ons crossed the river, that the consent of the
chiefs had been obtained by fraud. In 1830 a final treaty was signed at
Prairie du Chien, by which all title to the lands of the Sauk and Foxes
east of the Mississippi was ceded to the government, and provision was
made for the immediate opening of the tract to settlers. Black Hawk,
leading the party in opposition to Keokuk, at once refused to accede to
this cession and threatened to retaliate if his lands were invaded. This
precipitated what is known as the Black Hawk War. Settlers began pouring
into the new region in the early spring of 1831, and Black Hawk in June
attacked several villages near the Illinois-Wisconsin line. After
massacring several isolated families, he was driven off by a force of
Illinois militia. He renewed his attack in the following year (1832),
but after several minor engagements, in most of which he was successful,
he was defeated (21st of July) at Wisconsin Heights on the Wisconsin
river, opposite Prairie du Sac, by Michigan volunteers under Colonels
Henry Dodge and James D. Henry, and fleeing westward was again
decisively defeated on the Mississippi at the mouth of the Bad Axe river
(on the 1st and 2nd of August) by General Henry Atkinson. His band was
completely dispersed, and he himself was captured by a party of
Winnebagoes. At Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, on the 21st of September, a
treaty was signed, by which a large tract of the Sauk and Fox territory
was ceded to the United States; and the United States granted to them a
reservation of 400 sq. m., the payment of $20,000 a year for thirty
years, and the settlement of certain traders' claims against the tribe.
With several warriors Black Hawk was sent to Fortress Monroe, Virginia,
where he was confined for a few weeks; afterwards he was taken by the
government through the principal Eastern cities. On his release he
settled in 1837 on the Sauk and Fox reservation on the Des Moines river,
in Iowa, where he died on the 3rd of October 1838.

See Frank E. Stevens, _The Black Hawk War_ (Chicago, 1903); R.G.
Thwaites, "The Story of the Black Hawk War" in vol. xii. of the
_Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin_; J.B.
Patterson, _Life of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak or Black Hawk_ (Boston,
1834), purporting to be Black Hawk's story as told by himself; and
Benjamin Drake, _Life of Black Hawk_ (Cincinnati, 1846).

BLACKHEATH, an open common in the south-east of London,