The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark
XX
_BLACK HAWK_
The Roman faces of Black Hawk and Keokuk were often seen in St. Louis,where the chiefs came to consult Clark in regard to their country.
"Keokuk signed away my lands," said Black Hawk. He had never beensatisfied with that earliest treaty made while Lewis and Clark wereabsent beyond the mountains.
For thirty years Black Hawk had paid friendly visits to Chouteau andsold him furs. More often he was at Malden consulting his "BritishFather." Schooled by Tecumseh, the disloyal Black Hawk was whollyBritish.
Fort Armstrong had been built at Rock Island for the protection of theborder. Those whitewashed walls and that tower perched on a high cliffover the Mississippi reminded the traveller up the Father of Watersseventy years ago of some romantic castle on the Rhine. And it waserected for the same reason that were the castles of the Rhine. Notsafe were the traders who went up and down the great river, not safewere the emigrants seeking entrance to Rock River,--for Black Hawkwatched the land.
The white settlements had already come up to the edge of Black Hawk'sfield.
"No power is vested in me to stop the progress of settlements on cededlands, and I have no means of inducing the Indians to move butpersuasion, which has little weight with those chiefs who have alwaysbeen under British influence," said Clark in 1829.
Again and again Clark wrote to the Secretary of War on this subject.The policy of moving the tribes westward stirred the wrath of BlackHawk.
"The Sacs never sold their country!"
But the leader of the "British band" had lost his voice in thecouncil.
"Who is Black Hawk?" asked General Gaines at Rock Island. "Is he achief? By what right does he speak?"
"My father, you ask who is Black Hawk. I will tell you who I am. I ama Sac. My father was a Sac. I am a warrior. So was my father. Askthose young men who have followed me to battle and they will tell youwho Black Hawk is. Provoke our people to war and you will learn whoBlack Hawk is."
Haughtily gathering up his robes, the chief and his followers stalkedover to Canada for advice. In his absence Keokuk made the finalcession to the United States and prepared to move beyond theMississippi. Back like a whirlwind came the Hawk,--
"Sold the Sac village, sold your country!"
"Keokuk," he whispered fiercely in his ear, "give mines, giveeverything, but keep our cornfields and our dead."
"Cross the Mississippi," begged Keokuk.
"I will stay by the graves of my fathers," reiterated the stubborn andromantic Black Hawk.
The Indians left the silver rivers of Illinois, their sugar groves,and bee trees with regret. No wonder the chief's heart clung to hisnative village, among dim old woods of oak and walnut, and orchards ofplum and crab. For generations there had they tilled their Indiangardens.
From his watchtower on Rock River the old chief scanned the country.Early in the Spring of 1832 he discovered a scattering train of whitesmoving into the beloved retreat.
"Quick, let us plant once more our cornfields."
In a body Black Hawk and his British band with their women andchildren came pulling up Rock River in their canoes. The whites wereterrified.
"Black Hawk has invaded Illinois," was the word sent by GovernorReynolds to Clark at St. Louis. Troops moved out from JeffersonBarracks.
"Go," said Governor Clark to Felix St. Vrain, his Sac interpreter."Warn Black Hawk to withdraw across the Mississippi."
St. Vrain sped away,--to be shot delivering his message. Thenfollowed the war, the flight and chase and battle of Bad Axe, and thecapture of Black Hawk. Wabasha's Sioux fell upon the last fleeingremnant, so that few of Black Hawk's band were left to tell the tale.
"Farewell, my nation!" the old chief cried. "Black Hawk tried to saveyou and avenge your wrongs. He drank the blood of some of the whites.He has been taken prisoner and his plans are stopped. He can do nomore. He is near his end. His sun is setting and he will rise no more.Farewell to Black Hawk."
In chains Black Hawk and his prophet, Wabokeskiek, were brought byJefferson Davis to St. Louis. As his steamboat passed Rock Island, hisold home, Black Hawk wept like a child.
"It was our garden," he said, "such as the white people have neartheir villages. I spent many happy days on this island. A good spiritdwelt in a cave of rocks where your fort now stands. The noise of theguns has driven him away."
It hurt Clark to see his old friend dragging a ball and chain atJefferson Barracks. He seldom went there. But the little Kennerlychildren carried him presents and kinnikinick for his pipe.
There were guests at the house of Clark,--Maximilian, Prince of Wied,and his artist,--when early in April of 1833 a deputation of Sacs andFoxes headed by Keokuk came down in long double canoes to intercedefor Black Hawk, and with them, haggard and worn from long wanderings,came Singing Bird, the wife of Black Hawk.
With scientific interest Maximilian looked at them, dressed in red,white, and green blankets, with shaven heads except a tuft behind,long and straight and black with a braided deer's tail at the end.They were typical savages with prominent noses and eagle plumes,wampum shells like tassels in their ears, and lances of sword-bladesfastened to poles in their hands.
"This is a great Chief from over the Big Water, come to see you," saidClark introducing the Prince.
"Hah!" said the Indians, giving the Prince the right hand offriendship and scanning him steadily.
Bodmer, the artist, brought out his palette. Keokuk in green blanket,with a medal on his heart and a long calumet ornamented with eaglefeathers in his hand, was ready to pose.
"Hah!" laughed the Indians as stroke by stroke they saw their chiefstand forth on canvas, even to the brass necklace and bracelets onthroat and wrists. "Great Medicine!"
"I have chartered the _Warrior_ to go down to Jefferson Barracks,"said Clark.
Striking their hands to their mouths, the Indians gave the war whoop,and stepped on board the "big fire canoe." Intent, each animated,fiery, dark-brown eye watched the engine hissing and roaring down tothe Barracks.
"If you will keep a watchful eye on Black Hawk I will intercede forhim," said Clark.
"I will watch him," promised Keokuk.
Clark left them for a moment, and then led in a little old man ofseventy years, with gray hair, light yellow face, and a curved Romannose.
It was an affecting sight when Keokuk stepped forward to embrace BlackHawk. Keokuk, subtle, dignified, in splendid array of deer-skin andbear-claws, grasped the hand of his fallen rival. Poor dethroned oldBlack Hawk! In a plain suit of buckskin and a string of wampum in hisears, he stood alone, fanning himself with the tail of a black hawk.
Keokuk tried to get him released. Often had he visited Clark on thaterrand, but no,--Black Hawk was summoned to Washington and went.Antoine Le Claire, son of old Antoine, was his interpreter.
Released, presently, he made a triumphal tour home, applauded bythousands along the route, even as Lafayette had been a few yearsbefore. Not so the Roman conquerors treated their captives! But BlackHawk came home to Keokuk to die.
The defeat of Black Hawk opened Iowa to settlement, and a day laterprairie schooners overran the Black Hawk Purchase.
On the staff of General Atkinson when he marched out of JeffersonBarracks for the Black Hawk War, was Meriwether Lewis Clark, now agraduate of West Point, and his cousin Robert Anderson, grandson ofClark's sister Eliza.
In the hurry and the heat of the march one day, Lieutenant Clark,riding from the rear back to the General, became enclosed by thetroops of cavalry and had to ride slowly. By his side on a small horsehe noticed a long-legged, dark-skinned soldier, with black hairhanging in clusters around his neck, a volunteer private. Admiringlythe private gazed at Clark's fine new uniform and splendidly accoutredhorse, a noble animal provided by his father at St. Louis.
Young Clark spoke to the soldier of awkward and unprepossessingappearance, whose witticisms and gift for stories kept his comrades ina state of merriment. He proved very inquisitive.
&nb
sp; "The son of Governor Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, did yousay?"
"Yes."
"And related to all those great people?"
"Yes," with a laugh.
They chatted until the ranks began to thin.
"I must ride on," but feeling an interest in the lank, long-hairedsoldier, Lieutenant Clark turned again,--
"Where are you from and to what troop do you belong?"
"I am an Illinois volunteer."
"Well, now, tell me your name, and I will bid you good bye."
"My name is Abraham Lincoln, and I have not a relation in the world."
The next time they met, Meriwether Lewis Clark was marching throughthe streets of Washington City with other prisoners in Lee'ssurrendered army. And the President on the White House steps wasAbraham Lincoln. The cousin of Meriwether Lewis Clark, RobertAnderson, hero of Fort Sumter, stood by Lincoln's side, with tears inhis eyes.
Weeks before, when the land was ringing with his valour, thePresident had congratulated him and asked, "Do you remember me?"
"No, I never met you before."
"Yes," answered the President, "you are the officer that swore me inas a volunteer private in the Black Hawk War."
The next day the assassin's bullet laid low the martyred Lincoln; nonemourned him more than Meriwether Lewis Clark, for in that President hehad known a friend.