Early Indigenous Literatures

Original Title Page of Life of Black Hawk

The original publication of Life of Black Hawk positions the text quite differently from subsequent versions. On this original titular page, “dictated by himself” appears in the smallest font of all the words on the cover, and rather than following the title or Black Hawk’s name, it is one of the last lines on the page, followed only by the town and date of publication. 

The subtitles that insists upon their primacy by virtue of their size are the following: “Life”; “Black Hawk”; “Late War”; “His surrender and confinement at Jefferson Barracks”. From the relative size of these phrases, Black Hawk’s English name, not his Sauk name, is on equal footing with “Late War” which positions this text immediately as a historic account of the war, which the title page subtitles with “His surrender and confinement at Jefferson Barracks.” Rather than staging Black Hawk’s life as something which pre-existed the war, the war is the defining feature of Black Hawk’s life for this narrative and for this publisher. Similarly, it is not just his involvement in the war that is of significance, but that he surrendered and was confined at Jefferson Barracks. The specificity of the barracks where Black Hawk was confined suggests the authenticity of these events by grounding them in a known place and simultaneously placing Black Hawk within the United States as a nation-building project intent on confining Indigenous peoples.

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