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Black Hawk was a leader and warrior of the Sauk, an Indigenous tribe that lived in present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin. By the 19th-century, due to immigration and displacement, the tribe had settled along the Mississippi in areas like Illinois and Missouri. After being forced to leave their lands, they moved to Iowa and finally settled in Oklahoma.

Black Hawk was born in 1767 in Saukenuk village in Rock River, present day Rock Island, Illinois. His father was a “medicine man,” a spiritual leader and traditional healer of the tribe named Pyesa. He was a descendant (great-grandson) of Na-nà-ma-kee, or Thunder, an important chief of the Sauk tribe. As a young man, Black Hawk established himself as a capable warrior of the tribe by leading war parties and raids on neighboring villages. He was on his father’s side in an attack against the Osage tribe, where he gained reputation by killing his first enemy. He participated in several other battles until he had a principal success as a leader of a war party against the Osage.