The Sauk (or Sac) were a Native American tribe that probably once lived in what is now Michigan. By the 1600s, when the first Europeans arrived in the region, the Sauk had migrated to present-day Wisconsin. They are closely related to the Fox tribe.

Society and culture

During the spring and summer, the Sauk lived in permanent bark-house villages built along rivers. The women of the tribe grew corn (maize), squash, beans, and other crops.

After the harvest, the village broke up into smaller groups of related families. The groups headed to their hunting grounds to hunt game animals and fish. The Sauk spent the winter in portable houses made from pole frames covered with reed mats. Before returning to their summer villages, the Sauk went on expeditions to present-day Iowa to hunt buffalo.

The Sauk were divided into several clans that organized religious ceremonies. The tribe was governed by a tribal council and by chiefs who inherited their positions. When war broke out, these leaders were temporarily replaced by war chiefs selected for their skill in battle.

History

In the late 18th century the Sauk joined other tribes in battling the Illinois people. Together with the Fox, the Sauk moved into the Mississippi and Rock River valleys of what is now the state of Illinois.

In 1804 one Sauk band signed a treaty surrendering territory to the United States. Many Sauk became angry, insisting that the chiefs had no right to speak for them. Sauk followers of Chief Keokuk moved to what is now Iowa in 1830, but other Sauk refused to leave their lands. Among them was Black Hawk, a war chief who led a band of Rock River Sauk. His people stayed in their village of Saukenuk even as U.S. settlers began to move onto their lands and sometimes into their homes.

The United States finally sent in troops to drive the Sauk from the village. The conflict that followed became known as the Black Hawk War of 1832. Black Hawk received military support from the Fox, Kickapoo, Winnebago, and Potawatomi tribes. Nevertheless, the Indians were quickly defeated. The war ended with a battle at the mouth of the Bad Axe River during which hundreds of retreating Sauk, including women and children, were slaughtered.

Settlers continued to move onto Sauk land. In 1842 the Iowa Sauk were forced to move to present-day Kansas. Crowded out of their new homeland, they resettled on a small reservation in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The Sauk and Fox eventually merged into one group.

There were about 4,500 Sauk and Fox Indians in the United States at the end of the 20th century. They live in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Iowa. Many people from each group gather each year near Shawnee, Oklahoma, for the Sac and Fox Powwow.