War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. Your host, James Early. Hello and welcome to another special bonus episode of Key Battles of American History.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

And this week, I'm doing another one-off topical episode, which was requested by one of my

patrons on my patreon.com page, which is called Early's Raiders. And, well, that's the name of the

group, actually. But anyway, the person that requested this is Colonel Matt Schaper. So,

Matt, thank you very much for your sponsorship,

and I hope you enjoy this episode. Matt is requested that I discussed the Black Hawk War of 1832.

So that is what I am going to do. Without any further ado, let's jump right into this fascinating topic.

By the early 19th century, the Fox Indians had spent nearly two centuries

fighting encroachment on their land and their lifestyle. When French explorers and settlers began

arriving in the Great Lakes region, the Fox lived in villages in the Upper Peninsula of modern

day Michigan. After a long cycle of devastating wars against the much larger Dakota and Ojibwe tribes, as well as with the French, the fox moved further south, settling in the area around modern-day Green Bay, Wisconsin.

By then, the fox had been decimated. The heavily depopulated fox then sought refuge with the SAC or SAC nation.

Sometimes it's spelled SAC and sometimes it spelled

SAUK, but I'm just going to call them SAC. I hope that's not a mispronunciation. If so, I

apologize, but we'll go with SACC. So the Fox moved in with the SAC Nation and soon the two

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