Hōcągara and Other Tribes Camp with the Prophet

by Mark J. Green (Wą́nihegá)
translated by Bill Hall (Hų̄ka)

William Hall, ca. 1895

Those who were in the group that left did not get to their destination realized [that] it was farther than expected. At the place where they were, it was getting towards fall and they made winter camp there. They may not have realized at first but in their camp were two other tribes. There were Menominee and another tribe called, "He-noo-kay", we do not know the English name for them, or if they still exist. All these brought their women and when it was discovered that all were moving for the same purpose, they greeted one another with felicitations and mixed feelings.

In the spring they again moved on and again it was fall. They camped again for winter.

This man, the Prophet-Orator, just where did he live? Again they resumed their trip. The Prophet-Orator was the one they were trying to reach. It's where they were going. Not long after they resumed the trip, they came onto some cabbages, then they knew they were very near their destination. Soon, the Prophet-Orator came and stood by them. Then there was the camp of the many tribes. All these were congregating there to hear the Prophet-Orator. As is to be expected, there were many Indians, among them were some Winnebagoes who had arrived there before. And the Prophet-Orator went around and would stop at times to shake hands with someone. They had come a long way and they did not arrive there for some time.¹

Commentary

"He-noo-kay" — this could be Henuke, Hinuke, Xenuke, Xinuke. None of these names are known to denote a tribe in Hōcąk. However, we are told elsewhere of a quasi-mythological tribe called the Hit’énųk’e. It is almost certainly the case that He-noo-kay is a corruption of Hit’énųke, the t’e having been omitted by syncope. Radin has this to say about them: "What tribe is meant by 'Hit’énųk’e' it has been impossible to find out. The word, I believe, means "those whom we can speak with" in reference to the fact that their language was intelligible to the Winnebago. I was definitely assured that neither the Oto, Iowa, or Missouri were meant. I have sometimes surmised that the Winnebago may be referring to the Mandan, whose language, from the little I have seen of it, is surprisingly close to that of the former. All that the older Winnebago could tell me about the Hit’énųk’e was the fact that many years ago they had been in contact with a tribe speaking a language similar to their own."² That these people are Mandan seems highly unlikely. Hit’énųke may come from hit’e, "language"; nųx, "ear; the act or power of hearing"; and -ke, a suffix indicating a kind, sort, or species. So the name might mean, "Those who have the Power to Hear Language." On the other hand, nųx also means ice, giving the odd meaning, "Ice Speakers." As it happens, Kenneth Miner's informants told him quite some time later that the people referred to by Hit’énųke were Giants, specifically, "large people who lived in the caves of Minnesota."³ It is said that the Giants known as Wągerucge, "Man-Eaters," have a ball of ice in their stomach. If the Hit'enųke are the same Giants, then "Ice Speakers" might be drawing attention to the ice in their thoraxes. However, it is much more likely that the Hi(t’é)nųke are merely a fictional tribe, or the name is used to denote any tribe whose actual identity has been forgotten ("generic tribe").

DeGolyer Library, SMU
Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet

"Prophet-Orator"— this is Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet (1775-1836). Throughout the stories told by Mark Green, he is referred to as the "Prophet-Orator." His initial name was Lalawethika ("He Makes a Loud Noise" or "The Noise Maker"), but later in life was called Tenskwatawa ("Open Door" or "One With Open Mouth"). Some accept as factual that he was born as one of triplets, another of whom died in infancy.⁴ His older brother was the famous warleader Tecumseh. Unlike Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa seemed introverted and unaccomplished as a hunter or warrior.⁵ He soon turned to alcoholism for which he became notorious.⁶ While presumably drunk, he managed to strike out his right eye with his own arrow.⁷ During this period, the Shawnee and other tribes of the Northwest Territory were experiencing both a physical invasion of their territory by white settlers, as well as a cultural invasion, which was accompanied by alcohol and disease. At this time much of Ohio was ceded by compliant chiefs for U. S. government annuities. This led to considerable disaffection by the native tribes, including Hōcągara. This led to heightened resentment among the tribes of the region.⁸ In 1805, Tenskwatawa had a number of intense visions in which he learned of two possible worlds that the tribes could enter: one in which they adopted white ways, a world in which complete disaster would overcome them, and another world in which the Indians embraced and revived their own culture, creating a life full of blessings. It was then that he found himself, and became a prophet. More visions ensued, and he declared that the white invaders were the children of the Bad Spirit.⁹ By 1805 he had become so influential that he and his cult followers founded their own settlement on the White River near Greenville.¹⁰ After being challenged by William Henry Harrison to perform a miracle to prove his prophetic powers, Tenskwatawa learned of an upcoming solar eclipse, and prophesied its occurrence. When it occurred as predicted, he gain complete credence. In 1808, he and his brother Tecumseh founded a large multi-tribal town known as "Prophetstown." It was the center of the Prophet's purification movement as well as Tecumseh's grand military alliance. However, Gov. Harrison attacked the town on 7 Nov. 1811, precipitating the Battle of Tippecanoe. This largely destroyed the Indian alliance, and the Prophet and his brother Tecumseh fled to Canada where they supported the British cause in the War of 1812. Long afterwards, the government asked Tenskwatawa to return to lead the Shawnee exodus to their reservation in Kansas.¹¹ He died there in relative obscurity in 1836.

"where did he live?" — that it took them several seasons to find where the Shawnee Prophet lived is humorously naive. See the comment below on the Hebrews.

Johannes Hartlieb, Kräuterbuch, 1462		Ibuki Tsubo		Sikander Iqbal		Wei, Inheritance and Genetic Mapping of Late-Bolting
A Pre-Columbian Cabbage		Lettuce		Bolted Lettuce		3 Stages of Bolting in Cabbage

"cabbages" — there are a couple of related terms that can denote either cabbage (Brassica oleracea) or lettuce (Lactuca sativa), and which mean "big leaf": ’āpxéte (al xAe te), and ną̄’ápxeté (na al xAe te). Neither cabbage nor lettuce are native to the Western Hemisphere, but were introduced by European colonists. The old referent for ną̄’ápxeté was the Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.). It's ironic that the Prophet's village (Greenville or Prophetstown) should be identified by a cabbage patch, since this vegetable was introduced by white invaders, and the Prophet strongly argued for a return to native lifestyles. Cabbage or lettuce succeeds in growing properly if and only if it is protected from excessive heat, it will "bolt." Bolting means that the plant abandons the growing of a head of large leaves, and sends a stem rapidly upwards and flowers, going to seed rather than committing to leaves. This is caused by the plant being exposed to high temperatures. The ancients grew cabbage or lettuce so that it benefited from shade during the hottest times of the day. This temperamental feature of cabbage and lettuce makes growing them rather difficult.

In most villages, one would expect to encounter the corn fields first, where beans, squash, and corn (the "three sisters") are grown together. The mention of the anomalous cabbage/lettuce plant is meant to be symbolic. The heat of the sun is inimical to its fruitfulness. The Sun is the ultimate source of its premature maturity. Symbolically, the plant is anti-solar. It is known esoterically, not only by Hōcągara, but by the neighboring tribes, that the Sun is in fact the Bad Spirit, Herešgúnina. This is seen in the widespread myth of Bladder:

In the great duel, the Monster struck off the head of Bladder, and it flew up and up into the Divine Presence, where it asked, 'Shall I kill him' (with reference to his opponent). Receiving no response, it fell upon the neck where it belonged, and was reunited. Bladder then, in his turn, struck off the head of the Monster, and exactly the same thing occurred as to the head of Bladder. These blows were repeated in turn, for the conflict grew out of an Indian ball game. Since Bladder suffered first, he was first to ask permission to kill his adversary for the fourth time, at which he received permission, and while the head of the Monster was in the air, he pushed aside the body. Not falling upon its wonted place, the head of the Monster rebounded and continues to rebound to this day in the form of the sun!¹²

That Herešgúnina's head is the solar disk is a piece of esoterica. So under the influence of Herešgúnina, the solar disk, the cabbage plant may exhibit prematurity. Is this not what happened under the Prophet? The Prophet prematurely attacked Harrison at Tippecanoe, and was defeated, and his town put to the torch. The evocation of the cabbage plant contains within it the implication that this was done under the influence of Herešgúnina: that under the influence of the solar disk, the Prophet "bolted". Indeed, the very growing of cabbage or lettuce runs contrary to the preaching of the Prophet, since neither is a native plant, but one of the many corrupting things introduced by the white man. Cabbage and lettuce are the perfect symbols of how the Prophet strayed from his own teachings.

"the camp of the many tribes" — this is probably Prophetstown, but Greenville can't be excluded.

"a long way" — it's about 250 miles from the southern shore of Lake Winnebago via Milwaukee, Chicago, and to the destination of Prophetstown.

Comparative Material. The wandering of these acolyte bands searching for the Prophet, not only recalls the Hebrew story and the nation wandering in the wilderness,¹³ but might well have been influenced by it.

	Francois Lemoyne, 1729
	Venus and Adonis

A potentially striking correspondence may be found among the ancient Greeks. The unfortunate tendency of cabbage and lettuce bolting under the heat of the sun was well appreciated by them. The theme of prematurity connected to cabbage/lettuce is found in the myth of Adonis (Ἄδωνις). Adonis was a "lady's man," beloved of Aphrodite herself. While yet a beardless youth, walking through a lettuce patch, he was attacked by Mars/Ares in the form of a boar, and killed there.¹⁴ In another variant, his body was laid to rest on a bed of lettuce.¹⁵ His premature ascension as a lover made him unsuited for the pursuits patronized by the War God, and resulted in his premature death.

The Greeks considered the lettuce plant to be an anaphrodisiac.^16* The interesting thing about lettuce is that if it is lovingly cultivated it will form the familiar head of folded leaves, and in this state will not produce flowers and seeds. Thus it remains in a state of unproductive immaturity. In human terms, the counterpart to such a plant is a human, beautiful to behold, but lacking in the power to produce seed, that is to say, offspring. As a lady's man, Adonis does not possess the power and virility of a mature warrior, whose spirit is expressed in the form of the homocidal bull or boar. It appears that Hōcągara had the same view of the ’apxete [alA xAe te] (cabbage/lettuce) as the Greeks in this context. While the Prophet was never an Adonis, a handsome seducer, he was on the other hand also well known to be neither skilled in hunting nor in war. The prophet was not like his brother Tecumseh, and instead of participating in the battle, he observed it from what today is still called "Prophet's Hill." The image of the ’apxete expresses at once both the Prophet's lack of the warrior's spirit as well as his premature action at Tippecanoe.

This very theme was acted out in history in both Greece and America. Part of the celebration of the demigod Adonis was the creation of the "gardens of Adonis," which consisted of plants that would bolt under the heat of the sun. As it happened in 415 B.C., on the very day of the  Adonia the Athenians voted to send an expedition to conquer far away Syracuse, located on the island of Sicily, as recorded by Plutarch:

After the people had adopted this motion and all things were made ready for the departure of the fleet, there were some unpropitious signs and portents, especially in connection with the festival, namely, the Adonia. This fell at that time, and little images like dead folk carried forth to burial were in many places exposed to view by the women, who mimicked burial rites, beat their breasts, and sang dirges.⁠¹⁷

On the day of this decision, the women were crying, "Woe, Adonis! Woe, Adonis!" The decision to attack Syracuse proved to be a disaster, as many had predicted.¹⁸ Just as the Athenians were premature in attacking Syracuse, so the Prophet "bolted" like a lettuce plant in a Garden of Adonis, and attacked the enemy forces prematurely. Was not the ’apxete patch a sign of things to come?

Links: ...

Stories: about seers: The Seer, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, Witches, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, A Prophecy About the End Time, A Prophecy, Great Walker and the Ojibwe Witches, The Shawnee Prophet Predicts a Solar Eclipse, The Road to Tippecanoe, A Prophecy About the First School, Winnebagos Go to See the Prophet, The Prophet Visits the Hōcągara, The Journey of the Prophet’s Acolyte, The Woman Who Is Going to Stop the War (v. 1), The Prophet Warns of the Consequences of Indian Fratricide, The Claw Shooter, Waruką́ną, The Tap the Head Medicine, The Old Man and His Medicine Bag, The Prophet is Accused of Untrue Predictions, The Diving Contest; about the Shawnee Prophet: The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, The Shawnee Prophet Predicts a Solar Eclipse, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Road to Tippecanoe, Winnebagos Go to See the Prophet, The Prophet Visits the Hōcągara, A Prophecy About the End Time, The Journey of the Prophet’s Acolyte, The Woman Who Is Going to Stop the War (v. 1), The War of Indian Tribes against White Soldiers; The Prophet Warns of the Consequences of Indian Fratricide, The Prophet is Accused of Untrue Predictions, The Old Man and His Medicine Bag; mentioning the Hi(t’e)nųke tribe: A Wife for Knowledge, Paint Medicine Origin Myth.

Themes: ...

Notes

¹ "The Winnebago and two other tribes cross a river and pitch their winter wigwams; in spring they proceed to a tribal meeting." Archives of Traditional Music (ATM), Indiana University, translation by William Hall, Original Typescript (Black River Falls: ca. 1960-1970) D11-12, recording by Milford G. Chandler of Mark J. Green - vocals, bef. 1922, Black River Falls, Jackson County, Wisconsin. ATL no. 526.13 8742.14, tr. 2, Recording 49.SCY 181401:56, Collection number (collection identifier): 54-196-F, p. 52 of 87; OT no. 7695; APS accession number 7224.

² Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 425 nt. 70.

³ Kenneth L. Miner, Winnebago Field Lexicon (Kansas City: University of Kansas, June 1984) s. v.

⁴ R. David Edmunds, The Shawnee Prophet (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985) 29.

⁵ James H. Madison and Lee Ann Sandweiss, Hoosiers and the American Story (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2014) 13.

⁶ Andrew R. L. Cayton, Frontier Indiana (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996) 206.

⁷ Madison and Sandweiss, Hoosiers and the American Story, 13.

⁸ Gregory Evans Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745–1815 (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press,1991) 116–140.

⁹ Edmunds, The Shawnee Prophet, 38. Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) 507.

¹⁰ Linda C. Gugin and James E. St. Clair, edd., Indiana's 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2015) 346. Edmunds, The Shawnee Prophet, 34.

¹¹ "Shawnee Indians - Wapakoneta Ohio - Vincennes Indiana." Boston Reporter and Telegraph, 15 December 1826, p. 3.

¹² Louis L. Meeker, “Siouan Mythological Tales,” Journal of American Folklore, 14 (1901): 161-164.

¹³ Numbers 14:32-34, 32:13; Deuteronomy 8:2-4, Joshua 5:6, Exodus 16:35, Hebrews 3:7-19.

¹⁴ Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem, 831; Nicander of Colophon (Dialect Lexicon / Glossary, Book 2) says thst it was a bull rather than a boar. For the role of lettuce in th mythology of Adonis, see Marcel Detienne, The Gardens of Adonis: Spices in Greek Mythology, trs. Janet Lloyd (Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University PressPress, 1994 [1977]) 59-71, 107-110, 123-131.

¹⁵ Athenæus, Deipnosophistæ, 2.69d, citing Callimachus, Fragment 478 (ed. Pfeiffer); Eubulus, "The Defectives / Impotents," Fragment 13.

^16* on lettuce as an anaphrodisiac among the Greeks, see Philip Boyes, "The Lettuce of my Heart," February 14, 2013. Boyes shows that for many Middle Eastern cultures, the "bolted" or wild lettuce was considered an aphrodisiac. Athenæus, Deipnosophistæ, 2.69e: "Lycon the Pythagorean says that the naturally flat-leaved letuce, smooth and stalkless, is called 'eunuch' (εὐνοῦχον) by Pythagoreans, but 'impotent' (ἀστúτιδα) by women; for it causes urination and relaxes desire; but it is the best to eat."

¹⁷ Plutarch, The Life of Alcibaides, 18.2-3. Cf. Nicias, 13.2.7.

¹⁸ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Books 6-7.