Black Hawk’s Autobiography & American Indian Cultural Identity
Black Hawk’s Autobiography & American Indian Cultural Identity

Summary/Abstract: In early 1833, Black Hawk, a Sauk Indian war leader, told the French-Canadian-Potawatami interpreter at the Rock Island Indian agency that he wanted to “Have a history of his life written.” Based on my edition of his autobiography, this paper examines his views of the invading whites. It analyses issues related to creating the book, including its recording and translation into English, and the subsequent editing and rewriting to make it readable for American readers. The paper focuses on the issues of translation and ethnic and cultural identity addressed by this conference. During the nineteenth century almost no Indians produced autobiographical accounts and Black Hawk’s 1833 narratives provides a rare chance to understand Natives. Its publication raised questions about its authenticity, but a careful analysis shows that it gives material unknown to whites at the time, that had to come directly from the disgruntled warrior. My analysis shows that neither straining the Sauk’s narrative through the translator, nor editing the prose for publication, obscured the Indian’s presentation of his cultural identity or his hatred for the Americans.

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