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The autobiography of ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak ( Black Hawk )


Project Gutenberg - A free online e-book catalog - has an e-book posted

Title: Autobiography of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black Hawk

Author: Black Hawk

Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7097]

[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]

[This file was first posted on March 10, 2003]



The historical value includes among other things a birds-eye view of the treaty that ceded the majority of the territories from the first nation to the early americans.



There are at least two stories claiming to be the autobiography, one post mortem, that I was able to find on the internet. This work is an english translation of the book authored by Black Hawk and recorded in french in 1882.

For those of you who have not found this already and are into first nation history, enjoy!



- Excerpt -

Some moons after this young chief had descended the Mississippi, one

of our people killed an American, was taken prisoner and was confined

in the prison at St. Louis for the offence. We held a council at our

village to see what could be done for him, and determined that

Quashquame, Pashepaho, Ouchequaka and Hashequarhiqua should go down to

St. Louis, see our American father and do all they could to have our

friend released by paying for the person killed, thus covering the

blood and satisfying the relations of the murdered man. This being

the only means with us for saving a person who had killed another, and

we then thought it was the same way with the whites.



The party started with the good wishes of the whole nation, who had

high hopes that the emissaries would accomplish the object of their

mission. The relations of the prisoner blacked their faces and

fasted, hoping the Great Spirit would take pity on them and return

husband and father to his sorrowing wife and weeping children.



Quashquame and party remained a long time absent. They at length

returned and encamped near the village, a short distance below it, and

did not come up that day, nor did any one approach their camp. They

appeared to be dressed in fine coats and had medals. From these

circumstances we were in hopes that they had brought good news. Early

the next morning the Council Lodge was crowded, Quashquame and party

came up and gave us the following account of their mission:



On our arrival at St. Louis we met our American father and explained

to him our business, urging the release of our friend. The American

chief told us he wanted land. We agreed to give him some on the west

side of the Mississippi, likewise more on the Illinois side opposite

Jeffreon. When the business was all arranged we expected to have our

friend released to come home with us. About the time we were ready to

start our brother was let out of the prison. He started and ran a

short distance when he was SHOT DEAD!



This was all they could remember of what had been said and done. It

subsequently appeared that they had been drunk the greater part of the

time while at St. Louis.



This was all myself and nation knew of the treaty of 1804. It has

since been explained to me. I found by that treaty, that all of the

country east of the Mississippi, and south of Jeffreon was ceded to

the United States for one thousand dollars a year. I will leave it to

the people of the United States to say whether our nation was properly

represented in this treaty? Or whether we received a fair

compensation for the extent of country ceded by these four

individuals?



I could say much more respecting this treaty, but I will not at this

time. It has been the origin of all our serious difficulties with the

whites.



Sometime after this treaty was made, a war chief with a party of

soldiers came up in keel boats, encamped a short distance above the

head of the Des Moines rapids, and commenced cutting timber and

building houses. The news of their arrival was soon carried to all

our villages, to confer upon which many councils were held. We could

not understand the intention, or comprehend the reason why the

Americans wanted to build homes at that place. We were told that they

were a party of soldiers, who had brought great guns with them, and

looked like a war party of whites.

Illegal Aliens - Die free Current mood: confused Category: Life

FIGHTING TERRORISM SINCE 1492

So there are people in the United States who believe that the people they refer to as illegal aliens do not have a right to our support and understanding. They claim that their children are invading our schools. They claim that these less than american invaders have no right to any support from the government or public at large.

They claim that they are invading us, and that we owe them nothing. They claim that their presence is a threat. They claim that affording these people the same rights as the legal or naturalized residents of the US is insane.

I hope so. Historically speaking these same people’s ancestors ? as immigrants to the US (European invaders) who by todays standards and in the reality of our history would be declared terrorists by any political or governmental faction afforded some extra-special rights to the native brethren of this land of ours. These actions were the derivative source of their perceived power and claim to the lands they came to occupy. An excerpt from an article previously posted on the Manataka website offers up the following example:

Who are the illegal immigrants?

Here is a small tale about the rights afforded to a legal citizen of these United States near the turn of the last century.

In 1890, Sitting Bull was dragged from his cabin on the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota by Lakota policemen appointed by white authorities. One of the officers killed the defenseless chief with a shot to the head.

A few weeks later, the St. Louis Republic in Missouri editorialized:

“So when Sitting Bull was surprised and overpowered by the agents of the Great Father, he set his greasy, stolid face into the expression it always took when he was most overcome by the delusion that he was born a native American from native American ancestry. Disarmed and defenseless [sic] he sat in the saddle in which he had been put as a preliminary to taking him to prison, and without a change of countenance urged his handful of greasy followers to die free. This idiotic proceeding he kept up until he was shot out of the saddle. So died Sitting Bull. So was removed one of the last obstacles in the path of progress. He will now make excellent manure for the crops, which will grow over him when his reservation is civilized.”

Sitting Bull might have been one of the last obstacles to Anglo settlement of the West, but his killing wasn’t the last abuse of Native Americans by any means. Abuses of property and rights continue to this day, and they spring from the same destructive immigrant practices such as greed and elitism that were brought here by foreigners long ago, which help to explain why illegal immigration is of special, if grim, interest among some Indians. JoKay Dowell, a media consultant and Quapaw-Peoria-Cherokee activist based in Park Hill, Okla., has been closely following developments related to illegal immigration. She views the matter from a Native American perspective.

“The immigrant nation that is the U.S. has a short memory,” she said, “and is in denial of their own historical facts: they are descendants of immigrants who came here and took, either by force, coercion or dishonesty, lands and resources and banned the religions, languages and cultures of the original indigenous peoples of this continent. Now those descendants of Uncle Sam’s immigrant children fear the karma of their ancestor’s actions. But those they fear do not come to take, destroy and claim. They have always been here and always will be.”