Black Hawk, born Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, was a Sauk leader and warrior who lived in what is now the Midwestern United States. Although he had inherited an important historic sacred bundle from his father, he was not a hereditary civil chief. Black Hawk earned his status as a war chief or captain by his actions: leading raiding and war parties as a young man and then a band of Sauk warriors during the Black Hawk War of 1832.
Portrait by George Catlin, 1832
Plans of the original Fort Madison, 1810. Black Hawk participated in the 1809 and 1812 sieges; the fort was captured by British-supported Indians in 1813.
Plaster life cast of Black Hawk, original ca. 1830, at Black Hawk State Historic Site
Calumet (or "peace pipe") used by Black Hawk, on display at Black Hawk State Historic Site.
The Sauk or Sac are a group of Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands culture group, who lived primarily in the region of what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin, when first encountered by the French in 1667. Their autonym is oθaakiiwaki, and their exonym is Ozaagii(-wag) in Ojibwe. The latter name was transliterated into French and English by colonists of those cultures. Today they have three federally recognized tribes, together with the Meskwaki (Fox), located in Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas.
Massika, a Sauk Indian, left, and Wakusasse, right, of the Meskwaki. By Karl Bodmer, aquatint made at St. Louis, Missouri in March or April 1833 when Massika pleaded for the release of war chief Blackhawk following the Black Hawk War
Sac Indian family photographed by Frank Rinehart in 1899