Winnebago

“ We crossed Lake Winnebago by the clear, beautiful light of a summer moon. The soft air was just enough to swell the sail, and thus save the men their labor at the oar.
The witchery of the hour was not, however, sufficient to induce us to forego our repose after the heat and annoyances of the day—we therefore disposed ourselves betimes, to be packed away in the centre of the boat. ”

“ Carver mentions a Winnebago village on a small island near the eastern end of Winnebago lake in 1778. Pike enumerated seven Winnebago villages existing in 1811; and in 1822 the population of the tribe was estimated at 5,800 (including 900 warriors) in the country about Winnebago lake and extending thence southwestward to the Mississippi. By treaties in 1825 and 1832 they ceded their lands south of Wisconsin and Fox rivers for a reservation on the Mississippi above the Oneota; one of their villages in 1832 was at Prairie la Grosse. They suffered several visitations of smallpox ”

“ Oh-Pshaw smiled forgivingly and all was serene between the twins once more.
While the Winnebago tongues were wagging busily in Oh-Pshaw's room and Lieutenant Allison was lying quite comfortable in bed in the big square bedroom of the Wing home, where he had been carried when brought in from the woods the night before with a ragged cut in his left temple and a fractured arm, Sahwah, breathless with wonder at the strange new thing that had come into her life, fled from the chattering girls and went wandering by herself in the silence of the woods, where she could think and dream undisturbed. ”

“ The blow was most presumptuous, and would have insured the death of the one who gave it but for the intervention of the second Indian, who seemed to take but a couple of bounds from the tree near which he was standing when he landed on the spot. The infuriated Winnebago was in the act of clambering to his feet, when he caught sight of the lithe, graceful warrior, standing only a couple of steps away, with loaded rifle pointed at him.
"Dog of a Winnebago," he said in a voice slightly above an ordinary tone; "if he harms the pale face, he shall die!" ”

“ Some of the Winnebago say that there is an Omaha gens among the Winnebago of Wisconsin, but James Alexander knew nothing about it. It is very probable that each Winnebago gens was composed of four subgentes; thus, in the tradition of the Winnebago Wolf gens, there is an account of four kinds of wolves, as in the corresponding Iowa tradition.
The Winnebago lodges were always built with the entrances facing the east. When the warriors returned from a fight they circumambulated the lodge four times, sunwise, stopping at the east just before entering. ”

“ The newcomers were shown the beauties of the Winnebago Lodge, and it seemed they would never get done exclaiming over the rugs and skins and pottery, and most of all, the beds.
“They aren’t so terribly hard to make,” the Winnebagos assured them modestly, but at the same time glowing with a feeling of superiority. The San-Clu girls were plainly older than the Winnebagos; they all wore dresses down to their ankles and seemed quite grown up, almost enough to be guardians themselves ”

“ Tedious and monotonous as was the whole course of the two following days, the climax of impatience and discouragement was not reached until we arrived in sight of the white walls of Fort Winnebago, looking down from a rising ground upon the vast expanse of low land through which the river winds.
The Indians have a tradition that a vast serpent once lived in the waters of the Mississippi, and that, taking a freak to visit the Great Lakes, he left his trail through the prairies, which, collecting the waters from the meadows and the rains of heaven as they fell, at length became the Fox River. ”

“ The American Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, with singular indiscretion, was not treating his Winnebago visitors with kindness. English and French fur traders were, on behalf of Great Britain, making liberal [129] promises for the future. Winnebagoes were being brutally driven from the lead mines by the white miners, who were now swarming into southwest Wisconsin. The Sioux along the west bank of the Mississippi, in Minnesota, were encouraging the Winnebagoes to revolt ”

“ The American Government have disposed of all the land on the banks of this river and the Lake Winnebago, and consequently it is well settled; but the Winnebago territory in Wisconsin, lately purchased of the Winnebago Indians, and comprising all the prairie land and rich mineral country from Galena to Mineral Point, is not yet offered for sale: when it is, it will be eagerly purchased; and the American Government, as it only paid the Indians at the rate of one cent and a fraction per acre, will make an enormous profit by the speculation. ”

“ Allies of the Whites
Chief White Crow, father of Yellow Thunder's squaw, buried a few miles [Pg 49] north of Baraboo, a number of Winnebago, and Pierre Pauquette, their interpreter, were in the battle as aids to the whites. They had joined a detachment which had left Fort Winnebago (Portage) to go to Rock River, and were in the wild chase across the unbroken country to the place of the battle. They left the scene during the night and returned to Fort Winnebago. ”

“ An hour later the start for Fort Winnebago was made. The journey was a hard one and it was with a great feeling of relief that the troops finally reached their destination. At the fort were many Winnebago Indians who were eager to give advice to the white chiefs.
“No trust them,” said Deerfoot earnestly in speaking of these offers. “They fool white men too much already.”
“I wouldn’t trust them either,” exclaimed Robert hotly. “It seems to me we ought to know better by this time.”
The four scouts were seated together at one end of the enclosure discussing the future plans of the army. ”

“ We will now examine the nature of the complex with which shooting is associated in the night division of the general ceremony of the Winnebago Medicine Dance and in the Omaha Pebble and Shell Society.
A large number of the societies among the Winnebago and Omaha are based on the common possession of revelations from the same animal. We may have a society “of those who have had communication with the Thunders,” or with the Nights, or with the Grizzly Bear, or what not. ”

“ The whole college sought her acquaintance forthwith. Of course, they found out all about the Winnebagos, and how Migwan came to know so much about Indian lore, and Hinpoha and I, being Winnebagos, too, came in for our share of the glory. Our humble apartment is filled to overflowing all day long with girls who want to make Migwan’s acquaintance and casually drop in on us in the hope of meeting her in our chamber. It is great to be fellow-Winnebago with a celebrity. ”

“ The rest of the summer was spent by the evicted savages in a state of misery. It being now too late to raise another crop of corn and beans, they suffered for want of the actual necessaries of life. White Cloud, the eloquent and crafty Prophet of the Winnebagoes, was Black Hawk's evil genius. He was half Sac and half Winnebago, a hater of the whites, an inveterate mischief maker, and, being a "medicine man," possessed much influence over both tribes. He was at the head of a Winnebago village some thirty-five miles above the mouth of the Rock, on the east side of the Mississippi ”

“ We started for Winnebago City, our nearest town east. We traveled all night to make that twenty miles, making slow progress with our heavy wagons, poor roads and herds. That country was full of sloughs at that time. Often [Pg 247] during the night, the wagon would become stuck, and the men would unhitch the horses, we would walk out on the tongue of the wagon to more solid ground, then they would hitch chains to the end of the tongue and pull it out. We reached Winnebago in the morning and found the people had fled in fright like ourselves. ”

“ I encamped last night, at the foot of the Winnebago Rapids, one mile below Winnebago Lake. I found the rapids of Fox River, which begin here, more difficult to pass than on our ascent, the water being much lower. We were necessarily detained many hours, and most of the men compelled to walk. About six o'clock, P.M. we reached the upper part of the settlement of Green Bay. I stopped a few moments at Judge Doty's, and also a little below at Major Brevoort's, the Indian agent of the post. We then proceeded to the lower settlements, and encamped near the fort at Arndt's. Dr. ”

“ From their primal home, to the north of the Great Lakes, as tradition has it, came the forebears of these tribes. Attracted by the abundance of fish, the Winnebago halted on the shores of Lake Michigan, while the other bands continued southwestward, eventually coming to the Mississippi. ”

“ The bond of such a society is generally expressed outwardly, by the possession of some “gift” which is intimately connected with the animal, be it a head-dress, a tail, facial decorations, or the right to the use of a certain drum, etc. The only society among the Winnebago where no revelation is required for admission is the Medicine Dance. There are, however, a number of elements which connect the Medicine Dance with the other type of society so common among the Winnebago. For instance, there is an outward mark of membership ”

“ The consideration of this cession on the part of the United States, to be a grant to the Winnebago Nation of a tract on the west side of the Mississippi river known as the neutral ground and annual annuities for twenty-seven years of $10,000 in specie and a further sum, not to exceed $3,000 annually, for the purposes of maintaining a farm and a school for the education of Winnebago children during the same period of twenty-seven years. ”

“ There is, however, much of interest to the student in natural history; while such towns as Montello, Princeton, Berlin, Omro, Winneconne, and Oshkosh are worthy of visitation. Lake Winnebago is a notable inland sea, and the canoeist feels fairly lost, in his little cockle shell, bobbing about over its great waves. The lower Fox runs between high, noble banks, and with frequent rapids, past Neenah, 23 Menasha, Appleton, and other busy manufacturing cities, down to Green Bay, hoary with age and classic in her shanty ruins. ”

“ They were the first Winnebagoes I had seen, and they were decidedly not the finest specimens of their tribe. The mitiff, a scion of the wide-spreading tree of the Grignons, was the bearer of an invitation to us from Judge Law, who, with one or two Green Bay friends, was encamped a few miles above, to come and breakfast with him in his tent. We had not dreamed of finding white neighbors here, but our vicinity could be no secret to them, as long as there was an Indian in the neighborhood. ”

“ Long life means essentially the life consisting of a normal length of years, with all the possessions of wealth, social and intellectual distinction, that would naturally be included. Among the Winnebago, this concept of years is very definite, because they believe that to each individual has been assigned a life containing a certain number of years, a certain amount of wealth, a certain number of enemies killed on the warpath, etc. If a man, therefore, dies before he has reached the end of his “predestined” life, the residue, it is hoped, will be distributed among his relatives. ”

“ This may account for that curious geographical extension of the Dakota stock on the east of the Mississippi in a narrow tongue reaching Lake Michigan; and it also accounts for the fact that linguistically the Winnebago dialect is one of the oldest of the Siouan stock found in the upper Mississippi region; and further, that the Winnebago are called "grandfathers" by the other tribes.
Thus it appears that the mound-builder dynasty was divided into two parts by a great national misfortune. The Ohio dynasty endured a long period of time. ”

“ This portage is a mile long; the ground 300 even and rocky. There is a fall of about ten feet, which obstructs the navigation. For three leagues higher are almost continual rapids, until the fall of Grand Konimee [vicinity of present Kaukauna] , about five feet high. Above this, the river opens into a small lake, at the end of which is a strong rapid, called Puant's rapid [now Winnebago rapids] , which issues from a lake of that name [i. e., Lake Winnebago, in Winnebago Co. [VII-9] ] . ”

“ A couple of Winnebago known to the general came into camp and offered to guide us, sir. They say Black Hawk and the Winnebago Prophet are leading their people upriver to try to persuade the Potawatomi to join them. Black Hawk's whole band, except for the warriors, are on foot. The general thinks that if we ride hard we can catch them. ”

“ The Medicine Dance is a society, admission into which is gained by purchase. The Winnebago suppose it to be a repetition of a ceremony originally instituted by the Rabbit, when he initiated the first man into its secrets. The society consists of five bands, which, during the ceremony, are known respectively as the Ancestor-Host’s, 150the East, North, West, and South Bands. These five bands are also known by the names of their leaders. Any band may act as host, and the position of the others in the lodge is dependent on the order in which they are invited by the band acting as host. ”

“ Plate 255, is a distinguished man of the Winnebago tribe, by the name of Wah-chee-hahs-ka (the man who puts all out of doors) , commonly called the “boxer.” The largest man of the tribe, with rattlesnakes’ skins on his arms, and his war-club in his hand. [20]
In plate 256 is seen a warrior, Kaw-kaw-ne-choo-a; and in plate 257 another, Wa-kon-zee-kaw (the snake) , both at full length; and fair specimens of the tribe, who are generally a rather short and thick-set, square shouldered set of men, of great strength, and of decided character as brave and desperate in war. ”