Black Hawk: The Battle for the Heart of America

This book is really good. The author recreates Black Hawk's like and Sauk society and the stress it was under similar to what other writers have done for the Crazy Horse, Red Cloud and Chief Joseph and the times they lived in. Growing up in Illinois, I always wondered about Indian life in the great lakes area and until this book, I have not found a book that captured their lifes and society similar to what other books have done on the Indians of the plains and southwest. Highly recommended.

I had a personal interest in this book because the Black Hawk war was fought literally in my back yard. This engrossing book game me a new perspective of the circumstances about the war. The history and tradition of the Sauk, the onslaught of emigrant settlers and the clash of cultures are well depicted in the book Black Hawk. The savagery of the Sauk and the Militia, the famous people involved in the struggle and the intrigue and deception kept my interest and I didn't put the book down until it was finished. I highly recommend it.

The biased defense (or at least minimization) of Indian atrocities and the retreaded tropes about erotically intimidated white males became somewhat tiresome and detracted from what was an interesting description of the Michigan Territory conflict. But I guess such literary signaling is mandatory in the current age. Pity.

When Black Hawk began his return to Illinois and his ancestral lands his advisors were not any more honest than the U. S. government, the indian agents or his enemies. A tragedy would unfold and the biggest price would be paid by those that followed Black Hawk. This book brings a clear picture of the people, events and attitudes that drove the country. The national attitude towards native Americans is revealed and explained so all can understand. A must read!

This book is investigative to its core. As Dr. Trask writes this book on a key figure in Native American history, he is able to balance fairly well the biases of both Native American sources and also American sources. He focuses on the life of Black Hawk and also does a marvelous job of pointing to the social and cultural aspects that transformed in the now Midwest because the Black Hawk Wars was the last major Native American stand against the westward expansion of the growing America. He eloquently lays out the Black Hawk Wars that had been previously only been seen mostly from an American stand point. Dr. Trask tries to be as objective as possible in his analysis of Black Hawk and the conflicts in 1832. Using an exuberant amount of both primary and secondary sources in his research, Dr. Trask is able to weave together firsthand accounts and to map out things that led to the Black Hawk Wars and what was so significant about Black Hawk's uprising in 1832. Being interested in Native American history and how they were affected by the Manifest Destiny that was instilled in the American psyche, this book on Black Hawk was informative and also intriguing that had me continually wanting to read more of it. It also had plenty of sources that allowed me to gather further information on Black Hawk.

This book should have been titled "The Men that Fought Black Hawk," as it deals more with the American forces than Black Hawk himself and his Indian band. While this is certainly an invited viewpoint that is perhaps under-represented in this famous conflict, I felt a little deceived. I had bought this book to learn more about the enigmatic nature of Black Hawk himself, and found little more than generalizations that described him as confused or powerless. Trask dutifully chronicles the American side of the conflict with great skill and pace, and for this he should be commended. But the Native side of the story is (as usual) left out. The book starts off with two promising chapters explaining why the Sauk were so upset in light of the changing world around them. A later chapters discusses the Sauk practices regarding war and battle, but the rest of the book is devoted to American troop movements and military correspondence. At this point, I couldn't help but feel that the book was being told solely from the American point of view. Trask has crafted a well researched and highly articulate book with a very narrow focus, and it just wasn't what had been promised by both the title and the description on the back cover. Unless you're a big 19th century American military buff, I would search for other resources to better understand the Black Hawk conflict.

This was an excellent and well written account of the period an the war itself. The author provided an outstanding overview of the two clashing cultures throughout the book. This is the 3rd book I have read on the Blackhawk War and never knew that Blackhawk was not at the final battle and had actually deserted his people at the end.

Good read