Essay on Black Hawk Speech

            Native Americans had always been discriminated against in one way or the other. All their efforts, their struggles, and their hardships had never been noticed and taken action against. Such hardships have been told, have been described in a painful way by the Black Hawk. He was prideful and with the native codes in his hands, he never backed away. However, with different policies and various crucial actions, he had no way that he could fight against the force of Americans and do something for his people. His knees had finally gone wobbling and that is when he had stated, he told the story of every Indian and every miserable child who could do nothing against the English laws that were meant to only drive the Natives away or kill them. Different policies had been made but they were not benefitted because all that happened was the abduction of their land and nothing else. They were deprived in many ways, however, nothing left them more broken than the stealing of their land and their precious ones. What happens is blurred under different rules and different made-up stories and nothing is concluded in the advantage of Natives which is described by the Black Hawk. They are given assurance that shaking hands with English will bring them peace and they will get back what has actually been stolen from them. However, they get deceived again and again. Invisible tears of blood are shed by the Black Hawk as he preaches.

            At the time of European Settlement, North America had been filled by tribes composed of Native Americans. They had developed well-functioning and proper societies. It was their race, their color, and their values which clashed with codes of English. Even before the revolution, the Native Americans had been pushed to the west slowly but steadily. While Indians only wanted to live on their land, the native culture was conflicted heavily with the religious conversions and land exploitation of the Americans. It was recognized by the national leaders and the state that something had to be done about the Native Americans. They agreed and decided to make one in 1820s to produce a policy which centered only them. However, the hopes of Indians were crushed as the policy strongly opposed the betterment which they had in their mind. The policy concerned only the removal of American Indians from their lands and far from there. The Indian Removal Act made the lives of Native Americans tougher and only they could understand what it was like.

            With the implementation of policies, most of the territories and states had already been pushed to the west. Although not even a single Native American wanted to go willingly, they had no choice but to comply as there was always a threat of being annihilated. In 1932 during April to August, Chief Black Hawks along with his two bands sought to do something about the territories that they occupied before. They really wanted nothing more but their land back or the land where they could live easily without forced laws which were made just for them. Moreover, they wanted their crops to grow but they didn’t have a place to do so. Whirling Thunder who was the son of Black Hawk, they both were caught as souvenirs. Governments came and went by, however,  nothing was done to benefit the Native Americans. Black Hawk finally gave in and preached about miseries of every other Indian. (Mtholyoke, 2018).

            When the Black Hawk was captured along with his son, people didn’t feel the pride but the sympathy but it was nothing more than just the sympathetic indifference. There was nothing that was done for them and if there really was something done, it opposed the beliefs of Native Americans and their native codes. Sometimes, they were killed in the name of religion and sometimes they were killed for their color. Their lands meant the most and it was strategically taken from them which was preached on by the Black Hawk. Just how many lives, woman, men, and children were killed just for their land? The Black Hawk wanted answers.  

References of  Black Hawk Speech

Kclonewolf. (2018). The Sand Creek Massacre. Retrieved from Kclonewolf: http://www.kclonewolf.com/History/SandCreek/sc-documents/sc-chivington-testimony.html

Mtholyoke. (2018). Black Hawk's Surrender Speech, 1832. Retrieved from Mtholyoke: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/black.htm