How Does Black Hawk's War Affect The Treatment Of Native Americans?

The Native Americans have always seemed to run into conflict with the American Government. The situation usually plays in favor of the Americans, usually enforced by law leaving the Native Americans with no choice. This is what happened in the excerpt from Life of Black Hawk an autobiography by Black Hawk. From this section of the story, Black Hawk tells about his signing of the Treaty of 1804 and the consequences that later come. These actions are not what was expected, and were the beginning to a terrible relationship between the two. Black Hawk tells the reader about his experience with the Americans and his fight to stop them. The autobiography of Black Hawk not only tells the story of an individual's fight, but also a piece of history

Generally history will show that most things went smoothly. A few hiccups here and there but never major differences. The story from Black changes this. His immediate account from this time really helps to demonstrate the struggles that the Native Americans went through. Black Hawk says, “Our people were treated badly by the whites on many occasions. At one time, a white man beat one of our women cruelly, for pulling a few suckers of corn out of his field, to suck, when hungry!” ( 587). This is just one of the many accounts he gives. On one instance, he says a boy was beaten for opening a fence and later died from the injuries. These were all instances that occurred after the signing of the treaty. Once the Americans gained the authority legally, they felt as if they could do what they wanted. This resulted in extremely poor treatment of the Native Americans. In an article by James Lewis he talks about the settlement in the northwest by the Americans which is what happened after the treaty. This article is very in favor of the whites and the great advancements that were achieved on this new land. The more white settlers that came in, more villages were abandoned, and the Native Americans continued to move farther from what was originally theirs. Lewis says that settlers eventually became nervous of raids that could possibly occur by the Natives. This was a fairly common action at this time. Something that could be considered wrong from this article is that not all of the facts are there. Although it does tell what happened, it tells it in support of the whites. It does not speak of the fraudulent treaty making that was used in order to manipulate the Native Americans. It also does not speak of the harsh actions that were taken against them. This is where having the Life of Black Hawk proves to be more than a story. Without his story, one would not know the other side of history. Only the