On this day, April 6, in 1832

The Black Hawk War began after members of the Sauk and Fox tribes made their yearly migration across the Mississippi River. The US had forbidden these tribes to return East of the River, claiming that they had given up their land rights in the treaty of 1804. In reality, the treaty had been signed by four members of the tribes who did not even have the authority to sign away land. Although the Sauk and Fox people insisted that this treaty was false, they were defeated in the war and forced to comply anyway. Funny how the US rarely honors treaties with Native Americans, and yet they enforced this illegitimate one that granted them land.