Black Hawk's Bones

(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."

At the Gravesite of Richard Mentor Johnson

The marble eagle perched atop the tall white column
With a wreath of laurel clutched firmly in its beak
Is a symbol of the young Nation's gratitude
To you, Colonel Johnson; Vice-President, soldier,
And slayer of the valiant Chief Tecumseh.

Egyptian Pharaohs adorned their dark chamber walls
With scenes of triumph.  You drank a flagon full too, Sir.
You let the victory at the Battle of the Thames
Boost you into Van Buren's Vice-Presidency.
A heartbeat away from the prize, you ran with him again
Against the Whig ticket of Harrison and Tyler.
When the ticket "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" was shouted,
Good Democrats would bellow back "Rumpsey Dumpsey!
Rumpsey Dumpsey!  Colonel Johnson KILLED Tecumsey!"
Yeah, you guys really knew how to address the issues.

If an elaborate marble tribute is a gauge
Of greatness, Colonel, you were a hell of a man.
Homer, Hannibal and Tecumseh have no gravesite
Memorials, but you have a bas-relief of you
On horseback slaying the noble Chief Tecumseh.
From a white man's elevated horseback status
Your pistol triumphs over Red-man's tomahawk,
The Chief's knees buckling like broken boughs, his body
Falling backwards into the lap of autumn frost; this death
Etched in stone is that of the brave Chief Tecumseh.

Tecumseh saw the end coming, Colonel Johnson.
He told Harrison at the great council at Grouseland
"Your great Chief far off won't be injured by war.
He'll sit in town and drink wine while you and I fight it out."
He divined his death in the entrails of change and donned
His war-paint to meet it like a man.  Could've you
Been as fearless Colonel Johnson?  To have outlived
His wits; a slovenly, ill-kept tavern keeper like you,
Age-ravaged and babbling drivel, is a finish
That Tecumseh would have ended rather than endured.

Was this the apex of your career then, Colonel,
That you celebrate in the permanency of stone?
Tying Tecumseh's life like a scalp to your belt
By depicting your role in his death.  How pathetic.
His words and deeds still spark our imagination
While your boastful monument is all that remains
To broadcast your greatness, and its mute testimony
Is slowly giving way to the weathering of time.