(Words in italics are those recorded as having been uttered
by Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kai-Kiak, known to white settlers
as Chief Black Hawk)
He had lived too long. He'd watched a never-ceasing wave
Of settlers move in, unearthing the graves of his ancestors
With their plows, putting up fences, debasing with their liquor,
Demeaning with their laws or damning with their religion.
Theirs were not his tribal ways, theirs was not his God.
The Earth is our mother - we are now on it
With the Great Spirit above it. It is good."
"It has pleased the Great Spirit that I am here today."
"Rock River was a beautiful country. I fought for it.
It is now yours - keep it as we did - it will produce good crops."
The elderly Sauk statesman, whose bones now ached as though
He'd waken from a sleep upon frozen, unforgiving ground
Gazed out at the white, mostly unfamiliar, some hostile, faces
Who had come to hear him, not out of respect, but curiosity.
"I was once a great warrior. I am now poor."
"It has pleased the Great Spirit that I am here today."
"I have looked upon the Mississippi since
I have been a child. I love the Great River. I have dwelt
Upon its banks from the time I was an infant." Not entirely true.
He and his people had been driven west, until a yearning for home
Moved him to lead his tribe in an effort to reclaim their heritage.
"White men came year after year to cheat them and take away their lands.
I have done nothing for which an Indian ought to feel ashamed."
"It has pleased the Great Spirit that I am here today."
Their doomed quest was met with military might, a pursuit
That chased his people down at the Bad Axe River, where cornered,
They were picked off by sharpshooters who showed no more mercy
Toward squaws and children than they did toward braves -
Firing at them as though they were rats rather than human beings.
"A few winters ago I was fighting against you. I did wrong, perhaps,
But that is past - it is buried - let it be forgotten."
"It has pleased the Great Spirit that I am here today."
The ultimate dishonor came soon after his death.
The old Chief's bones were dug up, stolen, cleaned and varnished
By a shyster intent on displaying the skeleton for profit.
Black Hawk's son appealed to the white man's justice
That had failed his people so often in the past.
Asking that the bones be retrieved and the thief punished.
They were recovered and identified by Black Hawk's widow.
"It has pleased the Great Spirit that I am here today."
Bones however engender no respect, unless considered
Saintly relics. Black Hawk's were not viewed as such.
The box of bones eventually was lost track of, rumored
To have been incinerated in a Burlington office fire,
Or more likely, buried without ceremony in a potter's field
That section of a cemetery reserved for the indigent,
Those too poor to pay for a marker of remembrance.
"It has pleased the Great Spirit that I am here today."
Such an ignoble end to such a noble life,
To have such a forgiving spirit callously discarded,
His remains lost to history, giving us no Canterbury
To make a pilgrimage to; no gravesite to visit,
No bones to become the objects of our veneration.
"He is satisfied. He will go to the world of spirits contented.
He has done his duty. His father will meet him there, and commend him."
"It has pleased the Great Spirit that I am here today."
