Black Hawk, born
Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, (1767 – October 3, 1838) was a war leader and warrior of the
Sauk American Indian tribe in what is now the Midwest of the
United States. Although he had inherited an important historic
medicine bundle from his father, he was not a hereditary civil chief. Black Hawk earned his status as a war chief or captain by his actions: leading raiding and war parties as a young man, and a band of Sauk warriors during the
Black Hawk War of 1832.