Life of Black Hawk, or Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak: Penguin Classics

A rediscovered, defiant work of Native American literature, presented here on the 175th anniversary of its first publication

Upon its publication in 1833, this unflinching narrative by the vanquished Sauk leader Black Hawk was the first thoroughly adversarial account of frontier hostilities between white settlers and Native Americans. Black Hawk, a complex, contradictory figure, relates his life story and that of his people, who had been forced from western Illinois in what was known as the Black Hawk War. The first published account of a victim of the American war of extermination, this vivid portrait of Indian life stands as a tribute to the author and his extraordinary people, as well as an invaluable historical document.