. Indian history for young folks . ealous of the superiority of his rival, Keokuk, and feeling that hisnation had been wronged, had made up his mind to defy the power of thegovernment, and with his small band to make war upon the United States. A sense of personalinjury also impelledhim to this unwisedetermination. Un-der the pretence thathe had done them awrong, some whitemen had fallen uponand severely beatenhim a little time be-fore. Black Hawk nowsought the help ofthe Chippewas, Ot-tawas, Winnebagoes,and Potawatomies,and, expecting theiraid, refused to obeyGeneral Atkinsonsorder. Soon find
. Indian history for young folks . ealous of the superiority of his rival, Keokuk, and feeling that hisnation had been wronged, had made up his mind to defy the power of thegovernment, and with his small band to make war upon the United States. A sense of personalinjury also impelledhim to this unwisedetermination. Un-der the pretence thathe had done them awrong, some whitemen had fallen uponand severely beatenhim a little time be-fore. Black Hawk nowsought the help ofthe Chippewas, Ot-tawas, Winnebagoes,and Potawatomies,and, expecting theiraid, refused to obeyGeneral Atkinsonsorder. Soon find-ing, however, that theassistance of thosetribes could not be depended upon, he resolved, if overtaken, to return peaceably. Receivingintelligence of the approach of a body of mounted volunteers, he sentthree of his young men with a flag to meet them and conduct them toiiis camp near Sycamore Creek. The difficulty might have ended here but for the senseless conductof the militia, who seized and detained Black Hawks messengers, and. BLACK HAWK. THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 401 who pursued and killed two of a small party of five Indians, whom lithad also sent out on a peaceful errand. These troops, two hundred andseventy in number, were Illinois volunteers, commanded by Major Still-man, The disaster that overtook this detachment is best told in BlackHawks own words: When the news came of what had happened, said Black Hawk,referring to the capture of his messengers and the killing of the two In-dians, nearly all my young men were absent about ten milesoff. I started with what I had left—about forty—and had pro-ceeded but a short distance before we saw a body of the enemy approach-ing. I raised^a yell, and said to my braves, Some of our people havebeen killed—wantonly and cruelly murdered. We must avenge theirdeath! In a little while we discovered the whole army coming towardsus at full gallop. We were now confident that our first party had beenkilled. I immediately placed my men in f
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade191, booksubjectindiansofnorthamerica
