The Black Hawk War of 1832 by Patrick J

REVIEWS 309 The Black Hawk War of 1832 By Patrick J. Jung (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. Pp. xiv, 275. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95.) Between April and August 1832, the sometimes becomes difficult to dis- Sauk warrior, Black Hawk, and 1,100 cern the motivations of those of his supporters crossed the Missis- involved. This is especially the case sippi River and returned to their for Black Hawk and his many sup- homelands in Illinois in defiance of a porters. Their attempt to return to federal order. Their decision to ques- Saukenuk and the rich cornfields that tion the legality of the treaties of 1804 they had cultivated since moving and 1816 resulted in the deaths of there in 1767 seems like a fool’s approximately 520 members of the errand. Historian Patrick J. Jung tells “British” band of the Sauk tribe, along us that Black Hawk’s decision to with a significant number of Fox return was informed by the Sauk’s (Meskwaki), Kickapoo, and Win- misunderstanding of the Treaty of nebago (Ho-Chunk) allies. In con- Ghent, which they believed defend- trast, 77 white civilians, volunteers, ed their right to their homelands. and regulars lost their lives. After the Sauk diplomatic missions to British British band’s initial victory at Still- outposts in Ontario led some to man’s Run, along the Rock River believe that the British might come to above modern-day Dixon, Illinois, the their aid. Finally, Black Hawk fol- Sauk lost three successive battles in lowed the advice of a Winnebago southern and southwestern Wiscon- Prophet named Wabokieshiek, who sin, culminating in the devastating suggested that the Sauk might be able loss of life at the Battle of Bad Axe, to remain at Saukenuk if they above Prairie du Chien on the Mis- remained peaceful. sissippi River. In just five months, Unfortunately, the context of both the Sauk and American settlers American settlement is largely miss- dehumanized each other in a war that ing from Jung’s analysis. For exam- regularly featured the mutilation of ple, the proliferation of American lead the dead and wounded. And in the miners, the growing monopoly of the end, the war became the last act of American Fur Company, and the pres- military resistance to federal Indian ence of squatters on their lands policy for the Algonquian peoples of deeply antagonized the Sauk. Rather the Midwest, as both the Native allies than addressing these crucial ele- and enemies of the Sauk resigned ments of the story, Jung argues that themselves to the Indian Removal “Black Hawk should have been more Act. objective in his analysis of the situa- In a war that featured an over- tion,” and given up his claims in abundance of intimate violence, it Illinois. 310 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY These and other conclusions was to return to the village that had assume that Black Hawk shared the sustained them for generations. In same epistemological vision of the contrast, both the Northwest Indian world as the settlers who fought War and the War of 1812 witnessed against him and the historians who much larger numbers of multi-ethnic have written about him ever since. Yet combatants who fought to preserve a one could argue that the Black Hawk vast territory and an even wider vari- War, and the madness that its com- ety of cultures. batants exhibited toward each other, The intimate violence that char- illustrates the profound cultural dif- acterized the Black Hawk War result- ferences that increasingly shaped rela- ed in a primary source record that is tions between American Indians and fraught with prejudices, misunder- Europeans on the lands once charac- standings, and self-serving attempts terized as a cultural “middle ground.” to shape subsequent memories of the In The Black Hawk War of 1832, war. In this book, Jung does not sit- both the Sauk and their famous leader uate these sources in a varied enough are victimized by bad advice, their context to provide his readers with own irrational decision-making, and multiple perspectives on one of the an “anti-Americanism” that, for Jung, more important and troubling events are analogous to the pan-Indian in American history. resistance movements led by Little Tu rtle, Blue Jacket, and Tecumseh STEPHEN WARREN is assistant profes- between the Northwest Indian War sor of history, Augustana College, and the War of 1812. Yet there are Rock Island, Illinois. He is the author important limits to these connections, of The Shawnees and Their Neighbors, including the fact that the primary 1795-1870 (2005). aim of Black Hawk and his people More Than Neighbors Catholic Settlement and Day Nurseries in Chicago, 1893-1930 By Deborah A. Skok (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007. Pp. x, 241. Notes, bibliography, index. $38.00.) Using her 2001 University of Chica- The acknowledgements recog- go dissertation as a base, Deborah A. nize the giants of Progressive Era Skok brings together the methods and women’s history, especially Catholic concerns of women’s history, Catholic women. Skok spent considerable time history, urban history, immigration researching at Catholic institutions, history, parish history, and demogra- usually a sign that the resources have phy into a single meticulously been largely ignored by non-Catholic researched and engaging work. historians. Skok correctly calls work.

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