Life of Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak
Dictated by Himself

The modern reader has much to learn from The Life of Black Hawk. Historically, it represents an invaluable time capsule; the psychology of the Native American, an authentic chief no less, is, if not a more all-encompassing portrait of devastating war than The Diary of Anne Frank at least its equal--......more

More than anything I've ever read about Native American history, Black Hawk's autobiography gave me a sense of how strange and violent a period the late 18th/early 19th century was in the upper Midwest. What hit me here as revelatory was the utter crowded-ness of this supposed wilderness, where ther......more

This was a free audibook download from audible.com's "Christmas in July" sale for members. I guess I got what I paid for it. The reading (by Brett Bailey, I believe) was lovely, but the content itself was--although at times beautifully poetic and spiritual--mostly just frustrating. Time and time aga......more

I'd say it's tough to rate this book. How do you rate it? It's the story of the life of Black Hawk, the Sauk warrior who led an insurrection in the American Midwest in the early 19th century. Now then. Let's see. Essentially, Black Hawk was the driving force behind the Black Hawk War of 1832, during......more

This was interesting to read, especially given that I spent four years on Meskwaki lands, but I definitely need some guidance through it in terms of how to read it (it was accompanied, for this course, with a reading by Mark Rifkin entitled "Documenting Tradition: Territoriality and Textuality in Bl......more