Black Hawk, a Sac leader traveling east to join Tecumseh's forces, arrived in Chicago just after the massacre. He later explained: "They had a considerable quantity of powder in the Fort at Chicago which they had promised to the Indians; but the night before they marched they destroyed it. I think it was thrown into the well! If they had fulfilled their word to the Indians, I think they would have gone safe."

Source: Newberry Library (Ayer 249 M2 1848 v.1)