PURCHASE A BLACK HAWK POWER BAG

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Black Hawk has long been venerated in the Spiritual Church as a fierce guardian who will intervene on behalf of the oppressed. He is "the watchman on the wall," constantly standing guard against injustice and offering restitution and/or protection for those who have been wronged. It is said when Black Hawk is called in to assist, God follows right behind him. When Leafy Anderson founded the Spiritualist movement in New Orleans during the 1920s, she became known for her yellow and gold robes draped with a mantel bearing the image of Black Hawk, who she recognized as her spirit guide. Black Hawk's guidance and protection are sought still today by the members of many churches within the Spiritual Church Movement. Special "Black Hawk services" are held to invoke his assistance, and busts or statues representing him are kept on home and church altars by his devotees. Today Divine Harmony Spiritual Church continues this tradition with the Black Hawk Power Shrine.

Black Hawk (born born Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak) was a great leader and warrior of the Sauk Native American tribe who lived in what is now the Midwest of the United States. Born in 1767, he grew up in Rock Island, Illinois. He fought against the rival Osage and saw his father killed in a battle with the Cherokee. He was not a hereditary chief, but earned his status through the bravery of his actions. During the War of 1812, Black Hawk fought on the side of the British against the U.S., hoping to stop the westward expansion of white settlers into Sauk territory.

In the spring of 1831, he returned from a hunt to Rock Island and found white settlers dividing up land after destroying the tribes' corn crop. Facing overwhelming military strength and starvation, Black Hawk had little choice but to agree to cede his ancestral lands (and never return) in exchange for food. However by winter of that year, Black Hawk and his tribe of roughly 1000 were facing starvation with no food in sight. The famous Black Hawk War began soon thereafter when drunken guards of a white advance party killed three Native Americans who had approached them under a flag of peace. In retaliation Black Hawk used 40 warriors to rout 270 soldiers, killing at least a dozen. Black Hawk removed the Sauk women and children to Lake Koshkonong, Wisconsin and then led his braves into war. Soon many other tribes in the area joined the war under his leadership. The Black Hawk War stretched from April to August 1832, with a number of battles, skirmishes and massacres on both sides. The conflict culminated with the Battle of Bad Axe where pursuing U.S. soldiers, aided by a gunboat, killed hundreds of Native American men, women and children. Black Hawk soon surrendered himself to prevent further slaughter. He and other war leaders were imprisoned and sent back East.

After several months in prison, Black Hawk and other Native American leaders were summoned to the White House. President Andrew Jackson offered them freedom in exchange for a promise to cease further warfare. As an added inducement, Jackson sent the Native American leaders on what was meant to be a humbling tour of Eastern cities - to impress upon the rebellious natives the total superiority of the United States. Instead, Black Hawk deeply impressed all who saw him with his wisdom, nobility and passion for his cause. News accounts portrayed Black Hawk as a valiant warrior who struggled against overwhelming odds. Crowds cheered for him and hung on his every word, and he became a celebrity almost overnight. In 1834 he dictated his autobiography - one of the first for a Native American - and it became an immediate best seller. He settled down near the Iowa River in what is now southeast Iowa, and died on October 3, 1838 of malaria fever. He was quickly buried on the nearby farm of his friend, James Jordan.

In July 1839, Black Hawk's remains were stolen by James Turner, who prepared his skeleton for exhibition. Black Hawk's sons Nashashuk and Gamesett went to Governor Robert Lucas of Iowa Territory, who seized the remains and brought them to his offices in Burlington. What happened after this is debated. Conventional belief holds that, with the permission of Black Hawk's sons, the remains were held by the Burlington Geological and Historical Society. When the Society's building burned down in 1855, Black Hawk's remains were thought destroyed. An alternative account is that Governor Lucas passed Black Hawk's bones to Enos Lowe, a Burlington physician, who was said to have left them to his partner, Dr. McLaurens. After McLaurens moved to California, workers were reported to have found the bones at his house. They buried the remains in a potter's grave in Aspen Grove Cemetery in Burlington. Yet another account holds that Burlington turned the bones over to a local church for medical lectures, and when the church was demolished in 1886, the bones were buried in a pauper's field cemetery near Burlington. Still another account holds that only Black Hawk's head was removed from the grave and burned in the fire, while the rest of his bones still lie in their original grave.