The Black Hawk songs

the long version

A cycle of 30 narrative poems detailing the life of Sauk Indian Chief Black Hawk, who lived 1767-1838 in the Mississippi River Valley area of Iowa-Illinois. The first poem, "Last Song," is a litany of the once powerful native tribes that roamed the upper Midwest. Other historical events in Black Hawk's life are depicted, some of a more personal nature, such as "Swimming in the Rock," which was first published in The New Yorker magazine. Other poems lyrically detail the natural landscape and seasons, culminating in the historical decimation of the tribe by the Illinois militia at the Battle of Bad Axe in southern Wisconsin. A member of the militia was a young Abraham Lincoln. The collection was selected as a Books-Across-the-Sea Honor Book upon publication in 1975.