Black Hawk, a Sauk Chief, returns to his territory for corn planting season, only to find it overrun by American settlers. The settlers refuse to move, noting that they had supposedly bought the land. The state militia come and drive the Sauk out of the territory. Surrounded by 11,000 state militia, the Sauk fly a white flag of surrender but are then massacred by the militia. Black Hawk is captured, and the Sauk are forced to cede the eastern portion of Iowa (Nies, 1996).