USA > Iowa > Winneshiek County > Past and present of Winneshiek county, Iowa; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 2
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$ Wisconsin Archeologist, Vol. 6, No. 3, og. 124. condensed from information furnished to 11. R. Schoolcraft.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
were cached in storage pits for future use. Tobacco was raised, but only in small quantities. Notwithstanding the abundance of animal and vegetal food that the fields and forest afforded, the Indians suffered occasionally from famine. For wood the limbs of trees were used, but not the trunk ; in the neighborhood of Fort Atkinson evidence remains today of this practice.
Of the Winnebago marriage customs Moses Paquette, who went ( 1845) to the Presbyterian school at the Turkey river, stated ? in 1882: "Presents to the parents of a woman, by either the parents of the man or the man himself, if accepted, usually secure her for a partner. However much the woman may dislike the man, she considers it her bounden duty to go and at least try to live with him. Divorce is easy among them. There are no laws compelling them to live together. Sometimes there are marriages for a specified time, say a few months or a year. When separations occur, the woman usually takes the children with her to the home of her parents. But so long as the union exists, it is deemed to be sacred, and there are few instances of infidelity. Quite a number of the bucks have two wives, who live on apparently equal, free, and easy terms : but although there is no rule about the matter, I never heard of any of the men having more than two wives. With all this ease of divorce, numerous Indian couples remain true to each other for life." Many of the early traders took Winnebago wives.
The Indians had their favorite pastimes and games, some of which were played by the women and children. There were also several kinds of dances for various occasions.
Regarding their burial customs, the graves were in later times protected by logs, stones, brush, or pickets. With the bodies of the deceased were buried their personal possessions or symbolical objects. With the corpse of a woman were buried her implements of labor. The graves of chiefs and persons of distinction were sometimes enclosed with pickets. Over such a grave it was customary to place a white flag. The blackening of the face by mourners was a common custom. In the winter the remains were encased and placed on a scaffold and then elevated into the branches of a tree, or placed between two trees. In the spring the permanent burial was made in a shallow grave. Over this was erected an A-shaped structure, consisting of two short, forked posts, which, placed one at each end of the grave, supported a cross-piece. Against this frame-work were placed wooden slabs.
Lengthwise the graves at the Turkey river extended from east to west, in order that the dead might "look towards the happy land" that was supposed to lie somewhere in the direction of the setting sun. The body of the dead was sometimes placed in the grave in a sitting posture, the head and chest extending above the ground. A pipe of tobacco was buried with an adult male, and a war-club was placed in the grave of a warrior. The hieroglyphics painted on the post at the head of a warrior's grave represented the exploits of those who danced about the grave at his funeral.
Mr. Goddard says: "There were about a dozen or more Indian graves close to the fort. but these have long since been obliterated. An Indian child. about seven or eight years of age, was put above ground in a coffin placed
9 Wisconsin Archeologist, Vol. 6, No. 3, pg. 126.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
between, and near the top of, four cedar posts set in the ground, and about seven or eight feet high. 1 was told by the Indians who later traveled through the country quite frequently that the child belonged to a Chippewa woman who was visiting the Winnebagoes. Later. a man who stopped at my place took from inside the heavily beaded blanket, in which the child was wrapped when buried, a round mirror ornament with a loop for suspension, about three inches in diameter, on the back of which was a picture of General Jackson.
".An Indian grave was on the top of a hill in Jackson township. section twenty. The Indians told me that a chief called Black Bear was buried there; however, there is nothing further authentic to prove this. The grave was surrounded by a stockade made of boards split out of logs and was seven feet high : it en- closed a space about seven by eight feet in area. The boards were spiked together.
"Near the Little Turkey river, a fork of the Turkey river, at a point about one and one-half miles from Waucoma in Fayette county, was a farm of about one hundred acres broken up ( supposedly by the Government ) and owned by a chief called Whaling Thunder | evidently Whirling Thunder, but not definitely known]. Here Whaling ( ?) Thunder died, and on his land was a group of about thirty graves, six Indians being buried in one grave."
Hon. Abraham Jacobson, of Springfield township, stated 10 that, "On the banks of the Upper lowa river many Indian graves were found. The bodies were buried in a sitting position, with the head sometimes above ground. A forked stick put up like a post at each end of the grave held a ridge pole on which leaned thin boards placed slanting to each side of the grave. Thus each grave presented the appearance of a gable of a small house.
On Mr. J. I. Tavener's land in West Decorah are three mounds, or artificial hillocks, now nearly obliterated by cultivation. These mounds are circular in form and, before being worn down by the plow, were low, broad, round-topped cones from two and one-half to three feet high in the center. The largest of the group was about forty feet in diameter. Conical mounds are. as a rule. depositories of the dead. As yet, no bones have been exhumed from any of these mounds, so that it is not known at present what purpose they served: but it seems probable that they were burial mounds.
The early settlers furnished evidence of the existence of many Indian graves throughout the county, notably where the city of Decorah is located. These graves are now almost imperceptible.
RELIGION
Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple, Who have faith in God and Nature. Who believe, that in all ages Every human heart is human, That in even savage bosoms There are longings, yearnings, strivings For the good they comprehend not,
10 "Reminiscences of Pioneer Norwegians," by Hon. A. Jacobson in "The Illustrated Historical Atlas of Winneshick County, lowa," 1905. Sec. 11. pg. 12.
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That the feeble hands and helpless, Groping blindly in the darkness, Touch God's right hand in that darkness And are lifted up and strengthened ;- Listen to this simple story,-
-- The Song of Hiawatha.
The fundamental religious concept of the Indian is the belief in the existence of magic power in animate and inanimate objects. This gave rise to their idea that there are men who possess supernatural power. This magic power is called Ma"'una ( Earth-maker) 11 by the Winnebagoes, and corresponds to the Gitchi Manito of the Central Algonquian tribes, and Wakanda 12 of the Siouan tribes. As a verb, "wakanda" signifies "to reckon as holy or sacred, to worship;" the noun is "wakan" and means "a spirit, something consecrated." "Wakan," as an adjective, is defined as "spiritual, sacred, consecrated, wonderful, incon- prehensible, mysterious." "Wakan" and various other forms of that word are of common occurrence in the Winnebago language.
The Winnebago mythology consists of large cycles relating to the five per- sonages, Trickster, Bladder, Turtle, He-who-wears-heads-as-earrings, and the Hare. Other deities known to them are Disease-giver, Sun, Moon, Morning Star, the Spirits of the Night. One-horn, the Earth, and the Water.
The Indian had no understanding of a single, all-powerful deity, the "Great Spirit," till the Europeans, often unconsciously, informed him of their own belief. He believed in a multitude of spirits that were the source of good or bad fortune, and whom he feared to offend.13 Ile seems to have had no conception of a future punishment. The mortuary rites of the Winnebagoes, and other tribes, testify to the fact that they believed in a life after death; but as to the nature of "the happy land of the West" their ideas were vague.
The Winnebagoes had two important tribal ceremonies, the Mankani, or Medicine Dance, and the Il'agigo, or Winter Feast. The Medicine Dance could take place only in summer ; and the Winter Feast only in winter. The Medicine Dance was a secret society, ungraded, into which men and women could be initiated on payment of a certain amount of money. The purpose of the society was the prolongation of life and the instilling of certain virtues, none of which related to war. These virtues were instilled by means of the "shooting" cere- mony, the pretended shooting of a shell, contained in an otter-skin bag, into the body of the one to be initiated. The ceremony was performed in a long tent occupied by five ceremonial bands, whose positions of honor depended on the order of invitation. The general ceremony itself was public, but a secret vapor- bath ceremony preceded, and a secret ceremony intervened between the first and second parts.
The Winter Feast was a war feast and the only distinctively clan cere- monial among the Winnebagoes. Each clan had a sacred bundle, which was in the hands of some male individual, and was handed down from one generation to another, care being always taken to keep it in the same clan. The purpose of
11 Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, part 2, pg. 960.
12 Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, part 2, pg. 897.
13 Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, part 2, pg. 284.
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this feast was to appease all the supposed deities known to them. Mr. Fletcher, the agent at the Turkey river, gave Mr. Schoolcraft a description of the War dance and the Medicine society.
There were a number of other important ceremonies, of which the best known were the Herucka and the Buffalo Dance. The latter was performed in the spring, and had for its purpose the magical calling of the buffalo herds. All those who pretended to have had supernatural communication with the Buffalo spirit might participate in the ceremony, irrespective of clan. It seems that the object of the Herucka was to stimulate an heroic spirit.
Moses Paquette gave Doctor Thwaites of Wisconsin a brief account of the Buffalo Dance, which he describes as "Probably the most popular of their dances." "They represent," he continties, "themselves to be bisons, imitating the legitimate motions and noises of the animal, and introducing a great many others that would quite astonish the oldest buffalo in existence. Of course it has been a long time since any Winnebagoes ever saw buffalo; their antics are pttrely traditionary, handed down from former generations of dancers." 14
Other dances and feasts were the Snake. Scalp, Grizzly-bear, Sore-eye, and Ghost dances. Little Hill, a Winnebago chief. gave Mr. Fletcher an account of their creation, which, in all its parts, bears testimony to their belief in numer- ous spirits.15 Mr. Lamere states that, "The Buffalo Dance was carried on by the Winnebagoes for a long time, but the dance that they seemed to have liked and indulged in mostly while there [ lowa] was the Fish Dance, which was only a dance of amusement. The Herucka dance was adopted from some of the western tribes and was brought back by the Winnebagoes who enlisted as scouts during the Sioux outbreak in 1862 and was introduced after the Winne- bagoes came here to Nebraska;" he further states, "The Thunder-bird was held in awe by the Winnebagoes, and they believed that thunder-storms were caused by these beings, the lightning being caused by the opening and closing of their eyes; the Winnebagoes do not describe them as birds, but beings of the human type and always wearing cedar boughs on their head, or hair, and carry- ing flat war-clubs."
GENEALOGY AND HISTORY OF THE DECORAH FAMILY
How fair is Decorah, Our city named so For the Indians that roamed O'er its hills years ago, Whose well trodden pathways The story could tell Flow from all directions They came here to dwell.
In fitting remembrance These lines we inscribe To Waukon Decorah, A chief of their tribe,
14 Wisconsin Archeologist, Vol. 6, No. 3, pg. 130.
15 "Red Men of Iowa," by A. R. Fulton.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNNESHIER COUNTY
Whose name is a landmark And honored shall stand For heeding the fiat "Move on, yield your land."
And Indians that peopled This beautiful site,
Reluctant but friendly Relinquished their right. They left us this valley With beauties untold, Gave way to the settlers, Our pioneers bold.
Things have changed, to be sure, In this valley,-still "Tis but sixty odd years Since they camped on yon hill Where now stands the courthouse A pride of our town, The heart of the county. Of widespread renown.
-Mrs. John C. Hexom.
Hopokockau, or "Glory of the Morning." also known as the Queen of the Winnebagoes, was the mother of a celebrated line of chiefs, all of whom, well known to border history, bore in some form the name Decorah. Her Indian name is also given as Wa-ho-po-e-kau. She was the daughter of one of the principal Winnebago chiefs. There is no record of the date of her birth or death.
She became the wife of Sabrevoir De Carrie, who probably came to Wisconsin with the French army, in which he was an officer, in 1728. He resigned his commission in 1729, and became a fur-trader among the Winnebagoes, subse- quently marrying "Glory of the Morning." He was adopted into her clan and highly honored. After seven or eight years, during which time two sons and a daughter were born to him, he left her, taking with him the daughter. The Queen refused to go with lier husband, and remained in her home with her two sons. "The result is today that one-half or two-thirds of the Winnebago tribe have more or less of the Decorah blood in their veins." 16 Through the intervening generations there has been no other mixture of Caucasian blood, so that the Decorals of today are probably as nearly full-bloods as any Indians in any part of the country.
De Carrie returned to Canada, reentered the army, and was killed at Ste Foye in the spring of 1760. The daughter whom he took with him became the wife of a trader, Constant Kerigoufili, whose son, Sieur Laurent Fily ( so-called), died about 1846.
Capt. Jonathan Carver, who visited the Queen in 1766, states that she received him graciously, and luxuriously entertained him during the four days he remained in her village, which "contained fifty houses." Her two sons, "being the descendants of a chief on the mother's side, when they arrived at
16 Statement by Geo. W. Kingsley.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
manhood * assumed the dignity of their rank by inheritance. They were generally good Indians and frequently urged their claims to the friendship of the whites by saying they were themselves half white."
Choukeka Dekaury, or Spoon Decorah, sometimes called the Ladle, was the eldest son of Sabrevoir De Carrie and Hopokoekau. The name is also rendered Chau-ka-ka and Chou-ga-rah. After having been made chief he became the leader of attacks on the Chippewas during a war between them and the Wine- bagoes, but he maintained friendly relations with the whites. He was the ancestor of the Portage branch of the family. It was principally through his influence that the treaty of June 3. 1816. at St. Louis, Missouri, was brought about.
llis wife. Flight of Geese, was a daughter of Nawkaw (known also as Carrymaunee and Walking Turtle), whose management of tribal affairs was decidedly peaceful. According to La Ronde. Choukeka's death occurred in 1816, when he was "quite aged." He left six sons and five daughters. The sons were: (1) Konokah, or Old Gray-headed Decorah: (2) Angah, or the Black Decorah, named by La Ronde, Ruch-ka-scha-ka, or White Pigeon: (3) Anaugab, or the Raisin Decorah, named by La Ronde, Chou-me-ne-ka-ka: (4) Nah-ha-sauch-e-ka. or Rascal Decorab: (5) Wau-kon-ga-ka, or the Thunder llearer : (6) Ong-skaka. or White Wolf, who died young. Three of the daughters married Indians. One married a trapper named Dennis De Riviere and later married Perische Grignon. The other married Jean Lecuyer.
Cyrus Thomas 17 makes the statement that. "From Choukeka's daughters who married white men are descended several well known families of Wisconsin and Minnesota."
Chah-post-kaw-kaw, or the Buzzard Decorah, was the second son of De Carrie and "Glory of the Morning." Ile settled at La Crosse in 1787, with a band of Winnebagoes, and was soon after killed there. Ile bad two sons: ( 1) Big Canoe, or One-eyed Decorah, and (2) Wakun-ba-ga, or Snake Skin. known as Wankon Decorah.
Old Gray-headed Decorah, called by the whites Konakah ( ellest ) Decorah, often mentioned as Old Dekaury, was the eldest son and successor of Chonkeka Dekaury. Ilis common Indian name was Schachipkaka, or The War Eagle. The signature "De-ca-ri" attached to the treaty of Prairie des Chiens (as the word is frequently spelled in early documents ), Michigan Territory, August 10, 1825. is probably that of Old Dekanry. Hle signed the treaty of Prairie du Chien, Michigan Territory, August 1, 1820, as "Hee-tsha-wau-sharp-skaw-kan, or White War Eagle." Among those representing the Fort Winnebago deputa- tion at the treaty of Fort Armstrong. Rock Island, Ilinois. September 15, 1832, he signed as "Hee-tshah-wau-saip-skaw-skaw, or White War Eagle. De-kan- ray, sr."
Old Decorah was born in 1747. and died at Peten well. the high rock on the Wisconsin river, April 20, 1836, about ninety years old. Old De-kau-ry's town contained over one hundred lodges, and was the largest of the Winnebago villages. Before he died he called a Catholic priest, who baptized him the day of his death.
Before his father's death, in 1816. Old Gray-headed Decorah had joined a band of Winnebagoes who took part. August 2, 1813, in the attack led by Gen-
17 Of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
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CP HEXOM-
1 -Old gray-headed Decorah's peace pipe.
2-Old Chief Winneshick's pipe (after suggestion furnished by Mr. Oliver Laniere).
3-A "Winnebago courting Inte," often called on the frontier a "deer-skin flute,"-after Catlin.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
eral Proctor, with 500 regulars and 800 Indians, on Fort Stephenson on lower Sandusky river, Ohio, which was so gallantly defended by Maj. George Croghan with a force of 150 Americans and only one cannon. He also fought with Proctor and Tecumseh, a celebrated Shawnee chief, at the battle of the Thames, Canada, where a great part of the British army was either slain or captured by the American forces under Gen. Wm. H. Harrison, October 5, 1813, and where Tecumseh was shot. Old Decorah was held as a hostage for the delivery of Red Bird, a war chief, during the so-called Winnebago war. Old Decorah gave assurance to General Atkinson, during this war, of the peaceable intentions of the Winnebagoes.
It was while Maj. Zachary Taylor was located at Prairie du Chien that he received from Old Gray-headed Decorah a peace pipe now in the State Historical Museum at Madison, Wisconsin. This calumet is a fine specimen ; the head is of catlinite inlaid with lead polished to look like silver. The stem, or wooden handle, is about three feet long, rather rudely carved.
Mrs. J. H. Kinzie described 15 him as "The most noble, dignified, and ven- erable of his own or indeed of any other tribe. His fine Roman countenance, rendered still more striking by his bald head, with one solitary tuft of long sil- very hair neatly tied and falling back on his shoulders; his perfectly neat, appro- priate dress, almost without ornament, and his courteous manner, never laid aside, under any circumstances, all combined to give him the highest place in the consideration of all who knew him.'
Mrs. Kinzie further states: 19 "The noble Old Day-kau-ray came one day from the Barribault to apprise us of the state of his village. More than forty of his people, he said, had now been for many days without food, save bark and roots. My husband accompanied him to the commanding officer to tell his story, and ascertain if any amount of food could be obtained from that quarter. The result was the promise of a small allowance of flour, sufficient to alleviate the cravings of his own family. When this was explained to the chief he turned away. 'No,' he said, 'if his people could not be relieved, he and his family would starve with them,' and he refused for those nearest and dearest to him the proffered succor until all could share alike." During the winter of 1832-33 food was scarce at Fort Winnebago, and the Indians suffered severely.
Old Day-kau-ray delivered an address on education to the agent, Mr. Kinzie, at a conference held with the Winnebago chiefs in 1831, in regard to sending the children of the Indians away to school. The following quotation is from his speech : "" "The white man does not live like the Indian ; it is not his nature ; neither does the Indian love to live like the white man. This is what we think. If we change our minds we will let you know."
The known sons of Old Dekaury were ( 1) Little Decorah and (2) Spoon Decorah.
Big Canoe, or One-eyed Decorah, a son of Chatpost-kaw-kah, told George Gale 21 about 1855 that he had but one brother. Waukon Decorah. One-eyed
18 "Wau-Bun," pg. 89.
19 Same reference as above, pg. 484.
20 Smithsonian Report, 1885, part 2, pg. 128.
21 A Wisconsin pioneer who in 1851 removed to the copper Mississippi region, where he was judge, state senator, etc., founding the village of Galesville and the academy thereat. He wrote a history of the Winnebago Indians, which is still in manuscript form in the Wisconsin Historical Society's possession.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WENNESHIER COUNTY
Decorah's Indian name was Wadge-hut-ta-kaw, or the Big Canoe. The signa- ture. Watch-ha-ta-kaw (by Henry M. Rice, his delegate), is attached to the treaty of Washington, October 13. 1846, and is undoubtedly that of One-eyed Decorah.
He was born about 1772, and was fifteen years of age when his father settled at La Crosse. Ile aided in the capture of Mackinaw, July 17, 1812, and was with the British in the attack on Fort Stephenson, August 2, 1813. near Fremont, Ohio, and with MeKay at the capture of Prairie du Chien. It is said that he signed the treaty there in 1825. The act for which he became celebrated was the capture of Black Hawk and the Prophet in 1832. Black Hawk's force was pursued by General Atkinson, who completely defeated him August 3. 1832. The famous Sauk leader and the Prophet escaped to the northward and sought refuge among some Winnebagoes, whither they were followed and captured by One-eyed Decorah and Chaetar ( another Winnebago), who delivered him to General Street (a former Winnebago agent) at Prairie du Chien, August 27. 1832. On this occasion One-eyed Decorah made the following speech : 22
"My father, I now stand before you. When we parted i told you I would return soon, but I could not come any sooner. We had to go a great distance. You see we have done what you sent us to do. These ( pointing to the prisoners ) are the two you told us to get. We have done what you told us to do. We always do what you tell us, because we know it is for our good. Father, you told us to get these men, and it would be the cause of much good to the Winnebagoes. We have brought them, but it has been very hard for us to do so. That one ( Black Hawk ) was a great way off. You told us to bring them to you alive: we have done so. If you had told us to bring their heads alone, we would have done so, and it would have been less difficult than what we have done. We would not deliver them to our brother, the chief of the warriors, but to you, because we know you, and we believe you are our friend. We want you to keep them safe; if they are to be hurt, we do not wish to see it. Wait until we are gone before it is done. Father. many little birds have been flying about our ears of late, and we thought they whispered to us that there was (vil intended for us; but now we hope these evil birds will let our cars alone. We know you are our friend because you took our part, and that is the reason we do what you tell us to do. You say you love your red children: we think we love you as much as, if not more than, you love us. We have confidence in you and you may rely on us. We have been promised a great deal if we would take these men that it would do much good to our people. We now hope to see what will be done for us. We have come in haste: we are tired and hungry. We now put these men into your hands. We have done all that you told us to do."
In 1832. One-eyed Decorah married two wives and went to live on the Black river, Wisconsin. He had at least one son, Spoon Decorah. Chas. 11. Saunders says: "One-eyed Decorah has one daughter. Mrs. Hester Lowery, still living in Wisconsin. Her Indian name is No-jin-win-ka. She is between eighty-five and ninety years old." One-eyed Decorah was living in lowa be- tween 1840 and 1848, as Moses Paquette, who went to the Presbyterian school
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