn and adapt." That quote would have been a good one for the Indians to have had tacked on their fridge.

My heart still aches.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this on audible, and it was a little hard to follow that way. I can tell it was a great story, and enjoyed it at parts, but a lot of it was lost in translation from the native language. The audio production was ok, but the reader was extremely monotone and lost me. Would have given audio 1 star and probably (guessing) given the hard book 3 stars for people who like books about American History.

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hoped that this would be a great memoir of the early 19th century, but there is a lot that I assume was lost in translation, compounded by the fact that the English it was translated into is nearly 200 years old. I got lost on occasion and had to refer to wikipedia to understand who Keokuk and Quashquame were, and what exactly happened in the Black Hawk War. Because it was so short, I figured I should finish it, but I did not find it very informative or enjoyable.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longtime Black Hawk County resident. About time I read this book. It was worth it, and now I have a handful of historical sites to check out. Would recommend to anyone interested in the Midwest, Westward expansion, and/or Native American history. For many reasons, there are issues with the translation, and in the introduction many of them are addressed, but suspending disbelief allows a picture to emerge of an area on the cusp of great change. Fascinating.

[Vee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like many other people I received this audiobook for free via Audible.com's generosity.

This tale was OK. It was told by a warrior not an orator, speech-writer or politician.

Make peace with your oppressor. I don't know.

I still don't know how to react to the small bit about solving the Negro problem.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read a book like this. It's fascinating for its first-hand historical content. It's really interesting to hear Chief Black Hawk describe his tribe's culture and that of the Portuguese, British, and Americans. It's a quick smooth read because of how concise his word choice is, and yet there's a minimalist poetry to it, kind of like haiku.

[Zach Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read with excellent information about life inside a Native American tribe and the atrocities committed by the US government and white settlers during the time. (A brief note of warning, the original editor and translator of this text have admitted to racism and have taken some liberties in some of the storytelling, but it is still mostly a real autobiography.)