THE WINNEBAGOES

This tribe, like the Iowas, belong to the Dakota family, and, like them, migrated eastward from beyond the Missouri, meeting the Algonquins in the region of the lakes. The name which they have always borne in history was given them by the last named Indians, and signifies men from the fetid or salt water, whence the name Puants, given to them by the French. They were styled by the Sioux, Hotanke or Sturgeon. The Hurons and Iroquois called them Awentsiwaen, but they called

16

themselves Hochungara. Of these last two appellations we have never heard any signification given. In the earliest historic times they were numerous and powerful, and usually defeated the Algonquin tribes, with whom they came into frequent collision.

Soon after the commencement of the French traffic with the west, in the early part of the seventeenth century, an alliance of the Algonquins and other tribes was made, and the Winnebagoes were attacked by an overwhelming force. They were besieged in a single town, where they were greatly reduced by want and disease, and, besides the women and children that died, over five hundred warriors perished. Compelled to surrender, and greatly reduced in numbers, they nevertheless continued haughty and turbulent. They recovered a part of their prestige by making an alliance with the French, fighting in their wars, and receiving protection in return.

During the Revolution the Winnebagoes were the allies of the English. They were active in the Miami war, taking part in the attack on Fort Recovery, in 1793. After being defeated by the great Indian fighter, "Mad Anthony Wayne," they made peace with the United States. They, however, adhered to Tecumseh, the Shawnee warrior, and sided with the English during the war of 1812, aiding in the reduction of Prairie du Chien, in 1814. Their number was estimated at four thousand five hundred. In 1820 they had five villages on Winnebago lake, and fourteen on Rock river. After the close of the last war with England, they made a treaty of peace and amity with the United States, June 3, 1816; but, notwithstanding, they levied tribute on all whites passing up Fox river, which, for some time, was included in their territory. Treaties made in 1826 and 1827 fixed their boundaries, from which the whites were by law excluded. But a portion of their lands were rich in minerals, and this fact led to intrusion, and these to murders, for which Red Bird and other members of the tribe were arrested, tried and convicted. This led to ill-feeling, and when a portion of the Sacs, under Black Hawk, began the war for the recovery of their ceded lands, on Rock river, in 1832, the Winnebagoes, or at least a part of them, took the side of the hostile Sacs. This led to an importunate demand for their removal.

In 1829 they had ceded to the United States their land from the Wisconsin to the Rock river, for thirty thousand dollars in goods, and the annuity of eighteen thousand for thirty years. Finally, by the treaty of Fort Armstrong, made in September, 1832, they gave up all their lands lying south of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, amounting to two and a half millions of acres—the United States agreeing to give them a reservation on the west side of the Mississippi, in that part of the Wisconsin territory which now forms the State of Iowa; and also to pay them an annuity of ten thousand dollars for twenty-seven years, and maintain schools among them, free of expense. Here they became unsettled and extravagant, and contracted a debt (though for what purpose and to what part we are not informed) of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars—for the payment of which they were ready to cede more land to the Government. It can well be imagined that their frequent removals had had no tendency to check the nomadic disposition which they inherited from a remote ancestry. They became restless and roving, and separated into small bands. In 1842 there were seven hundred and fifty-six on the Turkey river, their new home in Iowa, with as many more in Wisconsin, and smaller bands elsewhere. All had become lawless and wandering.

By the treaty of Washington in 1846, they surrendered their former reservation for eight hundred thousand acres north of the St. Peters, and a hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars. The site to which they were removed, it is said, was not that which was promised them; and it proved to be very unhealthy. They lost many by disease and want, but were kept there by force. At length, in 1853, they were again to Crow river. Here schools were revived, attempts were renewed for their improvement, but by the treaty of February 27, 1856, they were once more removed to Blue Earth, Minnesota. The climate here proving healthy and the soil fertile, they began to habituate themselves to agriculture, building houses, and sending their children to school. To foster this disposition the Government formed a new treaty with them in 1859, by which land was to be allotted to them in severalty—eighty acres to a family and forty to a single man. Several had taken up lots in accordance with this plan, when most unfortunately the Sioux war broke out, and the panic-stricken people of Minnesota demanded that the poor Winnebagoes should again be removed. Though some of the tribe may, perhaps, have sympathized with the Sioux, or even have joined in the revolt, yet there can be no doubt that the great majority were entirely loyal to the Government. Yet such was the prejudice against them, and so pressing was the demand for their removal, that the Government at last felt constrained to yield. They were disarmed in April, 1863, and removed to Crow creek, in the Dakota territory, near the Missouri river, above Fort Randall. The change proved to be very disastrous. The locality was unsuited to their semi-civilized habits. It was impossible for them to make a comfortable subsistence, and they were constantly exposed to the incursions of wild and hostile neighbors. An attempt was made to keep them here by force; but rendered desperate by famine and disease—more than one third of the nineteen hundred and eighty-five who came from Minnesota having died—they left in a body and made their way to the reservation of the Omahas, a friendly tribe, half civilized like themselves, who gave them temporary shelter.

In May, 1866, they were again removed to lands assigned to them at Winnebago, Nebraska, where the surroundings were favorable to their improvement, but where every thing had to be commenced anew. In 1869 they were assigned, as were the Iowas mentioned above, to the care of the Quakers. The next year the agent, finding it impossible to carry out his plans under the old chiefs, forcibly set them aside and appointed twelve new ones of his own selection—making the office thereafter elective by the tribe. Lands were again allotted in severalty to such as wished to take up farms; and in 1874,

17

they numbered in Nebraska fourteen hundred and forty-five cultivating their farms, living in their cottages, dressing like the whites, and sending their children to the schools—of which there were three, very well sustained.

When the tribe removed from Minnesota, a hundred and sixty of their number, chiefly half-breeds, who had taken up lands, were allowed to remain. These received, as their share of the tribal funds, eight hundred dollars each. But many of them spent this, lost their land, and joined the tribe in Nebraska. Besides these, portions of the tribe had been left in different parts of Juneau, Adams and Wood counties, Wisconsin, who had become self-supporting and remained unmolested. They numbered nearly one thousand; and, in the winter of 1873-74, the most of them were removed to Nebraska, where a smaller tract, near the Winnebago reservation, had been purchased for them.

In the present condition of the tribe, as of the others that have allowed the advancing tide of white emigration and civilization to flow around them, after having for some time receded before it, we may read the final destiny of the Indians on this continent. The remnants of the race are doubtless to become civilized; and then to be gradually absorbed as one of the component parts of the new race that will one day dominate the western world.

The Pottawatomies

Mardos Memorial Library

More Historical Books online

This nonprofit research site is an independent affiliate of the American History and Genealogy Project (AHGP),, and proud to be hosted by USGenNet, a nonprofit historical and genealogical Safe-Site Server™ solely supported by tax-deductible contributions. No claim is made to the copyrights of individual submitters, and this site complies fully with USGenNet's Nonprofit Conditions of Use