This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
I wish the small town in southern Minnesota where I grew up had been as civilized as Saukenuk, the principal village of the Sauk Indians who lived around Rock Island prior to the Black Hawk War. My childhood would have been much less stressful.
Sauk mothers marked their babies at birth with either a white or a black dot, keeping the number of white and black babies even as new children arrived. Half the Sauk Indian grew up black, half white. They retained their color for life.
When the Sauk engaged in contests, games, races, or ceremonies which required sides, the black Indians formed one group, the white Indians, the opposing side. There was no choosing up sides one at a time, from the most desirable to the least desirable, as in my hometown. There was no boy left standing until everyone else—even the girls—had been chosen by the team leaders. A few of you know what that's like as well as I do.
Now and then, black and white sides turned from games to something more serious. Black Hawk, the war leader of the Sauk, was a black Sauk, while the tribal chief, Keokuk, was white. If you look at contemporary portraits of these men, you will often see the black or white marks on their foreheads. Black Hawk and Keokuk became rivals, eventually splitting the tribe into pro- and anti-American factions, into a peace party and a war party. After Black Hawk led his faction into war against the Americans in 1832, and was defeated, he was released into the custody of Keokuk, a shameful end to a noble life.
Me? I fared somewhat better, once I learned how our Minnesota system of choosing sides worked. I had the advantage over Black Hawk of not being stuck with one side for life. If I had a falling out with Porkso Heibert, I could kick him out of my Red Ranger Club and invite Billy Hoetzler in. I could even make friends with Catholics, in moderation.
And even though I never made it very far from last place in choosing sides all the way through school, I did manage to beat that system, too. I married a very popular cheerleader and went to the head of the line.
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.
