The Bad Axe Massacre of 1832
In Accordance With Necessity, curated by Dawn Kasper
FIVE THIRTY THREE, Los Angeles, 2009
Photos above by Wild Don Lewis
In 1832, approximately 150 members of the Saux and Fox tribes were massacred by the United States Army at a location known as Bad Axe (near Victory, Wisconsin).
I created a video where I read accounts written by witnesses of the massacre and a presidential speech by Andrew Jackson. I created a soundtrack to the video using the songs ‘Nowhere to Run’ and ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ by The Supremes. During the performance I stood in front of the projection and danced and sang along to the music.
“That those tribes can not exist surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizens is certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear.”
Andrew Jackson
Fifth Annual Message
December 3, 1833
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29475
“Our braves, but few in number, finding that the enemy paid no regard to age or sex, and seeing that they were murdering helpless women and little children, determined to fight until they were killed! As many women as could, commenced swimming the Mississippi, with their children on their backs. A number of them were drowned, and some shot before they could reach the opposite shore.”
— Black Sparrow Hawk
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/teachers/lessons/secondary/bh_badaxe.asp
“The battle lasted upwards of three hours. About 50 of the enemy’s women and children were taken prisoners, and many, by accident in the battle, were killed.
When the Indians were driven to the Bank of the Mississippi, some hundreds of men, women and children plunged into the river, and hoped by diving, to escape the bullets of our guns; very few, however, escaped our sharp-shooters.”
–Addison Phileo
The aboriginal races of North America: comprising biographical sketches of eminent individuals, and an historical account of the different tribes, from the first discovery of the continent to the present period, and a copious analytical index, By Samuel Gardner Drake, J. W. O’Neill, 1860
“But the Ruler of the Universe, He who takes vengeance on the guilty, did not design those guilty wretches to escape His vengeance for the horrid deeds they had done, which were of the most appalling nature. He here took just retribution for the many innocent lives those cruel savages had taken on our northern frontiers.
During the engagement we killed some of the squaws through mistake. It was a great misfortune to those miserable squaws and children, that they did not carry into execution [the plan] they had formed on the morning of the battle — that was, to come and meet us, and surrender themselves prisoners of war. It was a horrid sight to witness little children, wounded and suffering the most excruciating pain, although they were of the savage enemy, and the common enemy of the country.
It was enough to make the heart of the most hardened being on earth to ache.”
–Surgeon’s Mate John Allen Wakefield (eye witness account)
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/diary/003030.asp