Lemuel Bryant's Travel Journal, 1832

The Black Hawk War (April–July 1832) quelled the last Indian resistance to white settlement in the region around Chicago. The famous Sauk leader, Black Hawk, and his thousand followers had been expelled from Illinois in 1831, but returned from Iowa carrying seeds for planting. Hostilities commenced after inexperienced militia attacked an Indian delegation approaching with a white flag. Thereafter, Black Hawk and Indian supporters joined in warfare that provoked the mobilization of about seven thousand American soldiers, bringing the first regular army troops—and the first cholera epidemic—into the Upper Great Lakes. Most of Black Hawk's band was killed trying to flee west. Black Hawk with his son and the Winnebago Prophet, surrendered at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and were imprisoned until the summer of 1833. In that year, Potawatomi ceded the last of their lands in northeastern Illinois, promoting the first development of the Chicago area.

Helen Hornbeck Tanner