Indian Wars

The Indian Wars were a series of armed conflicts fought between native inhabitants of North America and white Europeans, beginning with the period of exploration and settlement and extending to the end of the 19th Century.

One of the earliest conficts started in March 1622, when Native Americans attacked English settlements in Jamestown, Virginia, which retaliated in kind. During the American Revolution both sides recruited allies among Native American nations.

During the early nineteenth century, United States policy regarding the "Indian problem" was a simple one - removal. The government hoped to move all Native peoples from lands East of the Mississippi to lands West of the Mississippi. Speculators who desired Indian lands, settlers who feared Indian attacks, missionaries who feared the corrupting influences of whites on the Natives all supported the policy. However, most Indians did not, and they resisted.

Following the War of 1812 the United States adopted a policy of the wholesale removal of Native American peoples to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Removal was made a basic tenet of most treaties, and the first major removal treaty was signed by the Delaware in 1818. In the Southeast, the Choctaw and Creek signed removal treaties in 1820 and 1821 respectively. By 1830, President Jackson got the Indian Removal Act through Congress; this authorized the President to set up districts within the Western Indian Territory for Eastern peoples who agreed to relocate. The act also provided indemnities to Indians for assistance in moving and for protection. Entire tribes were forced to resettle, and several wars resulted when Native Americans refused to accept resettlement.

However, by 1850 the period of Indian removal was for the most part over, with only scattered groups of Native Americans remaining east of the Mississippi. West of the Mississippi River the federal government organized a reservation system to separate Native Americans from white settlers. Native American groups battled white encroachment on their territories during the 1860s and 1870s. The Indian Wars concluded with the December 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee, in which Sioux warriors, women, and children were killed by the US cavalry.

Miami January 1790-August 1795

Tippecanoe 21 September-18 November 1811

Creeks 27 July 1813 - 9 August 1814

February 1836 - July 1837

Seminoles 20 November 1817 - 31 October 1818

28 December 1835 - 14 August 1842

15 December 1855 - May 1858

Black Hawk 26 April - 30 September 1832

Comanches 1867 - 1875

Modocs 1872 - 1873

Apaches 1873
1885 - 1886

Little Big Horn 1876 - 1877

Nez Perces 1877

Bannocks 1878

Cheyennes 1878 - 1879

Utes September 1879 - November 1880

Pine Ridge November 1890 - January 1891

The Black Hawk War, named for the leader of a band of Sauk and Fox Indians, was the result of government cession of lands in Illinois.

On July 10, 1830, Sauk Chief Keokuk sold 26,500,000 acres of Sauk land east of the Mississippi to the United States government for three cents an acre. The land included a village at the junction of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers, which had been home to Black Hawk and his band of Sauk and Fox Indians for more than 150 years. In the Fall of 1830, when Black Hawk and his followers returned from their hunt, they found white settlers occupying their village. Black Hawk did not sanction the sale of this land and was determined to regain the village. Fearful settlers appealed to Governor John Reynolds, who issued a proclamation calling out a mounted volunteer militia force to repel Black Hawk and his band. With the arrival of the militia, Black Hawk retreated west across the Mississippi.

On April 6, 1832, Black Hawk and his band of 1,000 returned to Illinois in an attempt to reclaim their homeland. The Governor, considering this an invasion, mobilized the militia of 1,600 men and called for additional support from U.S. troops. Federal authorities, along with Sauk and Fox tribal councils, ordered Black Hawk and his band west of the Mississippi, but they refused to leave.

The governor issued a proclamation on April 16, mustering five brigades of volunteers to form at Beardstown and to head north to force Black Hawk out of Illinois. On May 9, the militia began an aggressive pursuit, finally coming into contact with Black Hawk and his warriors on the Rock River near Dixon. When the militia fired upon them, the warriors returned fire and killed eleven militiamen. Although the militia numbered 300, they fled after the initial volley and returned home with news that 2,000 "bloodthirsty warriors were sweeping all Northern Illinois with the bosom of destruction." After this initial skirmish, Black Hawk sent the women and children of his band to the Michigan Territory and then descended into Northern Illinois.

On May 19th, the militia traveled up the Rock River in search of Black Hawk. Several small skirmishes ensued when they encountered the Indians raiding the Illinois settlements of Ottawa and Galena. Following these skirmishes, the governor recruited additional militia forces, raising the number to 4,000. With the one-month enlistment for militia already expired, the Governor mustered them out of service on May 27 and 28. The Federal Government then ordered General Winfield Scott with 1,000 regulars and 300 mounted volunteers to resume the chase.

From the end of June to the beginning of August, the Federal troops pursued Black Hawk and his band throughout Northern Illinois. They remained hot on his trail, but always seemed to remain 2 to 3 days behind. On August 1, with his band depleted and hungry, Black Hawk surrendered on the Mississippi River near the mouth of the Bad Axe River.

Black Hawk was ordered to board a U.S. ship positioned on the river, but many of his band had already crossed the river. When the ship?s crew fired upon the Indians on the shore, a battle ensued. 850 of Black Hawk's band and 17 soldiers were killed. Black Hawk escaped with ten warriors and 35 women and children to Wisconsin, but on August 27 they were captured and delivered to Prairie du Chien. On September 21, a peace treaty was signed with the Sauk and Fox Tribes and Black Hawk was placed in the custody of Sauk Chief Keokuk, the same man who betrayed him by selling his land two years earlier. Black Hawk never again attempted to regain his homeland.

The Black Hawk War of 1832 resulted in the deaths of seventy settlers and soldiers, and hundreds of Black Hawk?s band. The War not only affected the lives of the Indians, settlers, and militiamen involved, but also the settlement of Illinois and Wisconsin. The War was responsible for the end of conflict between whites and Indians in both states.