A Rock Island mystery solved: Chief Black Hawk Statue found

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (KWQC) - A TV6 Investigates update to a story involving the missing Chief Black Hawk Statue.

For 60 years, the statue of Chief Black Hawk stood along 11th street in Rock Island as part of Watch Tower Plaza.

In 2023, after a tornado, the statue toppled to the ground and hadn’t been seen again, until now.

Through viewer tips, and help from the First Alert meteorologist team, KWQC’s Chandler Brindley found the statue.

Our KWQC TV6 Investigates team looked through viewer tips, photos, and even found a shot of the statue on Google Maps.

That photo on Google Maps, led our team to an area behind the Rock Island Public Works building, near the train tracks.

Our KWQC TV6 Investigates team scoped out the area and that’s where we found the statue lying.

Members of the Kickapoo tribe, Rudy and Zeno Vallejo also came along to verify that is in fact the Chief Black Hawk Statue.

Rudy and Zeno said when they saw the video, they got emotional.

“I haven’t seen that Indian in three years, and man I am so excited,” Rudy Vallejo said. “Even if it’s laying on the ground about 50-foot away from the crusher, right across the tracks there, just seeing that Indian, it really encourages me and it really gets me excited. Hopefully Rock Island says, ‘you know,here it is, and just do what you can, put it up somewhere.’ And that’s what we want and that’s what I believe the community wants, it being put back up.”

They say even though the statue depicts one person, it represents a lot more.

“That indian represents all the Native Americans in this area including the Meskwaki. It’s not just Chief Black Hawk,” Marty Chaney, Area President of the Inter-Tribal League of American Indians said. ”It’s a representation of what this used to be. it was a native american village.”

As for next steps, Rudy and Zeno said they plan to go to a city council meeting and state they are still interested. They also said there is a city interested in that statue.

Rudy plans to get a letter prepared for presentation to the City of Rock Island.

KWQC has reached out to the City of Rock Island for comment, but has not heard back at this time.