Black Hawk was born into the Thunder Clan in 1767 in Sauk Sautenuk/ Saukenuk, Virginia Colony (now Rock Island, Illinois ). He developed into a brave warrior and married a woman named Assheweque (Singing Bird), with whom he had three children. The chain of events that would make Black Hawk a resistance leader began in 1804, when the leaders of the southern Sauk and Fox of the Missouri signed the Treaty of St. Louis, handing over all tribal lands east of the Mississippi River to the United States. Black Hawk claimed that these tribal leaders did not speak for or represent the northern Sauk and Fox of the Mississippi River area. He refused to move to Iowa from his territory in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Black Hawk became a supporter of Shawnee tribal leader Tecumseh, who proposed a Native tribal confederacy, an alliance of tribes who would protect one another's...