Cougar Face
As I walk around my native Rockford, Illinois I often wished I could of fought in the Black Hawk war of 1832. Seeing hos this beautiful land was degraded and despoiled through the years in my lifetime one can only wonder what changes occurred in its early years as prairies were transformed into industrial wastelands. Author Professor Patrick Jung is one of the leading historians of the Black Hawk war from his home base of the Milwaukee School of Engineering and has written many different books of the Indian and American war in Illinois and Wisconsin. His book called "The Black Hawk War" is really the only book you need of the Illinois territory conflict if you are a historian or professor of American Indian subjects.
Jung goes into great detail of the complexities of inter-tribal rivalries that divided Natives of the region in preserving their lands from the onslaught of a Eastern economic expansion of Whites into their homelands. The ineptitude of the American military and disorganized militias was something the Indians of Illinois couldn't take advantage. 
The Americans were able to take advantage of the Sioux tribe in the West and other Potawatomi allies in battling the British Band of last Indian resistance in Wisconsin and Illinois. experienced diplomacy and tribal leadership divisions was another weakness the Americans exploited as their preferred Sauk leader Keokuk was Black Hawks main rival and albeit leader of the Illinois Indians preventing many from joining Black Hawks rebellion as Keokuk's loyalty was to the paid annuity's he personally benefits from a position of distribution. The book looks at how Andrew Jackson was finally able to break down Blackhawk after his defeat giving him a tour of Eastern cities and a feeling of inferiority and futility of continued resistance to a country that could build impressive buildings and sustain a huge population.
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