Where The Bones Rest

The Black Hawk War was the last military conflict fought east of the Mississippi River between a Native American nation and the United States of America. In 1832, a cobbled force of U.S. Army Regulars, Illinois Militia, and some rogue fighters from the Wisconsin area pursued and attacked a band of fifteen hundred Saukie and Kickapoo people who crossed to the east side of the Mississippi to return to their summer homes and plant their fields, despite warnings that they should never return again. The Saukie people were led by Black Sparrow Hawk, an old warrior who refused to give in to the white settlers and their armies.

Among the Saukie people was a young mother, Namesa, who watched her nation fall apart under the power of the United States. She and her newborn baby struggled through the war, trying to survive.

Rachel Hall was a teenage farm girl on the Illinois frontier. Her family was attacked in a raid and she was held hostage, with her sister, at the wandering camp of Black Sparrow Hawk.

Dr. Addison Philleo was a physician and a newspaper editor. He marched away to war and wrote dispatches that were published throughout the nation and in Europe.

Rich with historical references to the Saukie culture, Where the Bones Rest tells the stories of these three people, and the fateful summer that became known as the Black Hawk War.