USA > Wisconsin > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Wisconsin, past and present : including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county [microform] > Part 3
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The Winnebago war took place in 1827. It was not a war, but only a widespread scare to the few pioneers who had come to settle in the far away lands of the west. Those who mention the events of that day generally agree that the energetic move- ments of Governor Lewis Cass, and the promptness of the militia under Gen. Henry Dodge, and the dispatch of General Atkinson with the United States army into the field, inspired the Win- nebago with such respect for the power of the United States that the incipient disturbance was quelled before it was barely com- menced. As there were at that time nearly nine thousand Winne- bago, they could have set the torch to the whole frontier before being conquered. At that period there was a small settlement of whites at Green Bay, another at Prairie du Chien, and possibly seven hundred people in the lead region south of the Wisconsin river. Fort Winnebago was then erected at Portage as a protec- tion to the frontier from any Winnebago treachery.
IN SETTLEMENT DAYS.
By this time the tribe had very much increased in numbers, and were scattered all along the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. Mrs. John Kinzie reports in "Wan Bnn." in 1830, two divisions of Winnebago Indians, "one paid by the agent at Portage and the other at Prairie du Chien." "The Portage division numbered be- tween four and five thousand." At the Winnebago annuity pav- ment in 1834, Mr. Henry Merrill says there assembled at Portage upwards of three thousand men, women and children. Mr. Me- Call reports in 1830, "Four thousand Winnebago in the nation."
The smallpox scourge broke ont in the tribe in 1834 and raged a fearful epidemie, from which nearly half the tribe died. The
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IHISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
medicine men abandoned their futile attempts to stay its ravages, and the pest swept through the villages, and survivors fleeing before it, leaving their dead unburied.
The delegates who visited Washington in 1837 to make a treaty had no authority to conclude a treaty, and so declared. That was the treaty (Nov. 1. 1837.) by which all the lands of the Winne- bago east of the Mississippi were ceded to the United States. It was loudly proclaimed by the tribe to be a fraud. Chief Yel- low Thunder, whose village was near Eureka, in Winnebago county, and two others were of this party, and all declared they had no right to make a treaty. The first attempt to remove the tribe was begun in 1840. when a considerable band were induced to remove to the Turkey river in lowa. In 1837 the Winnebago, headed by One-eyed Dekaury, Little Dekaury. Winnosheek, Waukon Dekaury, and six other chiefs, went to Washington and ceded all the land still claimed by them east of the Mississippi river, reserving the privilege of occupying until 1840. That year the troops came to Portage to remove them. Yellow Thunder and Black Wolf's son were invited to Portage to get provisions, but as soon as they arrived at Portage they were put in the guardhouse with ball and chain on their ankles, which hurt their feelings, as they had done no harm. The General had understood they were going to revolt, and refused to emigrate: but as soon as Governor Dodge came to Portage they were released. They all promised faithfully to be in Portage in three days, ready for removal. and they were all there. Two large boats were pro- vided to take down the Indians who had no canoes. At the head of Kickapoo creek they came to some wigwams, where two old women. sisters of Black Wolf, fell on their knees, crying and he- seeching Captain Summer to kill them ; they were old and would rather die and be buried with their fathers and mothers and children than be taken away. The Captain let them remain. and left three young men to hunt for them. Further down they came to the camp of Ke-ji-que-we-ka : the people were told to put their things in the wagon and go along. Depositing their belongings they started south from where they were when the Captain sent to ask where they were going. They said they were going to bid good-bye to their fathers, mothers and children. The interpreter followed them and found them on their knees, kissing the ground and crying very loud where their relations were buried. This tonched the Captain, who exclaimed: "Good God. what harm can these poor Indians do among the rocks."
After being removed at different times to locations in Iowa.
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THIE WINNEBAGO TRIBE
Minnesota and Dakota, they were finally located on one hundred twenty-eight thousand acres of the northern part of the Omaha reservation in eastern Nebraska, containing some of the best timbered lands. by May, 1866. There still reside in the pine bar- rens of Jackson and Adams county stragglers who have returned. reported in 1887 to number one thousand six hundred. Most of these have homesteads, where they live by picking berries, fishing and hunting, with ever increasing families. Large families are the rule among the Winnebago. Green Grass, son of Kayrah- maunee. came to the payment at Black River Falls to draw for fifteen children ; but could not count or name them. Major Hal- leck, the agent, had him bring them in and stand them in a row.
"The Winnebago as a tribe has due them $883,249.58 under their treaties of 1837 and the act of July 15, 1870, which has not been capitalized and placed in the treasury as a trust fund. Con- gress annually appropriates 5 per cent interest on the principal, amounting to $44,162.47. The Wisconsin band received $18,- 026.13 of that amount, which is paid them in cash. They also receive $7.000 each year from that amount to equalize their pay- ments with the Nebraska branch under the act of 1881. Under that act they have received $147,000 and $73.969.91 is yet due them in yearly installments of $7,000. The Nebraska branch re- ceives yearly $10,000 cash for per capita payments, and after this and the amounts due to the Wisconsin branch are deducted the remainder is subject to expenditure for supplies for the Nebraska branch. Eventually the Wisconsin branch will receive their share of the principal after it has been capitalized and segregated."
THEIR HABITS AND DOMESTIC LIFE.
There are at this writing 1,180 Winnebago listed in Wisconsin and 2,613 in Nebraska, making a total of 3,793 or about 4,000 Winnebago now living. This shows an increase in 200 years of 700 per cent, due to enforced peace; and notwithstanding the natural decimation due to smallpox, famine, habits and whisky.
Rev. Cutting Marsh crossed Doty island in 1832, and found still there a small village of Winnebago. This was the remnant of Four Leg's tribe. He was dead two years before. Three years later the Menomonee mission was established at Neenah, before which time, it is presumed, the last of those who had made this ancient village famous in border annals had moved up the river and away.
The totems of the Winnebago were the lynx, catamount, wild-
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
eat and stag. They dressed in the earlier days much as the primitive tribes, in the tanned skins and furs of the wild animals, as also in woven cloth. The special manner of doing their hair was to shave the sides of the head and do the hair in two square cushions on the back of the head. The artist in the Nicolet landfall, recently hung in the rooms of the State Historical Society, has taken their nakedness too literally and made a cari- cature of their nudeness. There is no authority for such literal nakedness. They were an industrious and thrifty people. having at all their villages wide fields of corn and vegetables. Some of these fields were several hundred acres in extent. They gathered wild rice for food also. Sat. Clark told Dr. Lapham that General Atkinson purchased 6.000 bushels of corn from the Winnebago; and in 1848 he had driven over half a mile of old Indian corn- fields in Columbia county, which a pioneer had told him the Winnebago had cultivated. Their villages contained well con- structed, warm cabins or wigwams, and they appeared to enjoy prosperity, notwithstanding their history contains so much war. pestilence and whisky.
Whatever may have been the truth of the matter. they seem to have the universal hatred or disfavor of all their neighbors and the whites. The whites write them down invariably filthy. It is such a general charge that one might be inclined to suppose it to be repeated by suggestion. Whether any one took the trouble to inquire if this was a domestie infirmity or only came from the supposed derivation of their name we cannot learn. One hundred years ago Capt. Thomas A. Anderson wintered on Rock river, at the foot of a precipice, 300 feet above the river. trading with the Winnebago, and long afterward said. "They are the most filthy. most obstinate and bravest people of any Indian tribe." As an instance of their independence. Hon. Morgan L. Martin relates of the guide he procured at Taycheedah, who. after leading them into the prairie, lay down and refused to pro- ceed. saying "he had never yet been the slave of a white man and never would be."
The numerous missionaries who had gone among the Wis- consin savages seem to have made little progress with the Winnebago. The first to devote himself specially to one of the bands was Rev. Father Mazzuchelli, who. April 16, 1833. visited the Winnebago at the old Decorah village, eight miles up the Wisconsin river from Portage. Two hundred converts were made. and he translated Father Barago's Catechism from Ottawa to Winnebago, going 700 miles to Detroit to get it printed. and
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THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE
returned. Pietre Paquette assisted him in talking to the savages. The Catechism when returned had eighteen pages. The influence of the missionary was such that on Mrs. Kinzie's offering wine to one of the Indian women she pointed to the cross about her neck and refused to drink.
BRANCH IN MONROE COUNTY.
From the earliest settlement bands of Winnebagoes had, at different times, established their villages temporarily in several parts of the county ; no permanent location was made until right after the war of the rebellion, when a considerable number, under the chief. Ah-oo-cho-ka or "Blue Wing," settled near Water Mill, a few miles north of Tomah.
"Blue Wing" was the head of this branch of the tribe and was its chief spokesman in the councils of the tribe held at the original settlement near Winnebago Lake. He was a quiet, peace- ful man, who ruled his tribe with justice, whose good qualities made him many friends among his white neighbors and the busi- ness and professional men in Tomah with whom he had dealings ; he lived to the age of 103 years, and at his death he was held in such esteem that a public funeral was held in the Methodist church at Tomah, largely attended by the town people and his neighbors ; a striking illustration, indeed, of the transition from savagery to civilization, a modern funeral service held over the remains of a savage attended by his own people. After the death of "Blue Wing" there was no succession as chief as the band had gradually taken up land and were, and are, getting away from the tribal relations. They in common with other members of the tribe were moved to Nebraska at the time mentioned in this chapter, but this band of about 200 came back and settled again at Water Mill, where they among them owned quite a tract of land. They enlisted the services of Harry Lea, of Tomah, who had traded with them for years, and he divided the land into ten-acre pieces, assigning one or more to the head of each family so that they became land owners and could not then be taken back to Nebraska.
In this band were two Indians who were in the army during the rebellion, an old fellow familiarly known in later years as "Sherman," because he served in the Third Wisconsin and was under General Sherman, and also a son of Chief "Blue Wing," known as "Thunder Chief."
Among them exists a secret religious organization which has
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
been in existence no one knows how long. It has an otter skin badge. to lose which is said to invoke a death penalty; they indulge in strange and fantastic rites and ceremonies, and no white man has ever been able to discover any of their secrets. The squaws of different branches of the tribe in general are known by the kind of work they turn out. This particular branch was noted for the beautiful bead work turned out by its women, everything from moccasins and hair bands to entire suits of buck- skin, beautifully decorated in most elaborate patterns. Some of the children are sent to the Government Indian School at Tomah, although it seems to be the case that only a small percentage take advantage of the education thus acquired, but go back to the indolent tribal life.
CHAPTER III.
THE WINNEBAGO CHIEFS.
The Sachems of the great Winnebago, who have become inti- mately associated with the beginning of the history of Wisconsin, were either residents of Winnebago county or were sired by its ancient lords. The mother and grandmother of that noble line of Decorah chiefs, who met the pioneers of the state, was the beauti- ful queen of the Winnebago, "Glory of the Morning," sister of the head chief of the Winnebago tribe on Doty island, now in Menasha and Neenah, on the Fox river, at the foot of Lake Winnebago. Iler Indian name was HIopokoekau, also spelled by LaRonde, Wahopoekan. Her birth was not of record. She mar- ried Sebrevior De Carrie, who was an officer in the French army in 1699 under De Boisbraint. He resigned his commission in 1729 and became the first trader in Indian goods in the county, living and trading with the Winnebago on Doty Island. During the French and Indian war De Carrie reentered the French army and was mortally wounded before Quebec, April 28, 1760. In some of the almost daily assaults made by Wolfe upon some part of the long defenses on the bluffs of the St. Lawrence, and being taken to Montreal, died there in the hospital, and two weeks later France lost Canada forever. Three sons and two daughters were born to this union. Glory of the Morning refused to go to Mon- treal with her husband, and remained on her island home with her family ; but De Carrie took with him one daughter, who mar- ried there Sieur Laurent Fily, a merchant of Quebec, who subse- quently removed to Green Bay, where they have descendants still living in the valley. Capt. Jonathan Carver, who visited the queen in 1766 on Doty island, mentions the pleasure his atten- tions to the queen gave her attendants as well as herself. She received him graciously and sumptuously entertained him during the four days he remained in her village. He writes of the town that it "contained fifty houses." "The land," he says, "was very fertile; grapes, plums and other fruit grew in abundance. The Indians raised large quantities of Indian corn, beans, pump- kins, squash, watermelons and some tobacco." Mrs. Kinzie gives
33
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
a long character sketch of the ancient queen in August, 1831. "No one could tell her age: but all agreed she must have been upwards of 100. Her dimmed eyes, almost white with age; her face darkened and withered, like a baked apple: her voice tremulous and feeble. except when raised in fury-she usually went on all fours, not having strength to stand upright. On the day of the payment she received her money and crawled to the ageney door to count it. " Mr. Henry Merrill, writing in the year 1834, says that she "was pointed out to me several years after (1834). and I was told she must be 113 years old. She was then able to walk six or eight miles to Portage. She lived several years after, and was finally burned to death by the burning of her wigwam."
As she then lived in the village of her late grandson, Old Gray Headed Decorah, eight miles below Portage, on the west side of the Wisconsin river, she was probably buried there. She is said by some writers to have been a daughter of the head chief. It has been said of her descendants, the Decorah chiefs, that "they were generally good Indians, and frequently urged their claim to the friendship of the whites by saying they were them- selves half white." They are said to have been "influential men in the nation, " and Augustin Grignon says, in 1801. the " Deco- rahs are among the most influential of the Winnebago." Of this marriage there were two sons, whose names have been reported. The oldest was Chou Ke Ka, or Spoon Decorah or Ladle; the other was Chahpost Kaw Kaw, or the Buzzard, who settled with his band at LaCrosse abont 1787.
Chon Ke Ka. also spelled Chan Ka Ka, called Spoon Decorah or Ladle, was the oldest son of Sebrevior De Carrie, says La Ronde. Augustin Grignon renders the name Chongarah. As he knew the chief in the winter of 1801-2, he reports him then as head chief of the Winnebago, and "he was then a very old man and died at Portage in 1808. By his request he was buried in a sitting posture in a coffin, placed on the surface of the ground, with a low cabin above it. surrounded with a fence." His death occurred in 1816, according to LaRonde, when he was "quite aged." It also appears that Chan Ka Ka signed the treaty of St. Louis, May 18, 1816, and therefore could not have died until after that.
Old Gray-Headed Decorah, or Old Decorah. or Gray-Headed Decorah, or White War Eagle, whose common Indian name was Schachip Ka Ka and whose Winnebago name was Warrahwi- koogah, or Bird Spirit, was a son of the Ladle and a grandson of
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THE WINNEBAGO CHIEFS
Glory of the Morning. He died at Petenwell, the high rock on the Wisconsin river, April 20, 1836, said to have been ninety years old. He fought under the British General Proctor at San- dusky, twenty-one years of age, gallantly held the frontier fort with but one cannon. The War Eagle also fought with Proctor and Tecumseh at the battle of the Thames, where the British army was mostly slain or captured and Tecumseh shot, October 5, 1813, by the Americans under William Henry Harrison. The War Eagle was held as a hostage at Prairie du Chien in 1827 for the good behavior of the Winnebago during the so-called Winne- bago war. and for the delivery of Red Bird to justice. It was while Maj. Zachary Taylor was located at Prairie du Chien that he received from Old Gray-Headed Decorah his "peace pipe," and during the Winnebago war it was he who gave assurance to General Atkinson at Portage of the peaceable intentions of the Winnebago. Soon after Laurent Barth purchased the right from the Winnebago over the Portage, 1793. Old Gray-Headed Decorah moved from Apuekawa lake. on Fox river. in Green Lake county, and formed a village with his tribe on the Wisconsin river, about two miles above Portage. LaRonde says: "Sehachipkaka De Kawry died April 26. 1836, aged ninety, at his village. the locality in 1876 known as the Caffrey place in the town of California. Winnebago county. at the foot of the bluff, between the Wiscon- sin and Baraboo rivers. Schoolhouse district No. 5 occupies the spot where the old chief died. This town contained over 100 lodges. Ile was a Catholic and was buried in their cemetery, near the site of the present courthouse in Portage City." Ile signed the treaties of 1828, 1829, 1832. Mrs. Kinzie described him as "the most noble, dignified and venerable of his own or, indeed. of any other tribe. His fine Roman countenance. rendered still more noble by his bald head, with one solitary tuft of long, silvery hair neatly tied falling back on his shoulders." Old Gray Headed Decorah came over to Portage from his village during the famine in 1831 and reported his people as starving. He was offered enough food for his own family. "No," he said, "if my people could not be relieved my family and I will starve with them."
Chah Post Kaw Kaw, or the Buzzard Decorah, was a son of Glory of the Morning and Sebrevior De Carrie, so One-Eyed Decorah told Judge Gale. He settled at LaCrosse in 1787 with a band of Winnebago, and was soon after killed by his own son in a drunken row.
One-Eyed Decorah, whose Indian name was Wadge-hut-ta-kaw. or Big Canoe, was a son of the Buzzard. He died at Channel
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
(near the Tunnell). Monroe County. Wis., in August. 1864. at an advanced age, as Grignon says, of ninety-two. His village in 1832 and later was at the mouth of the Black river, or some say near the village of Salem. on LaCrosse river. in Onalaska town- ship, LaCrosse county. Also said by Rev. Brunson to be at Prairie LaCrosse in 1832. In 1826 he was said by Gen. II. L. Dots- man to have his village on Black river. Thomas P. Burnett, in 1832, when he went up the river to keep the Winnebago canoes from Black Hawk, says he "found One-Eyed Decorah and Little Thunder at the lower month of the Black river." One-Eyed Decorah was born about 1772, and was fifteen years of age when his father settled at LaCrosse. He aided in the capture of Mack- inac (July 17, 1812), and was out with the British in the attack on Fort Stephenson. August 2, 1813, and was with MeKay in the capture of Prairie Du Chien : and signed the treaty of 1825. The act for which he became celebrated was the capture of Black Hawk and the Prophet in 1832. The daring warrior, his band and followers, broken, slain and scattered by the murdered. the picturesque and rugged valley of the Lemonweir river, and then toward the LaCrosse river, where Big Canoe was hunting near Bangor, below Sparta, and found Black Hawk, who consented to go with him to Prairie Du Chien, where he delivered the cap- tives.
A brother of One-Eyed Decorah was Wa Kon Ilan Kaw. or Wa kon Decorah, or Snake Skin, commonly called Washington Decorah, the orator of the Winnebago. The name is also rendered Wau kon caughaga. His likeness was painted by J. O. Lewis in 1825. When Mr. Burnett steamed up the Mississippi river on the "Enterprise" to secure the Winnebago canoes from Black Hawk. July 25, 1832, at sixty miles up the river from Prairie du Chien, he found Washington Decorah with the principal part of the band from the Wisconsin and Kickapoo rivers. The Waukon had a village on the headwaters of DeSota creek, below LaCrosse. He died at the Black Earth agency about 1864. Among those who bear the name and boast descent from this famous line of Winne- bago chieftains there is one who is destined to become famous in the white man's finest art. She is Angel De Cora (this is the official spelling), of the reservation in Nebraska, but practicing her art in New York city. She studied art in the art department of Smith college at Northampton. Mass., and under the famous artist. Howard Pyle, who has interested himself in her success. She has been since 1906 an art instructor in Carlisle Indian school.
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THE WINNEBAGO CHIEFS
Four Legs, or Neokautah, had his village at the outlet of Lake Winnebago, on Doty island, now Menasha and Neenah. This has been the ancient home of the Winnebago since first known to the whites in 1632. He was known as Neokautah by the Menominee; but his Winnebago name was /Hootschope, pro- nounced Hooshoo. Hon. Morgan L. Martin made a journey up the Fox river with Judge Doty from Green Bay to Prairie Du Chien to the trial of Red Bird in 1828, and describes this village: "On Doty island, very near the mouth, on the west channel, was the village of Hootschope, or Four Legs, the well-known Winnebago chieftain. There were from 150 to 200 lodges covered with bark or mats." Augustin Grignon also mentions this village "on Doty island, at the mouth of Winnebago lake." On August 16. 1830, Mr. McCall, one of the commissioners to arrange the differences between the New York Indian and the Winnebago, met in council Four Legs and ten other chiefs, at Four Legs' lodge on Doty island, and mentions "that the head chief was seated on his mat, eross-legged, in all the majesty of an Asiatic prince," describing Four Legs "as about forty years of age, of middle stature, a most interesting man in appearance and deportment, speaks his own tongue fluently. In short, he is a great man." Mrs. Kinzie mentions Four Legs as the "great chief of the Winnebago, whose village was on Doty island." in 1830, and says: "It was at the entrance of Lake Winnebago. a picturesque cluster of huts spread around on a pretty green glade and shaded by fine, lofty trees." and she furnishes an illustration of the village. She says in another place : "It was a cluster of neat bark wigwams." Four Legs died in 1830, but his village was still occupied in 1832. reported by Cutting Marsh as "occupied by a small band of the Winnebago tribe." This was the last mentioned of this village. Its name is preserved in the word Menasha, the city which, with the city of Neenah, occupy its site. Menasha was the name of this most ancient Indian village on the American continent. The name was by both Curtis Reed and Gov. J. D. Doty, the founders of the modern town, said to mean the name of the village on the island, and in Dakatah would be Mini ha ha, or Langhing Water, a possible reference to the double rapids which ran around their village. At the council held in Green Bay, August 24, 1830, Four Legs was head chief. Duck was head orator. There was also present Shounk Schunk Siap, or Black Wolf; Wheauk Kaw, or Big Duek, and Monk Kaw Kaw. For entertainment to amuse their visitors Four Legs was active. At night a band of Winnebago appeared "painted all
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