Great Leader: Black Partridge of the Potawatomi, c 1744- c 1816

The almost constant warfare on the frontier makes it seem as though friendships and fellow feeling between Natives and Settlers was impossible.  In fact, mutual friendship and respect were possible, though wider tensions strained these qualities to the breaking point.  The story of Black Partridge, c 1744 - c 1816, and Mrs. Margaret Helm at the Battle of Fort Dearborn on August 15, 1812, illustrates that point.

Black Partridge and his brother Waubonsie were first recorded as leaders of the Potawatomi during the Northwest Indian War, 1785-1795, participating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.  As signatories of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, both received medals bearing the likeness of George Washington.  After the treaty, Black Partridge worked with his brother and other Native leaders to co-exist with Settlers in and around what is now Chicago.  He later affirmed his peaceful stance by signing the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809, possibly receiving another medal from William Henry Harrison with James Madison's likeness.  With the windup to Tecumseh's Revolt in 1810, Native leaders had to decide where their people's best interests lay.  Black Partridge made his mind up and told Tecumseh, "I cannot join you.  This token (the Washington medal) was given to me at Greenville by the Great Chief (Wayne).  On it you see the face of our father at Washington.  As long as this hangs on my neck, I can never raise my tomahawk against the Whites."  Black Patridge's own feelings did not deter many young warriors who wished to join Tecumseh and take on the Settlers coming into their territory.

Black Partridge was a frequent visitor to Fort Dearborn and knew the family of trader John Kinzie quite well.  Kinzie's daughter, Margaret, married Lt. Lenai Helm.  He also developed a personal friendship with the commander of the fort, Captain Nathan Heald.  As Tecumseh's War blended into the War of 1812, Black Partridge felt that he could no longer deny his young warriors their right to fight the Whites.  As an attack on Dearborn loomed, he sought a meeting with Captain Heald and urged him in the strongest terms to leave Dearborn, letting him known plainly that his warriors had no choice but to attack the fort.  When Heald refused to leave, Black Partridge pulled the medal off his neck and handed it over, telling Heald, "Father, I came to deliver up to you the medal I wear.  It was given to me by the Americans, and I have long worn it in token of our mutual friendship.  Our young men are resolved to imbue their hands in the blood of the Whites.  I cannot restrain them, and I will not wear a token of peace while I am compelled to act as an enemy."  Heald finally received orders to evacuate the fort.  On August 15, 1812, as the garrison, militia and noncombatants marched out of Dearborn, the Potawatomi war party attacked.

Black Partridge saw a warrior about to tomahawk a pregnant woman struggling to carry a young toddler in her arms.  He waded into the confusion and jerked the woman away, acting as though he bore a personal grudge and intended to kill her himself.  It was Margaret Helm and her young daughter.  He led her to edge of Lake Michigan and made her get into the water and stay as low to the water line as possible.  Later that night, he found her and conducted her to his village so she and the child could eat and have their wounds treated.  However, though he had taken her, he didn't have the authority to release her.  He carried the ransom money given him from Kinzie by the Indian Agent, and when that didn't prove enough, threw in his own horse, rifle, a gold ring, and a note for $100 signed by George Rogers Clark.  Having settled Margaret Helm's ransom, he returned to his own village, only to find that it had been burned by Illinois Rangers under the command of Ninian Edwards.  Black Partridge's daughter and young grandchild, no older than Margaret Helm and her daughter, had been killed.

This slaughter made up Black Partridge's mind to go to war.  He led his people throughout the War of 1812.  Eventually, he and his men surrendered, and he signed a treaty with Zachary Taylor in St. Louis.  He left the historical record more than twenty years after he'd first entered it, a warrior who tried to honor his word to both his people, and to Settlers with whom he'd had no personal quarrel.  The attack on Fort Dearborn has been novelized several times, with allegations that Black Partridge mercy killed other settlers whom he could not rescue.  History doesn't record these claims.  A statue of Black Partridge was erected in Chicago in 1893, showing the climactic moment when Black Partridge pulled Margaret Helm and her child from danger.  The statue has since been removed, and is in city storage.