in this area since the British were occupied with Napoleon in Europe. Robert Dickson, a Scottish fur trader, amassed a sizable force of Native Americans at Green Bay to assist the British in operations around the Great Lakes. Most were from the Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Kickapoo, and Ottawa tribes. Black Hawk and his band of about 200 Sauk warriors were included in this group of allies. Dickson commissioned Black Hawk at the rank of brevet Brigadier General, with command over all native allies at Green Bay and presented him with a silk flag, a medal, and a written certificate of good behavior and alliance with the British. The war leader preserved the certificate for 20 years; it was found by US forces after the Battle of Bad Axe, along with a flag similar in description to that Dickson gave to Black Hawk. During the war, Black Hawk and Native warriors fought in several engagements alongside Major-General Henry Procter on the borders of Lake Erie. Black Hawk was at the Battle of Frenchtown, Fort Meigs, and the attack on Fort Stephenson. The United States Army was able to inflict a significant defeat on Tecumseh's Confederacy by killing Tecumseh during the war. Black Hawk despaired over the many lives lost in the fighting; soon after, he quit the war to return home. Back in Saukenuk, he found that his rival Keokuk had become the tribe's war chief. Black Hawk rejoined the British effort toward the end of the war, fighting alongside British forces in campaigns along the Mississippi River near the Illinois Territory. At the Battle of Credit Island and by harassing U.S. troops at Fort Johnson, Black Hawk helped the British to push the Americans out of the upper Mississippi River valley. Black Hawk fought in the Battle of the Sink Hole (May 1815), leading an ambush on a group of Missouri Rangers. Conflicting accounts of the action were given by the Missouri leader John Shaw and by Black Hawk. After the end of the War of 1812, Black Hawk signed a peace treaty in May 1816 that re-affirmed the treaty of 1804. Later he said he was not aware of this stipulation. Black Hawk War As a consequence of the 1804 treaty, the Sauk and Fox tribes had ceded their lands in Illinois and in 1828 were removed west of the Mississippi. Black Hawk and other tribal members disputed the treaty,