2-7 Black Hawk's Grove - Brief Rest

February 16-17, 2014

Black Hawk's Grove & Black Hawk Creek

Janesville, WI

The Rock River slashes through Janesville, Wisconsin from the northwest, meandering slightly until it reaches the lowlands near Jeffris Park and then abruptly turns westward and southward again on its way to the Mississippi. With very little imagination, it is possible to picture that the course of the river through Janesville follows the outline of the face of a bear, walking west to east.
Black Hawk’s Grove

After Black Hawk’s band fled the region of Stillman’s Valley, they traveled through modern-day Janesville on their way north. Local tradition says that they set up camp briefly in an area known today as ‘Black Hawk’s Grove’, near the mouth of Spring Brook Creek, also known as Black Hawk Creek. The legend grew from the discovery of Indian tent poles and campfires in 1835, deemed to have been attributable to Black Hawk and his band of approximately 1000-1200 Indians who remained with him at this point in his journey. The lack of any evidence to indicate it could have been any other large group of Indians, for no others were known to have inhabited the area during that time, lends credibility to the deduction.

Black Hawk Creek
Janesville, WI

Within the documented history of the events surrounding the Black Hawk Conflict, is the tale of an Indian-led raid, on May 21st, 1832, at a settlement in Indian Creek. Fifteen settlers were killed in this raid, and two girls were abducted, known to the media and ever afterward as ‘the Hall girls’. Local legend also states that the captured Hall girls were brought to this scenic grove and given to the Winnebago Indians (Ho-Chunk) who would later ransom their return.

We arrived in Janesville in mid-afternoon, where once again it was snowing lightly. We drove to the location where a State Historical Marker talks about Black Hawk’s Grove on one side, and the Black Hawk War on the other side, located on the grounds of the Black Hawk Golf Course, near Blackhawk Meadows Park on one side of the road and Blackhawk Park on the other side, not far from Blackhawk Road and only a few miles from Blackhawk Technical College. These are two of the seven different historical markers which mention the events and places of the Black Hawk conflict.

I had two reasons for stopping here. First, because it was one of the stops along Black Hawk’s Trail, but second because this is where Black Hawk’s path intersects with another journey I have been taking along the Ice Age Trail, see http://ontheiceagetrail.blogspot.com/

I have come to believe that my compulsion to walk the Ice Age Trail may have been influenced by whatever forces led me to discover my personal connections with Black Hawk and his people.  

It is my intention to dedicate my walk on the portion of the Ice Age Trail that travels northwest from Janesville to the Wisconsin River near Sauk City, to the victims of the Black Hawk Conflict, and from there to follow Black Hawk’s Trail all the way to the Bad Axe River.

If you spot one of my prayer flags or prayer sticks, or even if you don't, please stop and offer your own prayers or good wishes to the spirits of The People who perished during the Black Hawk Conflict, without regard for the color they represent on the medicine wheel.

Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak – many thousands of homes now surround this quiet grove where once you rested. When you passed through this place, your heart was filled with rage. Though you had once told your people never to fire a gun under any circumstances, not even to hunt, so as not to anger the whites, you now have told them to raid, and to kill, because the Americans acted without honor in attacking you. I know your heart is at peace. I know that you have put all these events in the past.

Yet I am compelled to learn of your story, and to tell your story. How can I relive your hunger, and your loss, and your rage, and your bravery, without feeling these feelings in my heart? It is good to put these things in the past, but it is not good to forget them. It is good to know of the good that people have done, and of the bad that people have done. It is good to remember. Let no one forget the lessons of your life. 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)