2-16 Pheasant Branch - Refuge Among Sacred Mounds

April 13, 2014

Pheasant Branch Encampment

Middleton, WI

Historical Marker located on Bascom Hill
U.W. Madison Campus

Awakening, on the morning of July 20th, 1832, to another cloudy and windy day, Black Hawk and his people fled further to the west, finally crossing the isthmus between the two largest lakes, passed over and through the area which is now the University of Wisconsin, moved around Lake Mendota’s edge past what is now Marshall Park, and then straight north to a high mound standing alone among the waving grasses and sedges.  Along this track, today’s traveler will pass both the marker on Bascom Hill noting Black Hawk’s passage, and the Black Hawk Country Club, just one more eponym in tribute of the warrior.

Just west of Lake Mendota and northeast of Middleton, at the Pheasant Branch Conservancy, lies a solitary mound that rises elegantly from the surrounding fields like the oak-covered yolk of a vast brown egg.  The hill is dotted with white oaks, in numbers that could be easily counted if it were important, but it isn’t.  Visitors to this site, so close to the bustle of city life and yet so distinctly apart from it, are immediately infused with a sense of the openness of the prairie, the ancient subtext and undisturbed history of the site, and of the austere majesty of the hill that is the focal point of this large conservancy.

In the parking lot, we met a fellow traveler.  “Just in time for the rain”, he said.  We asked if he had ever heard about Black Hawk.  “Oh yes”, he said, and he proceeded to tell us a bit about what he knew on the subject.  “There’s more to the story”, I said.  I shared with him a few more details, and told him a little about our journey from Saukenuk/Rock Island.  We wished him well and began our walk to the top of the hill.  All along the way, we met people who were walking or jogging, enjoying what was a fairly pleasant late winter day.  We spoke to only one other person along the trail, an adolescent boy who told us that he didn’t’ know where the Indian Mounds were located, but that there was a great view from the top of the hill.  Indeed there was.

It is not difficult to see why Black Hawk chose this particular hill to set up camp on this night.  The previous night had been one of intense misery for the fugitives.  I have already described their extremely depleted physical condition and torturous flight through the thickets and swamps, but the night of July 19th, 1832 was one of howling west winds, violent thunderstorms, lightning, and localized flooding.  Demoralized, dispirited, and utterly without resources, they were forced to find whatever shelter they could and pass a fitful night resting with the wariness of a wounded, hunted animal.  They knew well from the scouts and rear guard that their pursuers were only a few miles behind them and rapidly catching up.

Mound at Pheasant Branch Conservancy

Middleton, WI

No doubt, the band received some guidance from the Ho-Chunk residents of the area, which was called Dejope in their native tongue, literally meaning ‘Four Lakes’.  From the top of the mound it is possible to see many miles in all directions, and it certainly would have been possible to see the approach of any group of people, be they friend or foe, without leaving the shelter of the trees.  This clear line of visibility was important to the weary survivors because their pursuers were now so close behind them that Black Hawk had set up an ambush using many of the able-bodied warriors back on the isthmus, and there were fewer warriors left to protect the non-combatants as they slept.  Secondly, the hill provided relatively dry conditions for the people to collapse in their fatigue.  Third, it was possible to house and hide a large number of horses on the far side of the hill from which their enemy would approach.  It was not the only location where the fugitives camped that night (many places where fires had burned the night before were discovered by troops the next day), but it is one that displayed Black Hawk’s keen abilities as a military strategist.

That night, at least one sad task was performed beyond mere survival.  At the encampment near Pheasant Branch, a single burial site was discovered of an Indian woman who had apparently died there.  The soldier who mentions it, notes only that the woman was “supposed to have died the night before”.  I don’t know if it was decency, shame or cowardice that prevented the soldier from describing how they came to the conclusion that the fresh mound of earth contained the body of a woman, and not that of a man.  I can only surmise that in pursuit of yet another coveted scalp, the grave was desecrated, and the body brought to the surface.

Though the Sauk expected battle that night, the armed troops never advanced as far as the ambush set up by Black Hawk and his warriors along the banks of the Yahara River, and they left the area well before dawn, once again fleeing to the west.  This day, the 21st of July, woke with a cold east wind, steadily falling temperatures, and a mist that turned to steady rain.  When the soldiers arrived at the Pheasant Branch encampment, the fires were cold, but the trail was hot. Black Hawk had eluded them one more night, but it would not last another day.

Makataimeshekiakiak – the fires of your people burned in this place long ago, to offer light and warmth in your time of need. It was fitting that you stayed here, among the spirits of the ancient mound builders, protected for the night.  It was fitting that for one more night, your people were able to regain enough humanity to bury this woman – this victim – with honor.

Today it is cold, and damp, and rain threatens but it does not fall.  Today the marsh is beautiful.  Today I walk along the paths, listening to the whispers of the dawning promise of spring, with the Swamp Sparrows nesting, and the Redwing Blackbirds shrieking their warnings.  Today I stand on the hilltop and look out over the lake, and the fields, and the marshes.  Today I remember the woman who died here, and was buried here to return to our Mother Earth.  Today I hold hands with my loved one and smell the rich damp soil, and the fresh, cold spring water, listening to the sounds of the earth and the sky.  Today I stand where you stood, and I walk where you walked.  I hope that you are able to come back to visit this place.  It looks now how it looked 182 years ago when you passed through.  It is a place of refuge among the people who now inhabit De Jope, and is protected by them.  The springs are still pure, and the birds still sing here in the springtime.  Your spirit is welcomed here.  May you and your people be free to walk these lands now and forever, exactly as they are now, exactly as they have always been,  and I pray, exactly as they shall forever remain.  Ah-ho.

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(Key Terms: Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, Black Sparrow Hawk, Black Hawk, 1767, Saukenuk, Pyesa, Rock Island, Black Hawk’s Watch Tower, Black Hawk State Historic Site, Hauberg Museum, Sauk, Sac, Meskwaki, Fox, Rock River, Sinnissippi River, Mississippi River, War of 1812, British Band, Great Britain, Treaty of 1804, Treaties, Ceded Land, William Henry Harrison, Quashquame, Keokuk, Fort Armstrong, Samuel Whiteside, Black Hawk War of 1832, Black Hawk Conflict, Scalp, Great Sauk Trail, Black Hawk Trail, Prophetstown, Wabokieshiek, White Cloud, The Winnebago Prophet, Ne-o-po-pe, Dixon’s Ferry, Isaiah Stillman, The Battle of Stillman’s Run, Old Man’s Creek, Sycamore Creek, Abraham Lincoln, Chief Shabbona, Felix St. Vrain, Lake Koshkonong, Fort Koshkonong, Fort Atkinson, Henry Atkinson, Andrew Jackson, Lewis Cass, Winfield Scott, Chief Black Wolf, Henry Dodge, James Henry, White Crow, Rock River Rapids, The Four Lakes, Battle of Wisconsin Heights, Benjamin Franklin Smith, Wisconsin River, Kickapoo River, Soldier’s Grove, Steamboat Warrior, Steamship Warrior, Fort Crawford, Battle of Bad Axe, Bad Axe Massacre, Joseph M. Street, Antoine LeClaire, Native American, Indian, Michigan Territory, Indiana Territory, Louisiana Territory, Osage, Souix, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, Ottawa, Ho-Chunk)