The Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk

Dictated in 1833, a year after the war that bears his name, this is the life story of the Sauk leader Black Hawk, told through an interpreter to a frontier newspaper editor. Black Hawk recounts his boyhood and rise as a warrior, the customs and beliefs of his people, and the loss of Sauk land east of the Mississippi through treaties he considered fraudulent. Much of the account centers on the 1832 conflict in which he led families back to their homeland and was pursued, defeated, and captured by American forces. His voice is direct and grieving, at once a defense of his choices and an early Native American answer to the version of events written by the settlers. A free PDF and EPUB edition is available here.