I can see
them yet--yes, and smell them, too. In some unventilated chamber of my
rather capacious nostrils an abiding breath of that intense,
all-conquering odor of fish, smoke and muskrat, which they brought with
them, still survives. I well remember their impudent and sometimes
bullying demeanor; and the horror of one occasion I shall never forget,
when a stalwart Winnebago, armed with a knife, tomahawk and gun, seized
my mother by the shoulder as she stood by her ironing table, and shook
her because she said she had no bread for him. I wrapped myself in her
skirts and howled in terror. Having been transplanted from the city to
the wilderness, she had a mortal fear of Indians, but never revealed it
to them. She had nerve, and resolution as well; and this particular
fellow she threatened with her hot flat-iron and drove him out of the
house. So you see I have no occasion for morbid or unnatural sympathy
with any of the Indian kind.

Black Hawk was born in 1767 at Saukenuk. His father was the war chief of
the nation and a very successful leader. Young Black Hawk inherited his
martial spirit and conducted himself so valorously in battle that he was
recognized as a brave when only fifteen years old. He was enthusiastic
and venturesome, and before the close of his twentieth year had led
several expeditions against the Osages and Sioux. It was his boast that
he had been in a hundred Indian battles and had never suffered defeat.

Life passed pleasantly with Black Hawk and his tribe at Saukenuk for
many years. The location combined all the advantages possible for their
mode of existence. When Black Hawk was taken to Washington after his
capture in 1832, he made an eloquent and most pathetic speech at one of
the many interviews which he held with the high officials of the
government. He said: "Our home was very beautiful. My house always had
plenty. I never had to turn friend or stranger away for lack of food.
The island was our garden. There the young people gathered plums,
apples, grapes, berries and nuts. The rapids furnished us fish. On the
bottom lands our women raised corn, beans and squashes. The young men
hunted game on the prairie and in the woods. It was good for us. When I
see the great fields and big villages of the white people, I wonder why
they wish to take our little territory from us."

We are apt to regard the agriculture of the Indians as of small moment,
but the Sauks and Foxes cultivated three thousand