2-19 Oh, Great Wisconsin Waters!

April 13, 2014 

Wisconsin River

Sauk City, WI

“Here some of my people left me, and descended the Ouisconsin, hoping to escape to the west side of the Mississippi, that they might return home. I had no objection to their leaving me, as my people were all in a desperate condition. Being worn out with traveling, and starving from hunger. Our only hope to save ourselves, was to get across the Mississippi. But few of this party escaped. Unfortunately, a party of soldiers from Prairie du Chien, was stationed on the Ouisconsin, a short distance from its mouth, who fired upon our distressed people. Some were killed, others drowned, several taken prisoners, and the balance escaped to the woods and perished with hunger. Among this party was a great many women and children.”

– Black Hawk, in his Autobiography




Large, rivers are dangerous places. Every year, people drown in the Wisconsin River, disarmed by its shallow sandbars and modest banks. Beneath the placid surface, however, lies a treacherous undertow, quicksand, and deadly snags. When the Sauk, Meskwaki and Potawatomi of Black Hawk’s dwindling band reached its banks on the night of July 21st, they were literally starving to death, and exhausted from days of relentless racing across the territory. With the enemy at their heels, they had but one choice, cross or die. In the end, the choice made for little difference.

During the night, some 200 of the weakest and least able to travel by foot split off from the main band and headed south in makeshift elm bark canoes and rafts.  The vast majority of these were women and children, with a few men.  The canoes were flimsy and unstable, and some of the travelers drowned in their escape attempt.  Those who did not drown met with a worse fate down the river.  When Colonel Dodge was told that some of the Indians were in flight down the Wisconsin, he hurriedly sent an express message to Captain Gustavus Loomis of Fort Crawford, encouraging him to arrange to stop any who may seek to escape in that way.  The response was to anchor a large flatboat on the river with a six-pound cannon and twenty-five soldiers, and putting eight more men upriver at the ferry crossing.  Second Lieutenant Joseph Ritner was put in charge of those operations.

On the night of July 28th, sometime around 2 am (making it officially the 29th), the Ferry Guard saw and fired upon a number of canoes, killing at least one Indian.  Five canoes were reported abandoned, with the people swimming to shore and fleeing into the woods.  Further downstream, Ritner’s troops fired upon three or four more canoes, killing nearly all in the melee.

Joseph Ritner

Gustavus Loomis

In the book, Black Hawk: The Battle for the Heart of America, author Kerry A. Trask wrote that when daylight broke, “The steamboat Enterprise, outfitted with a cannon, was sent to patrol up and down the Wisconsin, while bands of Winnebago and Menominee warriors were sent out to hunt down any Sauk refugees who may have gone ashore.  The Indian mercenaries searched the riverbanks and woods by day and then at night by torchlight, and soon began returning with fresh scalps and prisoners.”  In the book, Trask quotes a letter written by Joseph Street to William Clark.  ‘The prisoners are the most miserable looking poor creatures you can imagine.  Wasted to mere skeletons, clothed in rags scarcely sufficient to hide their nakedness. Some of the children look as if they had starved so long they could not be restored.’  In the book, Trask continues, “By August 8th, the Galenian informed its readers that the operations on the lower Wisconsin has “resulted in about 34 prisoners, 50 killed, chiefly women and children.”

I have spent an uncharacteristically small amount of time during this post talking about my journey, and describing my observations and feelings.  What exactly can be said?  How do you properly place into a familiar frame of reference the mental picture of emaciated, naked women and children being fired upon in the night with cannons and muskets, the survivors then hunted and scalped?  Is it possible to think of the condition of these poor people without recalling the nightmarish photos of Jewish holocaust victims lined up along barbed wire fences, or laying heaped upon one another in trenches?  I am utterly unable to expose my deepest feelings using mere words, so black and primal are their nature.

I stand at the edge of the river and gaze across its broad, flat surface, letting the passing waters heal my mind.  Only hope, and love, and time will enable me to recover the injury to my spirit caused by this tragedy.  I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to completely forgive.

Oh, Great Wisconsin, waters of my youth – Oh, Great Ouisconsin, waters of the Sauk and Ho-Chunk – Oh, Great Ouisconsing, waters of the French traders – Oh, Great Mescousin, waters of the Miami – Oh, Great River that flows for all men, be they red, white, yellow or black – many are the names you are given, and heavy is your burden.  We ask you to bring life to the plants and animals of the land.  We ask you to give a home to the fishes and the birds.  We ask you to mark our path, so that we do not lose our way.  We ask you to carry us, and our belongings upon your back.  We ask you to give of your very essence, even in the face of the most severe drought, bringing that which is most precious to our survival.  Most unfairly of all, we ask that you carry away our filth, our refuse, and our dead.  How mighty must your Manitou be to do all these things and more?  It seems there is no end to the gifts you offer.  I am deeply grateful to you, Great Red Stone River, for washing clean the foul deeds of man, forever giving us the opportunity to start each day anew.  I have bathed in your arms, I have eaten of your bounty, I have traveled your reaches, and I have flown over your shining surface like a bird when you came to me in my dreams.  Your water is in my blood, and my blood will someday return to your waters.  Please accept my token of healing, that you may recover from the wounds we have inflicted upon you.  Please find the spirits of those who may still linger on your banks and guide them down your flowage to their homes.  Please carry away the tears I give You now, and use them to nourish, cleanse, and heal those along your path.  Ah-ho.

Return to Table of Contents

(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)