2-9 A Blind Old Man - Named Cau-kee-ca-mac

April 11, 2014

Lake Koshkonong

Fort Atkinson, WI

I am standing near the southern banks of Lake Koshkonong on a cool April morning under gray, laden skies that give promise of future rain.  The wind is cold, biting easily through my layered clothing and reminding me that nature is always in control.  It also reminds me how weak and frail I am compared to even the least of the Native Americans who lived in the Michigan Territory during the 1830’s.  Would they have felt cold, and shivered just because the air was cool and carried a damp chill with it?  Hardly.  We think of ourselves as ‘modern’, having all the advantages our forefathers lacked. How I wish that I had their ability to cope with nature – not impervious to the weather but acting in concert with it, like the deer of the forest.

On July 4, 1832, on the southeastern bank of Lake Koshkonong, General Atkinson and his troops encountered a single Sauk Elder who had been left behind by the retreating fugitives.  Atkinson described him as old, literally blind, and starving to death.  When Black Hawk and his band fled the lake area to escape north along the Rock River, this man remained behind, to die. He was simply too weak to make the trip.

Atkinson did not give the name of this old warrior, but it was given as Cau-kee-ca-mac in an account of local history by George W. Ogden, who later staked a claim on the land where the old indian was discovered.  I don’t know much more of his story, but I can guess.  He was a proud old man, greatly respected in his tribe.  In Iowa, with his family starving and Black Hawk leading a band back into Saukenuk to plant crops and to live, he went along, believing that despite his blindness, he still had much to offer.  When the band moved on, up the river to Prophetstown, he went along with his wife, or sons, or daughters.  They helped him travel, but he started to feel like a burden to them.  Later, when the group fled to Koshkonong, starving, he came to the decision that he would journey no farther.  Others needed what little food there was, and others needed to be able to move quickly without the burden of a blind, old man.  When it came time for them to leave, he stayed behind.

I close my eyes, and listen to the wind coming off the lake, moving the tree branches, still utterly bare in this cold springtime weather. I can hear birds singing, in defiance of the weather. I picture myself blind, and starving, and alone.

General Atkinson’s troops found Cau-kee-ca-mac, and even they took pity upon him.  Rather than kill him, they fed him, and asked him questions about the rest of the band.  The cagey old man was grateful for the food, but was somewhat vague about the details of when Black Hawk left, and which direction they traveled.  ‘Surely’, the old warrior must have thought, ‘I did not give my life up for the tribe just to betray them to this White Beaver Chimookoman for a piece of meat.”  Eventually, they let the old man go free.

On July 6th, a regiment under the command of Brigadier General Alexander Posey, who were arriving in the area and were unaware of what had taken place between Atkinson and the old man, came upon the Indian as he wandered through the forest.  They shot him dead.

Come with me, grandfather, and guide me on the rest of my journey, for I am more blind than you, and I need the wisdom of your years.  You still have much to teach, and I am trying to listen. 

Teach me to love my family so completely that I would tell them to leave me behind if by staying with them I may endanger their lives, even knowing it would mean my certain death.  Teach me to accept the limits of this lifetime, and embrace the wonders of the world yet to come.  Come with me as I travel these roads in search of those you love, and who love you. 

Guide me through the emotions I feel, and help me to find the place in my soul that balances joy and grief and accepts that both have an important place in this world.  Let us share each other’s pain and sorrow, that by the sharing we come to know one another better, and can help to raise each other from our sadness.

Travel with me, grandfather, so that together we may find light, and peace, and serenity.  It is but a little farther down the trail.  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)