Sac

Massika, a Sauk Indian, left, and Wakusasse, right, of the Meskwaki. By Karl Bodmer, aquatint made at Saint Louis, Missouri in March or April 1833 when Massika pleaded for the release of Chief Blackhawk following the Black Hawk War.

The Sauks or Sacs (oθaakiiwaki in their own language or Ozaagii(-wag) in Ojibwe) from where their French and English names are derived) are a group of Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands culture group.

Clan system

Originally, the sacs were governed by a patrilineal clans system. Clans which continue are: Fish, Ocean/Sea, Thunder, Bear, Fox, Potato, Deer, Beaver, Snow, and Wolf. The tribe was governed by a council of sacred clan chiefs, a war chief, the head of families, and the warriors. Chiefs fell into three categories: civil, war, and ceremonial, but only the civil chief was hereditary. The other two chiefs were determined by demonstrating their ability or their spiritual power. This traditional manner of selecting historic clan chiefs and governing themselves was at first forcibly replaced by United States appointees of the Sac and Fox Agency and now by constitutional government patterned after the American form.^{[citation needed]}

History

Sauk Indian family photographed by Frank Rinehart in 1899

The Sac may have had their original territory along the St. Lawrence River. However, migration patterns of other tribes drove them to Michigan around Saginaw Bay. Due to the yellow clay soils found around Saginaw Bay, their self-designation became Oθaakiiwaki, which is often interpreted to mean "yellow-earth". The Ojibwe and Ottawa name for the tribe is Ozaagii, meaning "Those at the Outlet". From that the French derived "Sac" and the English "Sauk". With the Anishinaabe expansion and Hurons' attempts at gaining regional stability, the Sac were driven by the Hurons armed with French weapons. The Sac moved down to territory in parts of what are now northern Illinois and Wisconsin.

Their closely allied tribe, the Meskwaki (Fox), were noted for their hostility towards the French and fought two Fox Wars in the early 18th century. After the second war, the Sac sheltered the remaining Meskwaki in their camp and were subject to French attack. The Sac continued moving west to Iowa and Kansas. Two crucial leaders of the Sac arose: Keokuk accepted the loss of land (at first, east of the Mississippi) as inevitable in the face of vast numbers of white soldiers and settlers. He tried to preserve peacefully whatever remnant of tribal land he could. Having failed to receive supplies on credit as their emissaries just returned from Washington expected, Black Hawk wanted to fight, saying his people were "forced into war by being deceived."^[1] The refusal of the band of mainly Sac under Black Hawk in 1832 to accept the continued loss of lands (in western Illinois, this time) led to their defeat at the hands of General Edmund P. Gaines in the Blackhawk War.

About this time, one group of Sac moved into Missouri, and later to Kansas and Nebraska. In 1869 the larger group of Sac moved into reservations in Oklahoma, where they merged with the Meskwaki as the federally recognized Sac and Fox Nation. A smaller number returned from Oklahoma (or did not go) and became the Mesquakie tribe in Iowa (Meswaki Settlement, Iowa).

As of 2006^[update] the official Sac and Fox communities are:

• Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska
• Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma
• Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa

Language

The Sac speak an Algonquian language, now called Sauk language, which is a dialect of the same language spoken by the Meskwaki, and very closely related to that of the Kickapoo. Their language is now almost extinct. Supposedly, the now extinct Mascouten language was also related to the Sauk language.

Geographical names

Lake Osakis in west-central Minnesota, the Sauk River^[2], which flows from Lake Osakis, and the towns of Osakis, Sauk Centre, and Sauk Rapids all received their names as a result of an historical association with a small group of Sauks who, having been banished from their tribe for murder, made camp on the shores of Lake Osakis. According to Ojibwa oral tradition, these five Sauks were massacred by local Dakota Indians in the late 18th century.^[3]

Other places with "Sauk" references include Prairie du Sac, Sauk City, Saukville and Sauk County in Wisconsin, Sac City and Sac County in Iowa, Sac Townships in Iowa and Missouri, Sauk Village, Illinois, Le Sauk and Little Sauk Townships in Minnesota, and Sauk Prairie and Sauk Valley Townships in North Dakota. The name of the city of Saginaw, Michigan is believed to mean "where the Sauk were" in the Ojibwe language. The cities of Dixon, Sterling, and the surrounding area in Illinois call themselves the Sauk Valley. Sauk Trail is the name of a winding road in Illinois south of Chicago, said to follow an old Indian trail as is Saginaw Trail in Michigan.

Notable people

• Black Hawk
• Keokuk
• Do-Hum-Me
• Quashquame
• Jim Thorpe

Notes

1. ^ Autobiography of Black Hawk or Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, by J. B. Patterson, 1882[1]
2. ^ The name of the Sauk River in Washington State, however, comes from the Sah-kee-ma-hu (Sauk-Suiattle tribe), a group related to the Skagit tribes, not from the Sauk tribe of the Midwestern U.S. (James W. Phillips, Washington State Place Names, University of Washington Press, September 1976)
3. ^ Upham, Warren (2001). Minnesota Place Names, A Geographical Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. pp. 53. ISBN 0-87351-396-7. 

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sac

• African-Native Americans
• Algonquian languages
• Sac and Fox Nation
• Kickapoo
• Meskwaki
• Native Americans in the United States
• Native American tribes
• Native American tribes in Nebraska
• One Drop Rule
• Saginaw Trail

External links

• Sac and Fox of Oklahoma
• General information to Sac and Fox