Yellow Thunder

Yellow Thunder (c. 1774–1874), was a chief of the Ho-Chunk (or Winnebago) tribe. He signed two treaties with the United States in which his Ho-Chunk name was given as Wa-kun-cha-koo-kah and Waun-kaun-tshaw-zee-kau.

In 1837, Yellow Thunder was part of a Ho-Chunk delegation headed by principal chief Carrymaunee and including noted leader Waukon Decorah, that went to Washington, D.C. to seek redress for American encroachment on their land in Wisconsin. Even though many of the delegates had been U.S. allies during the 1832 Black Hawk War, they were pressured to sign a removal treaty ceding all Ho-Chunk land west of the Mississippi River to the United States.[1] The delegates thought that the treaty gave the Ho-Chunks eight years to leave Wisconsin, which would leave them time to negotiate a new treaty, but the wording on the document gave the tribe eight months to vacate Wisconsin and resettle on reservations in Iowa and Minnesota.[2]

In 1840, U.S. Army General Henry Atkinson was assigned to round up the Ho-Chunks who refused to leave.[2] Two chiefs, Yellow Thunder and Little Soldier, were arrested.[1] Realizing that further resistance would lead to violence against their people, the chiefs agreed to cooperate and were released. Yellow Thunder eventually moved off the Iowa reservation and returned to a 40-acre (160,000 m2) farm near Portage, Wisconsin,[3][4] where he died in late February, 1874.[5][6]


YOUNG LIFE:


Chief Yellow Thunder (1774-1874)] as a young man roamed through the beautiful country lying between Lake Winnebago and Green Bay; tall and lithe, wise and observant; skilled with spear and bow. He fought with valor in the war of 1812, on the side of the British but returning home after the British campaign had failed he and his people remained peaceful for many years. He was wedded to an Algonquin girl whose father was the chief of a village near Portage. Because of his courage and wisdom, he was promoted to War Chief by his people who looked to him for direction and council. The whites were covetous of the lands occupied by the Winnebagoes and in 1837 he was invited to Washington to visit the president. Two young chieftains, the Elder Dandy and War Eagle accompanied him. When the subject of a treaty came up Yellow Thunder and his men declared that they had no authority to sign treaties. Their arguments were of no avail; meant very little to the politicians who are determined to wrest the lands away from the Indians. They finally signed, giving away hundreds of thousands of acres for some land in Iowa. They were told that they had eight years in which to move but the treaty stipulated eight months. The Indians could not read and the portly pale face politicians must have had many a good chuckle over their fat cigars and heartwarming bourbon.

In 1840, troops arrived in Portage. The head men of the villages were invited to Portage by the military leaders who promised them many provisions. Arriving in Portage they were thrown into the guardhouse and fastened to ball and chain. They were released on their word that they would bring their bands to Portage within three days. Then followed a scene that for pathos matched the exiling of the Arcadians as portrayed by Longfellow in his "Evangeline." Put into boats, sent down the river, away from everything that had been dear to them; away to strange lands with strange people, far, far away, ever to return.

Yellow Thunder did return, walked back from Iowa and arrived in his home territory long before the troops. The journey back, undertaken with his wife and a few of his band, was a matter of 500 miles. Sympathetic neighbors (he was a devout [10] Catholic) advised him to apply for a 40-acre homestead and his claim was honored at Mineral Point. He settled o the west bank of the Wisconsin about 5 miles below the Dells. Eulogized by the members of the Sauk County Historical Society, where the guide learned much from their archives, we hear one of them saying —

There he lived for over 30 years with his faithful family, his death occurring in February 1874. Yellow Thunder lived to see his land pass from barbarian to civilization; his own race disappear and another take its place: "the dug-out gave way to floating palaces, Indian trails become railways burdened with commerce," and proud cities where once he saw his own villages.1

Notes
  1. John W. Hall, Uncommon Defense: Indian Allies in the Black Hawk War (Harvard University Press, 2009, ISBN 0-674-03518-6), 259–60.
  2. Robert E. Bieder, Native American communities in Wisconsin, 1600–1960: a study of tradition and change (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), 132.
  3. "Brevities: Yellow Thunder". The Kingston Daily Freeman. March 18, 1874. p. 1. Retrieved May 5, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Personal: Yellow Thunder". The Pittsburgh Daily Commercial. March 7, 1874. p. 2. Retrieved May 5, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Yellow Thunder". Chicago Daily Tribune. March 6, 1874. p. 7. Retrieved May 5, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Virgil J. Vogel, Indian names on Wisconsin's map (University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), 67–70.
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