Sac and Fox Indians the most adaptable Native group

Cougar Face
    The Sac and Fox Indians were one of the toughest Indians for both red and white foes alike and their eventual displacement from Illinois and Iowa was a travesty of justice. William T Hagen has a great book looking at the history of these natives whose home was around the quad cities and were a thorn for many of the neighboring natives through the years. This is another North American Indian book in my collection and I use it to teach at a few community college courses I have been lucky enough to work at through the years. The Sacs and Foxes were adaptable Indians whose migrations for the dwindling Buffalo herds in the Midwest drove much antagonism and conflicts from other diverse tribes from the Sioux to the Potawatomi in Illinois and Wisconsin. the fact that these two tribes could co-exist with one another while surviving for so long from conflicts with other native groups and encroaching Whites is a testimony of the  endurance of these indigenous people. Black hawk of course is the most famous of this tribe but there were other great leaders and warriors of strength and courage in these tribes and this book covers their history pretty eloquently from their rise to eventual push into Indian territory. tis book shows the diplomatic nature of this tribe in dealing with the British and Americans and how they negotiated dialogue among themselves when determining a course of action that suited their needs the most. This shouldn't be so unusual as the Sac and fox were long accustomed to having to fight other Indians long before the Big Knives and Redcoats came lumbering into their forests knocking down the trees of the great spirit and trapping animals for their livelihood. A large part of this book was the divide between Black Hawk and Keokuk who wisely saw that fighting the growing American population was futile and negotiating and selling their lands was likely the best approach to surviving and empowering this native group as they were dwindling or being assimilated with other groups of Indians and Whites. the greatest moment though for this tribe is their fights in the West with the more savage Indians of the plains and their folklore is celebrated with the greatest pride in a victory over the Comanche in the 1850's outnumbered ten to one against this most fearsome of all native groups in North America. The coverage and writings of the warfare of Eastern displaced Indians and the Western free natives is often something ignored by many Indian writers and historians as another consequence of manifest Destiny and the dividing conquest success of American pioneers in their winning of the West.