Note 87 — Front matter (continued 6)

(page page 273).—By the treaty of November 3, 1804, the Sacs and Foxes, for the paltry sum of $1,000, ceded to the United States Government 50,000,000 acres of land in what are now Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin; this tract included the lead region. Unfortunately, the Indians were given permission to remain in the ceded territory until the lands were sold to settlers. This privilege was the seed of the Black Hawk War. Most of the Sac and Fox villages moved to the west of the Mississippi River during the first quarter of the century. Black Hawk’s band, living at the mouth of Rock River, alone remained. Settlement gradually encroached on them, and squatters sought to oust the Indians from the alluvial river-bottom. Black Hawk did not consider the squatters as legitimate settlers, and when they persisted for several seasons in destroying his cornfields, stealing his crops, and physically maltreating his people, he threatened vengeance. This led, in 1831, to Governor John Reynolds, of Illinois, calling out the militia, and in June making a demonstration before Black Hawk’s village. The Sacs thereupon withdrew to the west of the Mississippi, and promised to remain there. But discouraged by lack of food, and encouraged by promise of help from the Winnebagoes and Pottawattomies of Illinois, Black Hawk recrossed the river at Yellow Banks, below Rock Island, on April 6, 1832. Governor Reynolds again called out the militia, and secured the aid of United States troops from Fort Armstrong. The Black Hawk War ensued, ending disastrously for the Sac leader and his people.