Sauk

Treaty of January 9, 1789

Articles of a Treaty Made at Fort Harmar, between Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the Territory of the United States North- West of the River Ohio, and Commissioner Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, for removing all Causes of Controversy, regulating Trade, and settling Boundaries, with the Indian Nations in the Northern Department, of the one Part; and the Sachems and Warriors of the Wiandot, Delaware, Ottawa, Chippewa, Pattawatima and Sac Nations, on the other Part. Article 1. Whereas the United States in Congress assembled, did, by their Commissioners George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, Esquires, duly … Read more

Treaty of November 3, 1804

A treaty between the United States of America and the United tribes of Sac and Fox Indians. ARTICLES of a treaty made at St. Louis in the district of Louisiana between William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana territory and of the district of Louisiana, superintendent of Indian affairs for the said territory and district, and commissioner plenipotentiary of the United States for concluding any treaty or treaties which may be found necessary with any of the north western tribes of Indians of the one part, and the chiefs and head men of the united Sac and Fox tribes of … Read more

Houses of the Sauk and Fox Tribes

Mat covered lodges

It is not the purpose of the present sketch to trace the early migrations of the Sauk and Fox tribes, or to refer to their connection, linguistically or socially. However, it is evident their villages were similar in appearance, and both had two distinct forms of habitations which were occupied during different seasons of the year. The summer villages of both tribes consisted of bark houses, and near by were gardens in which they raised corn, squashes, beans, and some tobacco, but with the coming of autumn the families scattered and sought the more protected localities where game was to be … Read more

Sauk Indian Religion

Sauk Religion. The religion of the Sauk is fundamentally the belief in what are now commonly known as manitos. The sense of the term is best given by the combined use of the two words “power” and “magic.” The world is looked on as inhabited by beings permeated with a certain magic force, not necessarily malicious and not necessarily beneficent, the manifestation of which might produce one or the other effect. Objects in nature held to be endowed with this force become the recipients of varying degrees of adoration. A child is early taught to get into personal relation with … Read more

Sauk Indian Treaties

The Sauk made or were parties to the following treaties with the United States: Treaty of Ft Harmar, Jan. 9, 1789; St Louis, Mo. (Sauk and Fox), Nov. 3, 1804; Portage des Sioux, Mo. (Sauk of Missouri), Sept. 13, 1815; St Louis, Mo., May 13, 1816; Ft Armstrong, Ill. (Sauk and Fox), Sept. 3, 1822; Washington, D. C. (Sauk and Fox), Aug. 4, 1824; Prairie du Chien, Wis. (Sauk and Fox), Aug. 19, 1825, and July 15, 1830; Ft Armstrong, 111. (Sauk and Fox), Sept. 21, 1832; Ft Leavenworth, Mo. (Sauk and Fox), Sept. 17,1836; near Dubuque, Iowa (Sauk and … Read more

Sauk Indian Social Organization

Social organization. Society was rather complex. In the days when the tribe was much larger there were numerous gentes. There may be as many as 14 gentes yet in existence. These are: Bass Bear Bear-potato Eagle Elk Fox Great Lynx or Fire Dragon Grouse Sea Sturgeon Swan Thunder Trout Wolf It seems that at one time there was a more rigid order of rank both socially and politically than at present. For example, chiefs came from the Trout and Sturgeon gentes, and war chiefs from the Fox gens; and there were certain relationships of courtesy between one gens and another, … Read more

Sauk Tribe

Sauk Indians, Sac Indians, Sac Tribe ( Osā’kiwŭg, ‘people of the outlet,’ or, possibly, ‘people of the yellow earth,’ in contradistinction from the Muskwakiwuk, ‘Red Earth People’, a name of the Foxes). One of a number of Algonquian tribes whose earliest known habitat was embraced within the eastern peninsula of Michigan, the other tribes being the Potawatomi, the “Nation of the Fork,” and probably the famous Mascoutens and the Foxes. The present name of Saginaw Bay (Sāginā’we’, signifying ‘the country or place of the Sauk’) is apparently derived from the ethnic appellative Sauk. There is presumptive evidence that the Sauk, … Read more

Sauk Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Wabokieshiek

Mokohoko Mokohoko (Mokohokoa, ‘he who floats visible near the surface of the water’). A chief of the band of Sauk that took the lead in supporting Black Hawk in the Black Hawk war. He was of the Sturgeon clan, the ruling clan of the Sauk, and was a bitter enemy of Keokuk. The band still retains its identity. It refused to leave Kansas when the rest of the tribe went to Indian Territory, and had to be removed thither by the military. It is now known as the Black Hawk band, and its members are the most conservative of all … Read more

Sauk Indian Tribe Culture

Material culture of the Sauk tribe. The culture of the Sauk was that of the eastern wooded area. They were a canoe people while they were in the country of the Great Lakes, using both the birch-bark canoe and the dugout. They still retain the dugout, and learned the use and construction of the bull-boat on coming out upon the plains. They practiced agriculture on an extensive scale; they cultivated the ground for maize, squashes, beans, and tobacco. Despite their fixed abodes and villages they did not live a sedentary life altogether, for much of the time they devoted to … Read more

Biography of Black Hawk

Black Hawk

Black Hawk (Ma´katawimeshekā´käa, from ma´katäwi ‘it is black, mishi ‘big,’ kā´käa the name referring to the description of a bird, or sparrow hawk.­ W. J.) A subordinate chief of the Sauk and Fox Indians and leader in the Black Hawk wars of 1832. He was born at the Sauk village at the mouth of Rock River, Illinois, in 1767, and belonged to the Thunder gens of the Sauk tribe. When only 15 years of age he distinguished himself in war; and before he was 17, at the head of a war party of young men, he attacked an Osage camp of … Read more