History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Part 8

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn; Pierce, Eben Douglas
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago Winona : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1318

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But the Winnebago have never been satisfied with any territory but the lands of central Wisconsin. Only a portion moved to the Turkey River country, in northeastern Iowa, under the agreement of 1832. The removal to Long Prairie, in Minnesota, in 1848 was accomplished under duress and with the aid of soldiers. In fact, upon reaching Winona, the Winnebago expressed their determination to go no further, and bloodshed was narrowly avoided. Before the trouble was ended many had slipped away and found their way back to their homes in Wisconsin. Others went to southeastern Nebraska and joined the Ottawa. The Indians who were taken to Long Prairie soon drifted southward in Minnesota or back to Wisconsin. Later others came back to Wisconsin from Blue Earth and from North Dakota. During the Minnesota Massacre of 1862 it was difficult for the citizens and volunteer soldiers to distinguish between a Dakota and a Winnebago Indian, so that many Winnebago who were absolutely innocent were shot without mercy. The Winnebago were, therefore, in danger from both the whites and the Dakota Indians, and many turned their faces toward the peaceful land of Wisconsin, and soon joined their friends on the old camping grounds.

No sooner was the removal to the Black Bird Reservation accomplished in 1866, than others of the Winnebago took the trail that led to the old familiar haunts among the pine forests. Within two years, a large part of the tribe was back again in Wisconsin.

Soon a new movement was on foot to compel them to return to Nebraska, and by a display of military force, hundreds were again removed to that region in the winter of 1873-74. During the troubles attending the forced removal, no less than 56 Indians were arrested in Trempealeau County.º

Taken to far-away Nebraska, the people of the unfortunate race still longed for their native woods and streams, and their thoughts wandered over the old hunting grounds and berry fields of Wisconsin. In the pine woods were the graves of their dead, which made the soil more sacred in their minds, and there were the camping grounds where all of their festiv- ities were held, and they hungered for the scenes and associations of the olden days.

The homeward trail was soon thronged with the returning stragglers, and within a year, half of the tribe were back. This time Fate was kinder to them, for in 1875 the government gave them the homestead right, which

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

enabled them to gain a home of their own by building houses and doing a certain amount of improving on their land. The larger part of the Winne- bago are now scattered through a territory in the Black River Valley and to the westward.

The land they live on will probably never be of any particular benefit to them ; it is sandy, poor soil, among the scrub oaks and jack pines. Some little corn is raised, as well as potatoes, and a few of the Indians raise chickens.

During the blueberry season the Indians pick berries and sell them, and during the cranberry season they find employment, and go in bands to the marshes, where they camp until the crop is gathered.

Thus live the descendants of a race which once had at its command the unmeasured sweeps of nature, and the boundless wealth of forest and plain, lake and river.

The Dakota, proper, who shared Trempealeau County with the Winne- bago, were the principal division of the Siouan family, and are more commonly called by their family name of Sioux, rather than by their indi- vidual name of Dakota. The Siouan family consisted not only of the Dakota, proper, but also of the Winnebago, the Assiniboin, the Minnetare group, and the Osage and southern kindred tribes.10

The word Sioux, now applied to the whole linguistic family, is a cor- ruption of the word Nadouessi or Nadouescioux, meaning "the snake-like ones," or "the enemies," the name by which the Chippewa and other Algon- quin Indians called the Dakotas. Dakota, variously spelled, was applied by this branch of the Siouan family to themselves, and means "joined together in friendly compact." An important division of the Dakotas was the M'dewakanton (commonly rendered Medawakanton) tribe. At one time the Medewakanton had their headquarters about the Mille Lacs region in northern Minnesota, hence their name, which means "The People of the Spirit Lake." Evidently driven out by the Chippewa, who had obtained arms from the whites, they established themselves in seven villages along the Mississippi and Minnesota.11

The Medawakanton relinquished their claim to all lands east of the Mississippi and all the islands in that river by the treaty signed at Wash- ington, D. C., September 29, 1837.12 Thus in 1837, Trempealeau passed from the dominion of both the Winnebago and the Dakota, and into the possession of the whites. By a treaty signed in 1851 and proclaimed in 1853, the Medawakanton relinquished their vast possessions in Minnesota, and afterward were removed to a reservation on the upper Minnesota River, in the western part of the State of Minnesota. They took part in the Massacre of 1862, and fled or were removed from Minnesota. A larger part of Indians of that blood are now at the Santee Reservation, in Nebraska. 13 Others are at Flandreau, South Dakota, or scattered through Minnesota.

Aside from the wandering Indian bands which pitched their camp in Trempealeau County from the days of Perrot, three bands seem to have made their home in the locality at various times before the coming of the settlers, the Winnebago bands of Red Bird and Decorah, and the Medawa-

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

kanton Dakota band of Wabasha. Since the coming of the settlers there have been scattering encampments.

The chiefs of the Wabasha dynasty early became familiar with Trem- pealeau Mountain and Trempealeau Prairie, and Wabasha II maintained the home of the tribe here for several years. Wabasha I was probably born about 1720.1+ His name is variously rendered-Ouabashas, Wapasha, Wapahasha and Wah-pah-hah-sha-and means red leaf, red cap, or red war banner. He was of mixed Sioux and Algonquian blood, his father having been a Dakota chief and his mother a Chippewa princess.15 He was head chief of all the Medawakanton Dakota, his own immediate band probably embodying the ancient Mantanton. The band was known to the Dakota themselves as the Ona-pe-ton or Falling Leaf Band. He appears to have moved his village from the Mille Lacs region in Minnesota, first to the lower valley of the Rum River and subsequently to the mouth of the Minnesota, both in the same State. Later he established himself and his band at the present site of Winona.16 At Winona (Ke-ox-ah) the head- quarters of the band seem to have been maintained until the treaty of 1851, though for many decades, apparently until after the time of Pike in 1805, the band had a village on the Upper Iowa River. Wabasha I was greatly honored by the British, made a number of trips to Montreal, received the confirmation of the authorities to his title as head chief of all the Medawa- kanton, was a general in the British army in the Revolutionary War, and led his troops in the British campaign against the Americans at St. Louis, St. Genevieve, Missouri, and elsewhere. In his old age he was exiled by jealous relatives from his chieftainship and from the Winona village, and probably died in Houston County, Minnesota, about 1806. Wabasha II succeeded him as chief, and reigned until his death in 1836. He is the La Feuille, The Leaf, who came in contact with all the early American explorers beginning with Pike in 1805. He sided with the British in the War of 1812. When Long came up the river in 1817, Wabasha was firmly established at Winona. But a short time before the Black Hawk War, the village was moved to Trempealeau Prairie as a precaution against the raids made by the Sauk of Iowa.17 The band continued, however, to hold its celebrations and dances at Ke-ox-ah (Winona). Wabasha II took part in the Black Hawk War of 1832, and assisted in exterminating many of the Sauk and Foxes as they were fleeing across the Mississippi River into Iowa after their defeat at the mouth of Bad Axe River. He died of smallpox at the age of about 63, in 1836. The scourge had swept his band, and the whole village was reduced to a few teepes. Wabasha II was highly praised by all the whites with whom he came in contact. In person he was of low stature, and his face was disfigured by having lost one eye. In character he was wise, prudent and brave, a friend of the whites, and what was unusual in those days, absolutely abstemious in his habits, and an earnest advocate of temperance.

He was succeeded by Wabasha III, who after the treaty of 1837 main- tained his home and his tribe in Winona until the settlers arrived in 1851.18 Then he moved across the river into Wisconsin, and spent some time in this vicinity before locating in the western part of Minnesota. Wabasha III

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

led his warriors in the Dakota outbreak of 1862, although he was opposed to it, and was one of the first to make proposals of peace to the whites, even while his nation was still in arms. After the Massacre he was removed to Missouri and finally to Santee, Nebraska, where he died April 23, 1876, a solitary, broken man, who had inherited the chieftainship of an empire, and had watched his people dwindle before the onrushing wave of a race that had defrauded him of his possessions.

Red Bird, a famous Winnebago chief, is believed to have had a village on the Black River.19 Red Bird was born in 1788 and died in 1827. Various stories are told of the origin of his name, one being that he wore on each shoulder the plumage of a red bird, in imitation of the epaulettes which he had seen worn by American officers.2º He is described as being perfect in form, face and gesture. In height he was about six feet, straight and without restraint. His proportions from his head to his feet were those of the most exact symmetry, and even his fingers were models of beauty. His face was full of all the ennobling, and, at the same time, winning expressions ; it appeared to be a compound of grace and dignity, of firmness and decision, all tempered with mildness and mercy. Until the Red Bird outbreak he had the confidence of the whites to the extent that his presence at Prairie du Chien was looked upon as an assurance of protection from any Indian troubles. But after learning of what he believed to be the basest treachery and cruelty to some of his people by the officers at Fort Snelling, he sought the most terrible revenge. With two companions, We-kau and Chic-hon-sic, he went to the home of Rijeste Gagnier, two miles southeast from Prairie du Chien, killed Gagnier, scalped and wounded an infant, who afterward recovered, and killed a boarder, Solomon Lipcap. The same day Red Bird and his band attacked two boats on the Mississippi, killing a number of whites. Later Red Bird and his two companions gave themselves up to the authorities. Red Bird died in prison at Prairie du Chien, February 16, 1828. His two companions were pardoned by President John Quincy Adams.21

The Winnebago, under One-Eyed Decorah, had a village at one time about a mile and a half from Decorah's Peak, on the Black River, and when the first white settlers arrived on the prairie the small elevations on the ground where the Indians had cultivated their corn fields were still to be seen.

Both the Prairie and Decorah's Peak were named after this one-eyed chief, and Winnebago tradition is concerned with a battle fought on the Prairie between the Winnebago and Chippewa. Decorah is said to have watched this battle from the peak that bears his name, and when he saw his followers were being defeated, fled from the scene of conflict and found shelter in a near-by cave, where he remained in hiding until night approached, when he made his way to his brother's camp on the La Crosse River.

There are other versions of this tradition-one giving the Dakota as participating in the battle instead of the Chippewa. But as the Dakota and Winnebago were friendly allied tribes of the Siouan family, and the Chippewa were the Winnebago's most dreaded enemy, it is altogether

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

probable that the Chippewa were the ones that defeated Decorah and his followers.

Traditions are bound to vary, but they point to their origin in a funda- mental fact, and although we get them clothed in garments that have been added by the passing generations, we can still find the original framework intact.

Antoine Grignon,22 who has heard the tribesmen repeat the tradition of the battle of Decorah's Peak, says that the battle must have been fought shortly after the war of 1812, and was a bloody encounter, raging furiously all of one day and well into the evening, when the defeated warriors of Decorah fled from the darkening scent of conflict, leaving their dead strewn upon the field.

After the removal of the Winnebago to Long Prairie, in central Minne- sota, Decorah found his way back to Wisconsin again. In 1855 he went with the other Winnebago to Blue Earth County, Minnesota, but when they were removed to North Dakota, he once more started, with his followers, toward Wisconsin. When the Indians, in their canoes, reached the Black River, they paddled up its waters until a suitable camping place was found, when they landed and erected their teepes once more among their native forests.

Decorah and his small band of followers were camped in the little Tam- arack in the summer of 1863, and it was there that Grignon visited him for the last time. "He was an old man then," said Grignon, "his long hair was thin and streaked with gray, and he was nearly blind. But his body was well preserved, and his well-developed muscular form showed what a powerful man he had been. In height he was a little taller than the average Indian, but he was stocky and solid in build. He was discouraged with the outlook for his people, and said that he had not been dealt with fairly by the government. About a year after my visit to his camp old Decorah died at Tunnel City, Wisconsin, in August, 1864."

In the dingy, smoky wigwam, among a few of his loyal band, the old chief departed for the "happy hunting ground," leaving behind the cringing form of poverty that had cursed his old age, and dimmed the glory of his sunset. He, who once held sway over his flourishing village, and counted a territory as his domain, larger than Trempealeau County, fell asleep, the feeble ruler of a single tepee, its very dirt and rags not his own.

There are still lineal descendants of the old chief living among the Winnebago in this State, and over at Galesville on a point of land near the Arctic Springs his granddaughter, Princess Marie Nounka, is buried.

When the first settler arrived in this county .Decorah's Peak had virtually been named, but not the Prairie, which was first called Scotch Prairie during the early fifties on account of its Scotch settlement.

The Indians told the tradition of Decorah's Peak to the early traders, and the story repeated from time to time fastened the name of the Winne- bago chief to this prominent landmark.

The Decorah family, which embraces in its numbers not only several notable Indian chiefs, but also some of the most distinguished white families in Wisconsin, was founded by Sabrevior De Carrie, a French officer of gentle

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

blood, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Quebec, April 28, 1760. This gallant adventurer married in 1729 a famous Winnebago queen, called Hopokoekaw, the Glory of the Morning, sister of the head chief.23 Their descendants are variously called Decorah, De Carrie, DeKauray, Dakorah, Day Korah, and De Corrah. One of the sons was called Cha-post-kaw-kaw, or The Buzzard. The Buzzard established a village on La Crosse Prairie about 1787. He was killed in a drunken brawl by one of his sons, Mau- wah-re-gah. One-Eyed Decorah (Le Borgne) was another son of The Buzzard, and was born near the Portage on the Wisconsin River about 1772, receiving the name of Watch-hut-ta-kah (Wadge-hutta-kaw) or Big Canoe.24 He lived in the vicinity of La Crosse for many years and was noted for the part he took in the capture of Black Hawk at the close of the Black Hawk War. He aided in the capture of Mackenaw in 1812, was out in 1813 when the British attacked Fort Stephenson, and took part in Colonel William Mckay's expedition against Prairie du Chien in 1814. He was a signer of the Prairie du Chien treaty in 1825.

He possibly had his village at Gale's Landing (Ferry) on the Black River from before 1826 until 1842.25 It is certain that in 1832 the Winne- bago under Old Decorah (Schachip-ka-ka) was chief of a village on the La Crosse River and ranged the Mississippi in this vicinity.26 One-Eyed Decorah that summer was encamped at the entrance to the lower mouth of the Black River, while Winneshiek and Wau-mar-nar-sar hunted up the La Crosse and Black Rivers.27 In 1843, One-Eyed Decorah had a camp on Broken Gun Slough, a branch of the Black River.28

Black Hawk, leader of the Fox and Sauk Uprising in 1832, was captured near Arcadia, in Trempealeau County, according to Indian tradition. Offi- cial reports, however, declare that Black Hawk and his followers retreated to the Dalles of the Wisconsin River, and were there captured about two miles above Kilbourn City, by the One-Eyed Decorah and Cha-e-tar, who took them to Prairie du Chien, August 27, 1832, and delivered them to General Joseph D. Street, the Indian Agent.29

The tradition of the capture near Arcadia was related through Antoine Grignon, to Dr. E. D. Pierce, by O-kick-chum-hak (Looking Glass), a medicine man, nearly eighty-five years old, and though it has no foundation in history, it is here given as one of the tales of the Indian lore of Trempea- leau County, oft repeated around the vanishing campfires of a dying race.

"After the battle of Bad Axe, where so many of the followers of Black Hawk were cruelly slaughtered, the old chief and two followers fled north- ward, following the course of the Mississippi River, and carefully avoiding any trading post or trapper's cabin, until they reached the Trempealeau River, known by the Winnebago as the Nee-chum-ne-chum-u-kah, or flooding river, on account of its overflowing its banks during the spring season and when heavy rains occurred. The Hawk now turned his steps to follow the course of "The Flooding River," but he was weary with the effects of the hard campaign, and broken in spirits with its disastrous results, so he made his way but slowly through the tangled underbrush, and along the hills of a strange land. His sad-hearted companions, too, were wont to lag, and though game was plentiful, they were unable to

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

secure enough to satisfy their craving appetites, which had been made keen by long, hard marching for many months where at one time the flesh of half-starved horses kept them from perishing with hunger.

"But the Sac chief and his faithful companions struggled along up the river, and succeeded in reaching a well-hidden thicket along its banks, opposite Barn Bluff, and near the present village of Arcadia, where they went into camp, as it was toward evening, and they were in sore need of food and rest.

"In the meantime four Winnebago braves, Ne-no-hump-e-kah, or one who clears the water, Ra-koo-a-e-kah, Chosh-chum-hut-ta-kah, meaning Big Wave, and Wa-kow-oha-pin-kar (Good Thunder), were in hot pursuit of Black Hawk, and since the battle of Bad Axe had been following the trail of the noted Sac. They traveled up the Trempealeau Valley, keeping close watch for any signs of the fleeing Indians, and were rewarded by finding fresh traces of the trail, which they pursued with savage interest. One day they lost the trail, and seeing a high barn-shaped bluff in the distance resolved to climb it, and take a look at the surrounding country in the hope of catching a glimpse of the hunted fugitives. It was near sunset when they reached the summit of Barn Bluff, on the same day that Black Hawk and his men went into camp in the thicket on the banks of. the Trempealeau River.

"The Winnebago braves looked down on the wild country with its rough hills stretching away in every direction, while the river gleaming with a touch of the sinking sun, threaded its way silently through the valley and was lost from sight in the misty thicket far down below. The Indians scanned the horizon that seemed to touch a continuous range of hills formed into an immense circle. They looked up the river, and down the river, and then away down among the thickets one discovered a thin smoke arising, and caught the glimpse of a campfire.

"A council was quickly held to determine what course to pursue, in endeavoring to capture Black Hawk, should it prove to be his camp. It was decided to steal continuously down in the dusk of the evening and surround the camp, and when its inmates were busy eating to slip up and capture them, for they wanted to take Black Hawk alive. Accordingly as arranged, they made their way downward, guided by the light of the fire, and surrounded the Indians, who were peacefully eating their evening meal. After watching the care-worn men a short time a signal was given, at which the four braves rushed forward to the capture. No force was needed, how- ever, as Black Hawk quietly gave himself up. He was taken to the trading post at La Crosse and turned over to One-Eyed Decorah and Wa-kon-ah-kah (Snake Skin), two noted Winnebago chiefs, and they sent him a prisoner down the river to Prairie du Chien."

After his capture he was sent from Prairie du Chien to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, in charge of Jefferson Davis, then an officer in the United States army, later President of the Confederate States of America. In April, 1833, he was taken east, was confined for a while at Fortress Monroe, was taken on a tour through the cities of the East, was afterward released, settled on the Des Moines River, and died October 3, 1838.30

HISTORY OF TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

A Winnebago Indian village under the chief Ni-No-Humpt-Pinter, occu- pied considerable territory in Dodge Township when the early settlers arrived. The village began north of what is now Dodge Village, where there was a large Indian field, and extended out into Buffalo County as far as the Engelhart Doeille farm, where there was another large corn field. These Indians had substantial huts and pony stables. The huts were built of limbs of trees protected by bundles of grass on sides and roof, and were banked to a height of four feet or more with soil. The pony stables were constructed in much the same manner. Fences protected the growing corn from the ponies. These fences were of curious structure. First, crotched sticks were driven into the ground. These supported a single line of rails. At regular intervals crossed stakes were driven, meeting just above the single rail, and on the crotch thus formed was laid another rail. This made a double-rail fence, supported by perpendicular crotched sticks, and vertical crossed stakes.

The Indians were peaceable and friendly, visiting at the homes of the settlers at all hours of day and night. They often begged for food, but were generous with their own, and were not given to theft or crime of any kind.

The men had guns and hunted and fished most of the time. Deer were plentiful, but the Indians did not hunt for sport, and seldom killed more than was needed for immediate use, and though plenty of game was to be obtained, the Indians never wantonly slaughtered the wild animals and birds, and were never wasteful. In hot weather, the squaws would dress and skin the deer carcass, cut it into strips, and hang it up to dry.

These Indians reared many children, who were expert swimmers and canoeists, at a time when the current in the river was much swifter than it is now. These youngsters were good-natured, but shy, and were never troublesome. Their parents seemed to feel for them a deep affection, and their lives seemed to be a happy one. They appeared to be healthy and robust, and they and their elders often helped on the settlers' farms, espe- cially in harvest time.

In their social life, they kept largely to themselves. The only inter- marriage with the whites was that of Ma-Sho-Pe-We-Ka, a sister of Black Hawk, with Volney Kingsley, a union to which four children were born.

The early settlers also found other encampments in various parts of the county, and to this day, temporary camps may be found along the waste lands of the river courses.

1-Frederick Webb Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, Bulletin 30, Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1907), I, 376-382, for the Dakota; I, 958-961, for the Winnebago. Also consult indexes of the published "Collections" of the Wisconsin and Minnesota Historical Societies.

2-Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. French Regeme in Wisconsin (Extract from Jesuit Rela- tions, Cleveland issue, XXXIII, 275-279), Wis. Hist. Colls., XVI, 1-2. Also see: Ibid, 4 (Extract from La Potherie's Histoire de l'Amcrique, printed at Paris in 1722 and again in 1753). Also: Consul W. Butterfield, History of the Discovery of the Northwest by Jean Nicolet (Cincinnati, 1881). Also: Henrie Juan, Jcan Nicolet (Translated from the French by Grace Clark), Wis. Hist. Colls., XI, 1-22. For bibliography see: Butterfield, Ibid., 23-25. An excellent summary of the subject, together with the extract from the Jesuit Relations,

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History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, Part 8

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn; Pierce, Eben Douglas Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Chicago Winona : H.C. Cooper Number of Pages: 1318

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn; Pierce, Eben Douglas
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago Winona : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1318