Native American artifact subject of discussion at Macoupin County Historical Society program

The Black Hawk Tablet, a Native American artifact unearthed in Macoupin County, will be the focus of the Macoupin County Historical Society’s monthly program at 7 p.m., Monday, July 6, at the MCHS Ruyle Genealogy Building, 920 W. Breckenridge in Carlinville.
The artifact is notable in that it provides evidence of an ongoing friendship between Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe, and one of Macoupin County’s earliest settlers.
In the 1940s, while applying fertilizer to a farm field near Hettick, Walter Denby “Dutch” Brown stumbled across the lead tablet. At his death in 1954, Brown bequeathed the object to Lawrence “Larry” Mahan of Palmyra.
Tommy and Sharon Bryden are the current owners of the artifact. Sharon Bryden will be the featured speaker for the MCHS July program.
In addition to Bryden’s presentation, Native American artifacts collected by Charlie Wayman, Gillepsie, over the past 40 years will be on display in the Ruyle Building. The Ruyle Building is handicapped accessible and handicapped parking is available.
The lead Black Hawk tablet, bearing both pictograms and English language phrases, is about two-by-four inches in size, and about a quarter-inch thick. One side features a crude drawing of a Native American and a settler shaking hands over an upright rifle or shotgun, along with pictograms depicting a snake, turtle, bow and arrow, tomahawk, teepee and a traditional Valentine shaped heart.
The obverse states in English, “Peace Made Four (sic) Black Hawk in 1832. We Will be Friends Fourever (sic).” Below the declaration, the tablet appears to signed by “Seth.”
“Seth” apparently refers to Seth Hodges, one of the county’s first settlers, whose residence was near the field where the artifact was recovered. The Black Hawk Tablet is especially interesting because the 1832 date coincides with the Black Hawk War.
Bryden’s program will include a discussion of the Black Hawk Table and its historical context, as well as speculation about its meaning and influence regarding relationships between Native Americans and early European settlers in Illinois.