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The British Band was a mixed-nation group of Native Americans commanded by the Sauk leader Black Hawk, which fought against Illinois and Michigan Territory militias during the 1832 Black Hawk War. The band was composed of about 1,500 men, women, and children from the Sauk, Meskwaki, Fox, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Ottawa nations; about 500 of that number were warriors. Black Hawk had an alliance with the British that dated from the War of 1812, giving them their colloquial name. The band crossed the Mississippi River from Iowa into Illinois in an attempt to reclaim their homeland and in violation of several treaties. Subsequently, both the Illinois and Michigan Territory militia were called up and the Black Hawk War ensued. The British Band was victorious at the Battle of Stillman's Run and the military engagements that followed were insignificant until the final two encounters: the Wisconsin Heights and the Bad Axe River. Band members who survived the war were either imprisoned or returned home. All the prisoners taken following the conflict were released by Winfield Scott at the end of August 1832, except Black Hawk who was taken east. In 1833 he dictated his autobiography, the first Native American autobiography published in the United States. ==Background== Sauk warrior Black Hawk, the leader of a band of Sauks near Rock Island at Saukenuk, was always in opposition to ceding Native American lands to white settlers and their governments. Black Hawk supported the invalidity of the Treaty of St. Louis (1804) of both the Sauk and Fox nations negotiated with the then Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison. The treaty ceded territory, including Black Hawk's birthplace Saukenuk, to the United States.〔 The Sauk are a consensus decision making society. Their representatives exceeded the authorization of merely taking under consideration what terms the United States government might put forth, bring them back to reach a consensus and then return with their treaty terms. The lack of the tribe discussing the treaty prior to being made official made it invalid by Black Hawk and other members of the tribe. The representatives never had the tribal authorization to unilaterally cede its lands.〔 During the War of 1812 between the United Kingdom and the United States, Colonel Robert Dickson, an English fur trader, amassed a sizable force of Native Americans at Green Bay to assist the British in operations around the Great Lakes. Most of the warriors Dickson assembled were from the Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Kickapoo and Ottawa tribes. Dickson bestowed the rank of brevet Brigadier General on Black Hawk.〔Smith, William Rudolph. ''The History of Wisconsin: In Three Parts, Historical, Documentary, and Descriptive'', ((Google Books )), B. Brown: 1854, pp. 221–406. Retrieved 20 September 2007.〕 He was given command of all Native Americans gathered at Green Bay, including the 200 Sauk warriors under Black Hawk's control. Black Hawk was then presented with a silk flag, a medal, and a written certificate of good behavior and alliance with the British. The certificate would be found 20 years later, after the Battle of Bad Axe, carefully preserved along with a flag similar to the one Dickson gave to Black Hawk.〔 During the 1812 war, Black Hawk and his warriors fought in several engagements with Henry Procter on the borders of Lake Erie. He returned home to Saukenuk to find his rival Keokuk had become the tribe's war chief.〔 After the war ended, Black Hawk signed a peace treaty in May 1816 that re-affirmed the treaty of 1804, a provision Black Hawk later protested ignorance of.〔Lewis, James. "(Background )," The Black Hawk War of 1832, Abraham Lincoln Digitization Project, ''Northern Illinois University''. Retrieved 20 September 2007.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「British Band」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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