In the spring of 1830, when Black Hawk and his band returned from their annual hunt, to occupy their lodges, and prepare as usual for raising their crop of vegetables, they found, that the land in and around their village, had been brought into market, and that their old friend, the trader at Rock Island had purchased a considerable part of it.  Black Hawk, greatly disturbed at this new condition of things, appealed to the agent at that place, who informed him, that the lands having been sold by government to individuals, he and his party had no longer any right to remain upon them.  Black Hawk was still unwilling to assent to a removal, and in the course of the summer, he visited Malden to consult his British father on the subject, and returned by Detroit to see the great American chief, Governor Cass, residing there.  Both of these persons told him that if the Indians had not sold their lands and would remain quietly upon them, they would not be disturbed.  Black Hawk, acting upon the assumption that the land on which their village stood, never had been legally sold to the United States, returned home determined to keep possession of it.  It was late in the fall when he arrived:  his people had gone to their hunting grounds for the winter and he followed them.  They made an unsuccessful hunt and the season passed off in gloom.  Keokuk again exerted his influence to induce them to desert Black Hawk and remove to the Ioway.  Such, however, was their attachment to their favorite village, that the whole band returned to it in the spring of 1831.  The agent at Rock island forthwith notified them that if they did not remove from the land, troops would be sent by the United States to drive them off.  Black Hawk says, he had a conference, about this time, with the trader at Rock Island, who enquired of him, if some terms could not be made, upon which he and his party would agree to remove to the west side of the Mississippi.  To this he replied, that if his great father would do justice to them and make the proposition, they would remove.  He was asked by the trader, “if the great chief at St. Louis would give six thousand dollars, to purchase provisions and other articles,” if he would give up peaceably and remove.  To this he agreed.  The trader accordingly sent a message to the agent at St. Louis, that Black Hawk, and his whole band, could be removed for the sum of six thousand dollars, but the answer was, that nothing would be given, and that if they did not remove immediately, an armed force would be sent to compel them.

The squaws had now planted their corn, and it was beginning to grow, when the whites again commenced ploughing it up.  Black Hawk at last determined to put a stop to these aggressions upon his people, and accordingly gave notice to those who were perpetrating them, that they must remove, forthwith, from his village.  In the mean time, after the return of the Indians, which took place in April, eight of the white settlers