Winnebago War
Encyclopedia
The Winnebago War was a brief conflict that took place in 1827
1827 in the United States
Events from the year 1827 in the United States.-Incumbents:* President: John Quincy Adams * Vice President: John C. Calhoun * Chief Justice: John Marshall...

 in the Upper Mississippi River
Upper Mississippi River
The Upper Mississippi River is the portion of the Mississippi River upstream of Cairo, Illinois, United States. From the headwaters at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, the river flows approximately 2000 kilometers to Cairo, where it is joined by the Ohio River to form the Lower Mississippi...

 region of the United States, primarily in what is now the state of Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

. Not quite a war, the hostilities were limited to a few attacks on American civilians by a portion of the Winnebago (or Ho-Chunk
Ho-Chunk
The Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska....

) Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 tribe. The Ho-Chunks were reacting to a wave of lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

 miners trespassing on their lands, and to false rumors that the United States had sent two Ho-Chunk prisoners to a rival tribe for execution.

Most Native Americans in the region decided against joining the uprising, and so the conflict ended after U.S. officials responded with a show of military force. Ho-Chunk chiefs surrendered eight men who had participated in the violence, including Red Bird
Red Bird
Red Bird was a leader of the Winnebago Native American tribe. He was a leader in the Winnebago War against the United States. He attacked settlers in the area of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, but surrendered when American forces marched into Ho-Chunk territory. He died in prison in 1828 while...

, who American officials believed to be the ringleader. Red Bird died in prison in 1828 while awaiting trial; two other men convicted of murder were pardoned by President John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

 and released.

As a result of the war, the Ho-Chunk tribe was compelled to cede the lead mining region to the United States. The Americans also increased their military presence on the frontier, building Fort Winnebago
Fort Winnebago
This article is about the U.S. Army fort. For the civil township of the same name, see Fort Winnebago, WisconsinFort Winnebago was a 19th century fortification of the United States Army located on a hill between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers in Portage, Wisconsin...

 and reoccupying two other abandoned forts. The conflict convinced some officials that Americans and Indians could not leave peaceably together, and that the Natives should be compelled to move westward, a policy known as Indian removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...

. The Winnebago War preceded the larger Black Hawk War
Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos known as the "British Band" crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S....

 of 1832, which involved many of the same people and concerned similar issues.

Background

Following the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

, the United States pursued a policy of trying to prevent wars among Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 in the Upper Mississippi River
Upper Mississippi River
The Upper Mississippi River is the portion of the Mississippi River upstream of Cairo, Illinois, United States. From the headwaters at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, the river flows approximately 2000 kilometers to Cairo, where it is joined by the Ohio River to form the Lower Mississippi...

 region. This was not strictly for humanitarian reasons: intertribal warfare made it more difficult for the United States to acquire Indian land and move the tribes to the West, a policy known as Indian removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...

, which had become the primary goal by the late 1820s. On August 19, 1825, U.S. officials finalized a multi-tribal treaty
Treaty of Prairie du Chien
The Treaty of Prairie du Chien may refer to any of several treaties made and signed in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin between the United States, representatives from the Sioux, Sac and Fox, Menominee, Ioway, Winnebago and the Anishinaabeg Native American peoples.-1825:The first treaty of Prairie du...

 at Prairie du Chien, which defined the boundaries of the region's tribes.

By that time, however, white Americans had begun to trespass on Ho-Chunk
Ho-Chunk
The Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska....

 (or Winnebago) lands in large numbers, drawn by the promise of easy lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

 mining along the Fever (later Galena) River
Galena River (Illinois)
The Galena River, also known as the Fevre or Fever River, is a river which flows through the Midwestern United States.- Geography :...

. Native Americans had mined this region for thousands of years, and exporting lead had become an important part of the Ho-Chunk economy. Ho-Chunks tried to drive away the trespassers, but they often suffered abuse at the hands of aggressive miners. Some U.S. officials, concerned that Ho-Chunk mining would delay what they saw as the inevitable American possession of the mining region, worked "to dissuade the Indians from their mining plans".

Methode family murder

In March 1826, a French-Canadian man named Methode, his Native American wife, and their children were gathering maple syrup in present-day Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, about twelve miles north of Prairie du Chien, when they were murdered, apparently by a Ho-Chunk raiding party that had been passing through. The murderers evidently had no specific grievance with the victims, who were targets of opportunity. Two Ho-Chunk suspects were arrested by Prairie du Chien militiamen and taken to Fort Crawford
Fort Crawford
Fort Crawford was an outpost of the United States Army located in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, during the 19th Century. The Second Fort Crawford Military Hospital was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1960....

. After they escaped, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Willoughby Morgan seized two Ho-Chunk hostages and demanded that the Ho-Chunk tribe turn over the murderers.

On July 4, 1826, the Ho-Chunks delivered six men to Morgan at Fort Crawford. In accordance with Ho-Chunk custom, writes historian Martin Zanger, the six men were not all involved in the murders; they were surrendered to appease American anger and deflect punishment away from the tribe as a whole. The Americans, however, wanted to punish those personally responsible for the killings. Colonel Morgan was unable to determine who was guilty, and so he detained all six and demanded that the Ho-Chunk chiefs identify the killers. Colonel Josiah Snelling
Josiah Snelling
Colonel Josiah Snelling was the first commander of Fort Snelling, a fort located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers in Minnesota. He was responsible for the initial design and construction of the fort, and he commanded it from 1820 through 1827. He had a reputation for...

, commander of the 5th Infantry Regiment
5th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The 5th Infantry Regiment is the third-oldest infantry regiment of the United States Army, tracing its origins to 1808...

, reinforced the fort amid rumors that the Ho-Chunks were going to attempt to free the prisoners. Eventually, two Ho-Chunks, Wau-koo-kau (or Waukookah) and Man-ne-tah-peh-keh (or Mahnaatapakah), were turned over to the Americans and indicted for the murders.

Evacuation and rumors

The rumored Ho-Chunk attack on Fort Crawford never came, and so in October 1826, Colonel Snelling moved the garrison to Fort Snelling, where he hoped to reduce hostilities between the Dakotas (Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...

) and the Ojibwes (Chippewas). The two Ho-Chunk prisoners were also moved to Fort Snelling. In May 1827, after Dakotas attacked an Ojibwe party near Fort Snelling, Colonel Snelling arrested four of the Dakotas and turned them over to the Ojibwes, who killed them. This angered some Dakotas, who encouraged the Ho-Chunks to help them strike at the Americans, falsely telling them that the Ho-Chunks prisoners had also been turned over to the Ojibwes for execution.

The false story of the execution of the Ho-Chunk prisoners, along with the incessant American trespassing, convinced some Ho-Chunks to take up arms against the United States. The timing seemed right, since the evacuation of Fort Crawford appeared to be a sign of American weakness. Another grievance was the news that some Ho-Chunk women had been sexually assaulted by American riverboat crews along the Mississippi River, although this story, like the one about the executions, may have been a false rumor. The Ho-Chunks broke off diplomatic relations with the United States by not showing up for a scheduled treaty conference, and prepared for war.

Hostilities

In late June 1827, a Ho-Chunk leader named Red Bird
Red Bird
Red Bird was a leader of the Winnebago Native American tribe. He was a leader in the Winnebago War against the United States. He attacked settlers in the area of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, but surrendered when American forces marched into Ho-Chunk territory. He died in prison in 1828 while...

, along with Wekau (or Wa-ni-ga, The Sun) and Chickhonsic (or Chic-hong-sic, Little Buffalo), went to Prairie du Chien to seek revenge for what they believed were the executions of the Ho-Chunk prisoners. Unable to locate their intended victim, they instead targeted the cabin of Registre Gagnier, the son of an esteemed African-American nurse and midwife named Aunt Mary Ann. Gagnier welcomed the three Ho-Chunks into his home for a meal. What happened inside varies according to sources. According to one account, Red Bird shot and killed Gagnier, while Chickhonsic shot and killed Solomon Lipcap, a hired man or friend of the family. Wekau tried to shoot Gagnier's wife, but she wrestled his gun away before escaping with her young son. Wekau had to settle for stabbing and scalping
Scalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...

 Gagnier's infant daughter, who survived the attack. Another account says that only Red Bird committed the murders. Red Bird and his companions returned with the three scalps to their village at Prairie La Crosse, where a celebration was held.

On June 30, 1827, the Prairie La Crosse Ho-Chunks struck again. About 150 Ho-Chunks, with a few Dakota allies, attacked two American keelboats on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Bad Axe River
Bad Axe River
The Bad Axe River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in southwestern Wisconsin in the United States. "Bad axe" is a translation from the French, "la mauvaise hache", but the origin of the name is unknown. The river's mouth at the Mississippi was the site of the Battle of Bad Axe, an 1832 U.S...

. Two Americans were killed and four were wounded in the skirmish; about seven Ho-Chunks died in the attack or later from their wounds. According to historian Patrick Jung, "The attack, while relatively small, was significant because it was the first act of war committed against the United States by Indians in the region since the War of 1812."

In their nascent war against the Americans, the Prairie La Crosse Ho-Chunks sought to recruit allies among the Dakotas, Potawatomi
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...

s, and other Ho-Chunk bands. Most leaders of these tribes, while sympathetic to Ho-Chunk grievances, urged neutrality. Some Potawatomis participated by killing some American livestock, but Potawatomi leaders Billy Caldwell, Alexander Robinson, and Shaubena rode among the Potawatomi settlements and urged people to stay out of the war; they would do the same five years later during the Black Hawk War
Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos known as the "British Band" crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S....

. Many Ho-Chunks also distanced themselves from the actions of Red Bird and the Prairie La Crosse Ho-Chunks. Without allies, the effort to ignite a widespread war was doomed. By mid-July, writes historian Martin Zanger, "for all practical purposes the 'Red Bird Uprising' was over".

American response

The attacks created panic among the American population of the area. Settlers, fearing the outbreak of a wider Indian war, fled to towns such as Galena and Chicago, or sought sanctuary in the abandoned Fort Crawford.

Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass was an American military officer and politician. During his long political career, Cass served as a governor of the Michigan Territory, an American ambassador, a U.S. Senator representing Michigan, and co-founder as well as first Masonic Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Michigan...

, the governor of Michigan Territory
Michigan Territory
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan...

, and Thomas McKenney, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, were hosting a treaty conference near Green Bay
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...

 when they learned of the attacks. To discourage the spread of the uprising, Cass promptly invited Native Americans in the region to come to the treaty grounds to receive gifts and food; more than 2,000 people eventually arrived. McKenney warned the Ho-Chunk chiefs in attendance that the only way to avoid an American military invasion of their homeland was to surrender those responsible for the attacks. Other American officials met with other Native leaders, including Keokuk and Wabokieshiek
Wabokieshiek
Wabokieshiek was an important Native American of the Ho-Chunk and Sauk tribes in 19th century Illinois, playing a key role in the Black Hawk War of 1832...

, and urged them to stay out of the war.

Meanwhile, American officials scrambled to mobilize troops. Cass hurried to Prairie du Chien, where he organized the local militia. Colonel Snelling arrived at Prairie du Chien on July 10, bringing about 200 regulars from Fort Snelling to reoccupy Fort Crawford. He was joined there on July 29 by Brigadier General Henry Atkinson, who brought 500 men upriver by steamboat from Jefferson Barracks. Several days later, Henry Dodge
Henry Dodge
Henry Dodge was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Territorial Governor of Wisconsin and a veteran of the Black Hawk War. His son was Augustus C. Dodge with whom he served in the U.S. Senate, the first, and so far only, father-son pair to serve concurrently....

 arrived at Fort Crawford with 130 mounted militiamen, mostly miners. Governor Ninian Edwards
Ninian Edwards
Ninian Edwards was a founding political figure of the state of Illinois. He served as the first and only governor of the Illinois Territory from 1809 to 1818, as one of the first two United States Senators from Illinois from 1818 to 1824, and as the third Governor of Illinois from 1826 to 1830...

 of Illinois sent 600 mounted militiamen north to Wisconsin.

To the east, McKenney and Major William Whistler organized another force. Whistler had about 100 regulars from Fort Howard, along with 50 mostly métis
Métis
A Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial, or the descendant of such persons. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish, mestiço in Portuguese, and mestee in English...

 militiamen from Green Bay, 60 New York Indians, and 120 Menominee
Menominee
Some placenames use other spellings, see also Menomonee and Menomonie.The Menominee are a nation of Native Americans living in Wisconsin. The Menominee, along with the Ho-Chunk, are the only tribes that are indigenous to what is now Wisconsin...

s. On August 29, Atkinson's force began moving up the Wisconsin River
Wisconsin River
-External links:* * * , Wisconsin Historical Society* * * *...

 towards Portage, Wisconsin
Portage, Wisconsin
Portage is a city in and the county seat of Columbia County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 10,662 at the 2010 census making it the largest city in Columbia County...

, where the hostile Ho-Chunks had concentrated, while Whistler's force converged on the same location from the north.

On September 1, 1827, McKenney and Whistler's force arrived at the Portage. On September 3, two Ho-Chunk leaders, Waukon Decorah and Carymaunee, surrendered Red Bird and Wekau to the Americans. Carymaunee asked the Americans not to put irons on Red Bird and Wekau; this request was granted. He then offered to give the Americans twenty horses in exchange for the prisoners, but this was declined. The Ho-Chunks turned in four more men involved in the uprising in the following weeks.

Aftermath

In diplomatic talks with the Ho-Chunks at the close of the war, General Atkinson promised that the U.S. government would look into their grievances in the lead mining region. Thomas McKenney requested military aid to evict American miners who were trespassing on Ho-Chunk land, but after the war, settlers poured into the region in unprecedented numbers, and U.S. officials proved to be unable or unwilling to stem the tide. By January 1828, there were as many as 10,000 illegal settlers on Ho-Chunk land, including militia general Henry Dodge, who established a mining camp after the war and boasted that the U.S. Army could not make him leave. Having no other options, on August 25, 1828, the Ho-Chunks signed a provisional treaty with the United States, agreeing to sell the land occupied by the miners in a more formal treaty to be held later.

Eight Ho-Chunks were detained by the U.S. government at Fort Crawford for trial after the war. American officials most wanted to convict Red Bird, believing that he had been the leader of the uprising. This belief, according to historian Martin Zanger, was based on an American failure to understand the decentralized nature of Ho-Chunk society. "Because Red Bird was well known to the white frontiersmen," writes Zanger, "they focused their resentment on him, mistakenly attributing to him a leadership role he did not deserve." Red Bird was never tried; he contracted dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...

 and died in prison on February 16, 1828, before his trial got underway.
The trials were delayed due to the difficulties in bringing together witnesses, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and interpreters. The proceedings finally began in August 1828, with Judge James Duane Doty
James Duane Doty
James Duane Doty was a land speculator and politician in the United States who played a large role in the development of Wisconsin and Utah Territory.-Legal career:...

 presiding. Wau-koo-kau and Man-ne-tah-peh-keh, the two warriors imprisoned for the 1826 murders of the Methode family, were released due to a lack of witnesses, as were three Ho-Chunks held for the attack on the keelboats. Only two men, Wekau and Chickhonsic, were prosecuted. According to historian Patrick Jung, it became clear during the trial that Red Bird had committed the murders at the Gagnier cabin, and that there was not enough evidence to convict Wekau and Chickhonsic. Despite this, the white and métis jury found them guilty. Judge Doty sentenced them to hang, as he was required to do by law. Their lawyer filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that the jury had ignored the evidence, and so Doty suspended the death sentences.

On November 3, 1828, President John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

, having been told that the executions would likely spark another uprising, pardoned the prisoners in exchange for a land cession. In July and August 1829, in treaties signed at Prairie du Chien
Treaty of Prairie du Chien
The Treaty of Prairie du Chien may refer to any of several treaties made and signed in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin between the United States, representatives from the Sioux, Sac and Fox, Menominee, Ioway, Winnebago and the Anishinaabeg Native American peoples.-1825:The first treaty of Prairie du...

, the Ho-Chunks and the Three Fires Confederacy formally ceded the lead mining region to the United States for annual payments of $16,000 and $18,000 respectively.

Hoping to prevent further uprisings, the United States decided to strengthen its military presence in the region after the Winnebago War. Fort Crawford was reoccupied, as was Fort Dearborn
Fort Dearborn
Fort Dearborn was a United States fort built in 1803 beside the Chicago River in what is now Chicago, Illinois. It was constructed by troops under Captain John Whistler and named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. The original fort was destroyed following the Battle of...

 in Chicago, which had been abandoned in 1823. A new outpost, Fort Winnebago
Fort Winnebago
This article is about the U.S. Army fort. For the civil township of the same name, see Fort Winnebago, WisconsinFort Winnebago was a 19th century fortification of the United States Army located on a hill between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers in Portage, Wisconsin...

, was built in October 1828 at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers.

The conflict also helped to promote a change in U.S. policy regarding Native Americans. Previously, many Americans had argued that Indians should be "civilized" and assimilated into white American society. But for some, the Winnebago War discredited the idea that Indians and Americans could live peaceably together. In his State of the Union Address
State of the Union Address
The State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises...

 of December 2, 1828, outgoing President Adams announced that the "civilization" policy had been a failure, and that Indian removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...

—moving the tribes to the West—was the policy of the future. That policy would be taken up by Adams's successor, Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

.

See also

  • American Indian Wars
  • Black Hawk War
    Black Hawk War
    The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos known as the "British Band" crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S....

  • History of Wisconsin
    History of Wisconsin
    The history of Wisconsin encompasses the story not only of the people who have lived in Wisconsin since it became a state of the U.S., but also that of the Native American tribes who made their homeland in Wisconsin, the French and British colonists who were the first Europeans to live there, and...

  • List of conflicts in the United States

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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