John W. Hall: Uncommon Defense: Indian Allies in the Blackhawk War

In 1832, the Sauk leader Black Hawk led a thousand followers into Illinois to reclaim their ancestral lands. Federal troops arrived to force their withdrawal, but Black Hawk’s fierce resistance – and a devastating cholera epidemic – led to a much longer conflict than expected. 

Uncommon Defense explores the contributions of a group of unlikely federal allies: elements of the Menominee, Dakota, Potawatomi, and Ho Chunk tribes, who willingly aligned themselves with the U.S. Army in combat against Black Hawk and the Sauk. Their motives provide unique insight into tribal relationships, attitudes, and strategies, even as that alliance hastened the end of the world as they knew it.

John W. Hall is the Ambrose-Hesseltine Professor in U.S. Military History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hall formerly held the rank of major in the U.S. Army and worked in the Future Warfare Division of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command in Virginia.