Black Hawk: Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, (Autobiography of Black Hawk) - Softcover

Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, Or Black Hawk, by Black Hawk. Black Hawk, born Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, (1767 – October 3, 1838) was a band leader and warrior of the Sauk American Indian tribe in what is now the Midwest of the United States. Embracing the Traditions of his Nation, Various Wars in which he has been engaged, And his Account of the cause and general history of the Black hawk war of 1832, His surrender, and travels through the United States. I was born at the Sac village, on Rock river, in the year 1767, and am now in my 67th year. My great grandfather, Nanamakee, or Thunder, according to the tradition given me by my father, Pyesa, was born in the vicinity of Montreal, Canada, where the Great Spirit first placed the Sac nation, and inspired him with a belief that, at the end of four years he should see a white man, who would be to him a father. Consequently he blacked his face, and eat but once a day, just as the sun was going down, for three years, and continued dreaming, throughout all this time whenever he slept. When the Great Spirit again appeared to him, and told him that, at the end of one year more, he should meet his father, and directed him to start seven days before its expiration, and take with him his two brothers, Namah, or Sturgeon, and Paukahummawa, or Sunfish, and travel in a direction to the left of sun-rising.