In the spring of 1818, officials of the United States told the Sac and Fox [Mesquakie] people they would have to leave their homes at Saukenuk near present-day Rock Island, Illinois. The Sac leader Black Hawk and his band continued to return to Saukenuk every year against the government's wishes. In the spring of 1831, under threat from 1,100 mounted troops of the Illinois militia, Sac and Fox leaders reluctantly agreed to a treaty promising their people a year's supply of corn and annual cash payments. In exchange, they would cross the Mississippi River to Iowa, never return, and give up 51 million acres of land. Black Hawk angrily broke the pen he used to sign the treaty. In the spring of 1832, Black Hawk and more than 2,000 of his followers, threatened by starvation and believing that the federal government treated them unfairly, crossed the Mississippi River and returned to Illinois, insisting that the village and fields at Saukenuk were their home and could not rightfully be sold.