Introduction

Introduction

by Richard L. Dieterle

"But if we don't nurture this knowledge and teach others like this it's going to go down the 'hollow of echoes,' the hodjarara. In the end it's going to disappear and no one will hear it." [1]

The Winnebago, or Hotcâgara (ho CHUHN g(a)rah) as they call themselves, are a North American Indian nation of Chiwere Siouan speech. In their heyday they were powerful and warlike. As Evans observed in 1818, "The Puans [Hotcâgara] too, were not less formidable and fierce than the Iroquois." [2] Their native land, the Wazidja or "Great Pinery," was originally anchored on Red Banks near modern Green Bay on the shores of Lake Michigan, but at the height of their power embraced a large area of Wisconsin and a portion of northern Illinois, as shown in blue against the green map of Wisconsin at left. Although they were forced to cede their lands in 1837, many families returned and have lived on their ancestral land for over a hundred years. Other members of the tribe also live on the Winnebago reservation in Nebraska. The Hotcâgara were surrounded by Algonquian tribes such as the Menominee, Anishinaabe (= Ojibway, Chippewa, or Saulteurs), Potawatomi, Ottawa, Illini, Sauk and Fox; but on occasions made war on more distant tribes such as the Osage and Dakota. This geopolitical configuration resulted in the infiltration of significant Algonquian elements into Hotcâk religion.

The Hotcâk language belongs to the Siouan family, which includes Crow, Hidatsa, Mandan, Assiniboine (Stoney), Sioux, Quapah, Kansa, Osage, Omaha, Ponca, Ofo, Biloxi, Catawba, Tutelo, Assegun (?), and Chiwere. Hotcâk is most closely allied to the Chiwere dialect group, which contains Oto, Ioway, and Missouria. [3] The Chiwere languages separated from one another about the time of Columbus [4], and the tribes sharing these tongues (as well as the more distant Omaha and Ponca) view the Hotcâgara as the original stock, referring to them as "elder brothers." [5] The Siouan homeland was believed to lie in the east, in North Caroline or Kentucky. It is thought that the bulk of the Siouan tribes were pushed west by aggressive Eastern Algonquian enemies. [6] Some suggestion of this eastern origin is preserved in the "Hotcâk Arrival Myth," although this evidence is open to a wide latitude of interpretation.

The Names by which the Hotcâgara were Known. The established English name for the Hotcâgara is "Winnebago," a term derived from the Algonquian tribes who surrounded them. This name comes in countless variants and in every conceivable form of spelling. It apparently became standardized in its present form after 1832 with the publication of Drake's very popular biographical book on Indians. [7] He seems to have modernized the Winnebagoe of Charlevoix's magnum opus which he cites frequently. [8] In 1632 Samuel de Champlain drew the earliest map of the Wisconsin region based upon information supplied by western Indians visiting Quebec. Setting down in French what these Indians had told him, he indicated the Nation des Puans to be by a lake (thought to be Lake Winnebago [map]). The French Puan(t)s means "Stinkards," and represents a translation of what the Algonquian tribes called the Hotcâgara. [9] The name is said to be in origin the Anishinaabe Winnibígog, Winebégok, "Polluted Waters People." This derives from winipig, "polluted water" < win, wini, wi'nat, "dirty, impure" [10], and nipi, "water." When the plural suffix -ak is added, the latter becomes by contraction, nipig, "waters." To this is added a terminal -o, indicating a person (plural, -o-ag), thus Winnipigo(a)g and its variants. [11] The closest version to that extant in English, and the presumed true original, is from the neighbors and allies of the Hotcâgara, the Menominee, who call them Winnibégo. [12] However, since Anishinaabe was a lingua franca of the day, the name probably spread through the medium of that language -- compare the Sauk and Fox name Winipyägohagi [13], and the Ottawa Winnebagoag. [14] The Potawatomi call the Hotcâgara, WInbye'go, to which compare winsawak, "filthy," winkiwIn, or wInkayawIn, "muddy." [15] To this compare the Algonkin Winipegou of the same meaning. [16] The Anishinaabe winipig, "polluted water," is the name of the Canadian lake Winnipeg which also lies within their immense territory. This root meaning led to a number of names for the Hotcâgara that are similar to "Winnipeg": Winnepeg [17], Ouinepeag [18], Ouinipigou [19], Winipegouek [20], Winnipegouek [21], Ouinipegong [22]. Names of this ilk probably led to the odd theory that the "original" home of the Hotcâgara is north of Lake Superior near Winnipeg. [23] The Huron (also known later as the Wyandot) have an almost unpronounceable name for the Hotcâgara: Aweataiwaenrrhonon, given in 1636 as A8eatai8aenrrhonon. [24] This name was corrupted into a number of French variants: Aoueataiouaen-hronons [25], Aoueataiouaenronnons [26], Aoeataioaenronnon. [27] [see below; and Gatschet] Ca. 1876, Nicholas Cotter, Foster's Wyandot interpreter, said the name should be Aweátsiwáirônô, which he translated as "Marsh Water People." The stem denotes bad, foul, or strong water, as in aweátsiwái, "rum." [28] Gatschet breaks it down in the following way: Huron áwän' water; a it (pronoun), tsíwayän sour and bitter, rúnân people, men. [28.1] This means that the Wyandot-Huron name for the Hotcâgara is essentially the same in meaning as that of the Algonquian speakers. On the other hand, it is said that the Algonquian nations also call the ocean "the polluted waters," since salt water is undrinkable. This appears to be what Governor Champlain or the French authorities understood by the name [29], since they sent Jean Nicollet to contact Les Gens (des Eaux) de Mer, "the Tribe (of the Waters) of the Sea." [30] In 1634 they succeeded (depicted in the painting below), and we now know that the people Nicollet found were the Hotcâgara. However, the Hotcâgara did not live by the sea at all,

but by the fresh waters of Lake Michigan. Dr. Foster, however, has a theory that would easily explain the name. He contends that the nation was named after Lake Winnebago, not the converse. He points out that besides the large Canadian Lake Winipeg, there are quite a number of other lakes of the same name. The marshy area about the upper Mississippi near the Falls of Pokeguma, the Anishinaabe call winipígoshish, "Little Dirty Waters." A lake of the same name is found to the northwest of Lake Winipeg in Canada. Foster also thinks that Green Bay, the original home of the Hotcâgara, once carried the same name. [31] To make this case, he cites the Jesuit Relations of 1659-60:

He set out in the month of June, 1658, from the Lake of the Ouinipigouek, which, properly speaking, is only a large Bay from that of the Hurons [meaning Lake Michigan], others call it the Lake of the stinkards -- not because it is salt, like the water of the sea, which the savages call Ouinipeg, that is stinking waters -- but because it is surrounded by grounds that are impregnated with sulphur, form whence issue many streams, which carry into this lake the malignity which these waters have contracted at their sources. [32]

This is probably another in an endless series of guesses. Unfortunately, Foster's theory is actually refuted by such testimony. The Baye des Puants, or Winnipigoag, means, "Bay of the Winnebagoes," -o indicating a people, and -ag the plural. So too, therefore, with Lake Winnebago -- here we find the suffix -o attached, which yields the meaning, "Lake [of the] Hotcâk." Both names make reference to a people, otherwise the lake and the bay would simply have been called Winipeg. Foster himself, quoted below, says that it is the usual habit of the tribes to translate foreign names into their own tongues. Yet the Hotcâk name for Lake Winnebago, De Xetera, does not mean "Dirty Waters," but "Great Lake." In Hotcâk the Baye des Puants, or Winnipigoag, was called De Rok, "Within Lake." [33] Although the area where the Fox River debauches into the bay was once marshy [34], the waters of Green Bay as a whole are neither brackish nor muddy. Thus Foster's theory does not seem to hold water. However, there may be a way to save this theory. The Hotcâgara call Lake Michigan, De Cicik, "Bad Lake," not because it is polluted, but because its stormy weather can be fatal to people traveling in canoes. The Hotcâgara are said to have once lost 500 warriors while crossing the lake in a storm, and 600 on another occasion. [35] However, to make this theory work, we would have to suppose that the Algonquians somewhat mistranslated "Bad Waters People" as "Polluted Waters People." Furthermore, we have no record of the Hotcâgara calling themselves "Lake Michigan People," nor could they, since many other people lived on that lake and occupied much more of its shoreline.

Juliette Kinsie suggested another reason:

The Winnebago from the custom of wearing the fur of a polecat on their legs when equipped for war are termed "Les Puans," or to use their own euphonious appellation "Ho Tschung Rahs." [36]

The wearing of skunk fur leg bands is a particular war honor signifying that the man has kicked a slain enemy on the battlefield. Only if he does it twice may he wear such bands on both legs. [37] Even though the skunk has no powerful odor in its fur, such negative associations could at least be a contributing factor in the choice of names. Another idea is that Hotcâk villages were noted for extensive stocks of dried fish, which would have made them malodorous. [38] It is not clear, however, that they were any more or less well supplied with fish than anyone else living on Lake Michigan.

Lawson concludes that it seems more likely that "Winnebago" is just a name of insult given to them by their numerous enemies [39], rather like calling them "those stinking bastards." As a matter of fact, the lowest caste of Nachez society is called, according to its French translation, Puan, "Stinkard," almost certainly a term of denigration. [40] This practice is not at all uncommon especially among the Anishinaabe, who call the Sioux, Nadowessi(w), "Little Snakes," in contrast to the Iroquois, whom they call Nadowe(k), "Adders." In Algonquian languages the Iroquois were called Iri(n)kowi, "Real Serpents," by which they meant "bitter enemies." [41] The former are known in English as "Sioux," a French back formation of the Anishinaabe name, showing that once an insulting name gets established, it is often uncritically accepted by other peoples who may not even understand what it means. Furthermore, the Anishinaabe also called the Sioux, Opwanak, "Those Whom we Roast." [42] This same habit of derision may have inspired the Anishinaabe name for the Hotcâgara as well. Neill in his 1858 Minnesota history, tells us that the Anishinaabe called them "Filthy Water People" [see above] as a humorous reference to their alleged practice of bathing in dirty water. [43] This may explain this otherwise peculiar idea advanced by Long in his travelogue: "The fourth day we encamped at Lac les Puans, so called, I apprehend, from the Indians who reside on the banks being naturally filthy." [44] Others, having heard this theory, examined the Hotcâgara and found them to be perfectly clean. [45] Such theories are inspired by the French mistranslation of the name Winnibégo (etc.), as Puant, "Stinkard." As we have seen, it means not "Filthy People" (Win-go), but "Filthy Water People" (Win-nibe-go). The Anishinaabe idea, rather than the name or word, passed to the Wyandot, who inverted it, calling the Hotcâgara, Hati'hahí rúnu, "Afraid of Sticking in the Mud." [46] (For other Huron versions, see above.) Did the Hotcâgara really bathe in muddy water? If done for the sake of hygiene, such a practice makes no sense at all; but even a slander needs to be grounded in something. In this connection, it is important to remember that in war the Hotcâgara painted themselves vermilion, the color of muddy water:

Before going into battle, the Winnebagoes paint their bodies with vermilion, and with white; daubing them with clay, to appear as frightful as possible, when facing the enemy ... [47]

In the old days war paints were made of clay ("mud") and applied wet. The Hotcâk warrior, vermilion from head to toe in clay paint, not only looked as if he had bathed in muddy water, but in a very real sense, had done just that.

The name that the Winnebago call themselves, Hotcâgara, apparently was first recorded by the French historian Charlevoix as Otchagra when he traversed their country in the year 1721. [48] What this name means has also been the subject of considerable debate. Everyone seems to agree that the name Hotcâk (> Ho-tcâk-ga-ra > Hotcâgara) is to be analyzed into two basic component words, ho and tcâk. Otherwise, the literature on its meaning is full of disagreement. The view that once held the strongest position, though a minority one at present, was the contention held by J. O. Dorsey and others that the name Hotcâgara meant "People of the Parent Speech." [49] Radin rejects this interpretation as a forced attempt to read into the name the widely recognize status of the Hotcâgara as a parent nation for many of the Chiwere and Çegiha nations. While ho can mean "speech," tcâk (or tcûk) cannot mean "original," but rather only "big, real," inasmuch as it is cognate to Sioux tâka, of similar meaning (see below). [50] However, this response proves to be simplistic owing partly to the fact that Radin does not seem to have been acquainted with the source of this theory, which was first promulgated in 1850 or 1851 by Pasarétcka, "Long Nose," better known as The Prophet. He, and others as well, said the name Hotcâgara came from ho, "voice, speech," tcânína, "first, original," and ka-ra, "the people [of]." Thus, Foster concluded, the name meant, "People of the Original or Primitive Language." [51] However, the linguistics of this theory does not hold up, showing that it is a species of the universal practice of mythological etymology, meant in this case to establish that the Hotcâgara were the first people created by Earthmaker (see also above). [52] For the literal meaning (or meanings) of the name, we have to look elsewhere. Since ho also means "voice," the name Hotcâk could also mean, "Big Voice." However, the contention that seems most widely accepted is that ho- means "fish," and that therefore Hotcâgara means "the Big Fish People." [53] In the XXth century, Albert Yellow Thunder (Thunderbird Clan) maintained the same thing. [54] One of the earliest sources for this contention is Wak'âhaga ("Snake Skin") [portrait], who said that Hotcâgara meant "Large Fish," by which he understood a whale ("the one that spouts water"). [55] In Osage, Hotôga, their name for the Hotcâgara, also means "large fish, whale" [56], although the same Hotonga appears in Prince Maximilian's account, where it is understood to mean "Fish Eaters." [57] Gallatin says that they called themselves Hochungohrah, which he translated as "Trout Nation," and that they were also called Horoje, "Fish Eaters." [58] This name would seem to be a corruption of Ho-rutcge, which is found in other sources as Ho-ro-ge [59], and Horoji. [60] The name Horutcge would suggest that they are called "Big Fish" because they are especially noted for fishing. But why are they any more known for this than other people on the lakes? Wak'âhaga's suggestion to the contrary is that they are named after a fish, specifically the whale, or according to Gallatin's odd translation, the trout.

To get a clearer view of the matter some examination of the second member of the compound is necessary. Radin says,

. . . tcungk can only mean one thing and that is "big, real." It is found with a number of animal names, such as ketcungk, "turtle," and cunktcugnk, "wolf." It corresponds strictly to the Dakota tank, "large." Ho means "fish" in Winnebago. [61]

The problem with tcûk being the stem in question is that it does not satisfy either the standard spelling of Hotcâk nor its pronunciation. The proper stem would seem to be tcâk. The nasalized vowel [â] in this word approximates the sound of the English "uh," so that tcûk may at least sometimes reflect a mere spelling convention. In contemporary usage, for instance, "turtle," is given as ketcank, and "snapping turtle," as ketcankxete (-xede, "large, old" [62]). [63] Compare the Osage kétôga, "snapping turtle." [64] Marino's dictionary does not mention tcûk, and while it has ketcûge, "turtle, tortoise," it does not even mention the name for the wolf. [65] However, Radin usually spelled the word for wolf, cûktcûk, with a [û] reflecting a longer value to the vowel, although both Dorsey and Lurie have spelled the second syllable with an [â]. The word in the Çegiha Siouan languages was originally *tôga or *tôka. The [ô] lost its phonemic value in Hotcâk and was usually resolved as either [â] or [û], which may explain the alternances that we see in ketcâk/cûktcûk, etc. Tcâk, however, is also said to mean "praiseworthy" as in hînatcâgirekdje, "to speak well of," and woratcâgira, "to be praiseworthy." [66] The word very clearly has this meaning in an important waikâ, the Hotcâk Clans Origin Myth. In this story, the clan ancestors, once they have come together for the first time, must now decide what language they should speak:

The Earth and Sky People queried of themselves, "Which language will we speak together?" The eldest of the twelve, Thunder, replied, "We will speak Ho-Chunk [= Ho-tcâk]." Chunk [= tcâk] is a word meaning praise. The elder had encouraged the beings to speak their language in praise of the Creator [Earthmaker]. Ho-Chunk would become the voice of praise. [67]

The expression ho tcâk can vary in meaning from "praiseworthy speech" to "great voice," although even in English, these two expressions have a common meaning. The word tcâk is also found in wákâtcâk, an expansion of wak'â "spiritual power." Wákâtcâk means properly, "having great spiritual power, holy, sacred," not necessarily praiseworthy power, as certain evil things and beings are wákâtcâk purely on account of the magnitude of their supernatural power. From this it appears that we have a convergence of two words in the form of a homonym tcâk, or an earlier word *tôk meaning "great" that has evolved into tcâk, with two independent secondary meanings, "big" and "praiseworthy." Perhaps more likely is that the word that evolved into tcâk, meaning "praiseworthy," became semantically confounded with the evolving word *tôk, whose [ô] was being transformed. The usual direction of this transformation is either [â] or [û], so that the semantic confusion actually led to a bifurcation, producing two forms, tcâk and tcûk, both of which were taken to mean the same thing in most contexts.

As to the first part of the compound, the word ho can also mean, "voice, language, to howl." A wolf's howl is denoted by cûgere hoire. Other words from this stem are: wahohi xedenâ, "deep of voice," hihohanâ, "I ask permission"; hihoragi, "you address"; hodjarara, "echo" [68]; wiho, "witness"; and wihohijâ, "to be a witness." [69] In the Upper Moiety, we have at least two proper names from this stem: Hopîga, "Good Voice," and Hotcâteîwîga, "Audible Voice." [70] This sense of the word also has cognates in other Siouan languages: Sioux ho, "the voice either of a man or of any animal or thing; sound in general" [71]; Osage ho-, hu-, "voice, sound, etc." [72]; Ponca ho, "voice" [73]; Omaha, hu, "voice" [74]; Ofo, hóhe, "to bellow (like a bull), to howl (like a wolf)." [75] So there can be little question that the name Hotcâk can mean, "Big, Great Voice."

A further clue is found in how other peoples understand the meaning of Hotcâk. "... in these investigations I have noticed, that aboriginal nations, unless there is some special reason to the contrary, -- for instance a special enmity -- ... all endeavor to translate into their own vernacular the names of neighboring tribes, rather than adopt them bodily ..." [76] The Sioux call the Hotcâgara, Ho-tâ´-ke, "Great Voices." [77] This is not a corruption of Ho-tcâgara, but a translation: from the Sioux ho, "voice"; and tâ´-ka, "large, great in any way." [78] The ordinary expression for "a great or loud voice," is ho´tâka (Buechel) or ho´tâke (Riggs). [79] The word ho, meaning fish(-net) is said to be a contraction of hoghâ´ [80], which all agree is the ordinary word for "fish." [81] If the Lakota had thought that the Hotcâgara called themselves "Big Fish," then they would have translated the name as Hoghâtâke. In the kindred Çegiha Sioux languages, we find that the Ponca call them Hotôga [82], and the Omaha, Hu-tôga, both of which are understood to mean "Big Voices" [83]; and we may add, perhaps, the Osage Hutâka. [84] The Quapah call them Hútâka, but how they understood this is not recorded. [85] It would not be unusual for a tribe to carry a name like "Great Voice," since names of similar meaning are given to individual people, as in the Omaha and Osage name, Hothagthî, "Good Voice," [86] and Osage, Hó-ça-zhî-e, "Young, Strong Voice." [87] However, the matter is complicated by the Osage, who understand their name for the Hotcâgara, Hó-tô-ga, to mean "Big Fish People." Like the Hotcâgara, they have retained the word ho meaning "fish," but unlike them, they have not retained the homonym meaning "voice (etc.)" outside compounds. This word became hu in Osage [88], and is found in the compound, hú-ça-gi, "to exclaim, shout," where ça-gi means "firm, solid; strong, hard." [89] Yet there exists the intimately akin expression, hó-ça-gi, which means "to call loudly, to yell." [90] In addition, we find the word embedded in hótô, "the cry or call of animals or birds." [91] The same alternance observed in Hotcâk between the [o] and [u] also exists transparently enough in Osage. The alternance leads, unfortunately, to the same ambiguity in the name for the Hotcâgara: the word hu not only means "voice," but also "fish," as may be seen in these words where hu is not compounded: hu btháçka tôga, "buffalo fish," hu btháçka jîga, "perch," hu gthéje, "pickerel," hu íha jîga, "sucker fish," hu íthuxe, "fish net," hu páçi stsee, "gar fish," hu pádnidse, "tadpole," hu wéts'a, "eel." [92] Even the Osage name for the Hotcâk people shows the same alternance: Hótôga, Hútôga. [93] However, the Osage dictionary recognizes one asymmetry: the people are called variously Hótôga, Hútôga, but only the language is called Hútôga ïe. [94] This suggests that the Osage preferred to call the Hotcâk language "the Big Voice language," and the people ambiguously, "Big Fish, Whales" or "Big Voice." This preference for disambiguation in the former case naturally flows from the association of language and voice.

Officially, the contemporary tribe in Wisconsin calls itself "the Ho-Chunk Nation, People of the Big Voice." [95] Blair, apparently in a personal communication to Dorsey and Radin, reported that Thomas Forsyth said that they called themselves O-tan-gan, which he claimed meant, "Great Voice." [96] This should settle the matter were it not for the predominant contention in olden times that the name meant "Big Fish" or "Whale," or even "Trout." Indeed, there is some evidence that the fish in question may have been the sturgeon (see the Commentary to the story "White Flower"). The solution to the issue about the "real" meaning of the name is simple: it is ambiguous from its inception: it means "Whale," "Big Fish," "Big Voice," "Praiseworthy Voice," and can even yield the humorous, though unattested interpretation, "Praiseworthy Fish" (!). This inherent ambiguity is useful for mythological purposes, as well as, perhaps, creating an exoteric/esoteric divide in the full understanding of the significance of the name.

What does it mean to say that the Hotcâgara are the People of the Great Voice? Foster opines that it should mean,

perhaps loud-voiced in a certain sense; which name must be admitted to have considerable point to it by all who have ever heard the Winnebago -- their women especially -- who talk in so loud and shrill a key that listening to them at times becomes almost painful to the ear. [97]

The decibel volume of their speech is something an outsider would find notable, to an insider it would seem normal. What is the "inside" view of this matter? The "Tale of Tcap'ósgaga," tells us that,

In the early days of their existence the Winnebago were a successful people. They all fasted and were blessed by the spirits. It is for that reason that they were powerful and were called Hotcâgara. [98]

This explains why they are called "Big Voices": when they spoke to other nations, they were heard. They had, as even whites would say today, "a big voice" in anything that went on. In a parallel logic, the deaf (nôxnîk) are said in Hotcâk to have "little ears" [99], so that by implication those who hear well would have big ears. Therefore, by the same logic, those who are heard well, would have Big Voices.This is the same as saying metaphorically that among the fish of the sea, the Hotcâgara are whales.

This discussion leads us to an interesting speculation. Viewing the matter historically, we cannot reconstruct the name for the proto-Chiwere from comparative Chiwere, since the present names of the tribes do not derive from an ancient common name. However, the Chiwere tribes recognize the Hotcâgara as the parent tribe, and would therefore concede that whatever that tribe called itself in ca. 1500 was the name for the proto-Chiwere. The proto-Çegiha tribes (> Omaha, Osage, Ponca, Quapah, Kansa), apparently called themselves *Hôga, or *Hôgatôga, "(Big) Chief People." [100] In Hotcâk this would be Hûgetcâk or Hûktcâk, from hûge, "leader," or hûk, "chief." [101] If we posit an earlier *Hôgetôk or *Hôktôk, we can easily see how a pun (Hôktôk/Hotôk, or later Hoktcâk, Hûktcâk/Hotcâk) could have developed based upon the fact that the tribe had settled where fish (ho) were in great abundance. Furthermore, the whale might well be considered the chief of fishes, leading to a close assonance between the words for "whale," and "great chief." Furthermore, the [k] of the hypothetical *Hôktcâk could easily disappear under this process into the more pronounceable Hotcâk. The [ô] was lost as a phoneme in Hotcâk -- in some words the original [ô] transmuted to either [â] or a simple [o], as from an earlier *mô-, "earth," Hotcâk mâ-, to forms such as mogo, "banks," Mogacutc, "Red Banks," moro, "shore," mopase, "bluff," etc. [102]

The History of the Hotcâgara. See Lee Sultzman's "Winnebago History," in the general "First Nations History."

The Mythological Corpus. There is a vast body of mythology collected from the Hotcâgara principally by the ethnographer Paul Radin at the turn of the century. [103] He had to overcome the fact that almost all stories were literally owned by members of the tribe, and could be passed on in full form only by being purchased at great expense. The reason for this is probably the differences in opinion to which clan structure gives rise. Hotcâk mythology is complicated by a social factor: every clan and every religious society has its own point of view, and frequently these perspectives are unique and at variance with one another. This gives rise to several variants of most myths, especially those that touch upon the subject of the clans themselves or their spiritual patrons and allies. Some variants of a myth can be insulting or otherwise denigrating to another clan, and this may explain in part the practice of keeping full versions of a myth secret. The myth itself becomes the property of a particular individual, and the right to hear a full version of a story must be purchased often at great expense. Some myths are publicly told only in shortened versions, and in many cases, a short version of a myth may be sold at a reduced price. Therefore, by keeping myths esoteric, the socially damaging effects of inter-clan rivalry can be kept to a minimum. That we have preserved as many myths as we have owes to an accident of history: at the time Paul Radin collected his material, the Hotcâgara had come heavily under the influence of the Christian Peyote Cult, many of whose members, having become hostile to the old pagan traditions, felt no compunction about telling every myth that they had heard, including whole cycles. As a result, the Hotcâk mythology now in our possession gives us a window upon the "Hotcâk mind" and to some extent that vast corpus of systematic thinking encoded in Native American mythology generally.

Links: The Wazidja, Spirits, Supernatural & Spiritual Power, Lake Winnebago.

Notes:

[1] Kathleen Danker and Felix White, Sr., The Hollow of Echoes (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978) 59. Informant: Felix White, Sr.

[2] Estwick Evans, "A Pedestrous Tour, of Four-Thousand Miles, through Western Territories, during Winter and Spring of 1818, in Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed), Early Western Travels, 1748 - 1846 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1904) 8:271. This description is echoed by Gatschet: "At one time they were the fiercest warriors in the country." Albert Samuel Gatschet, Linguistic and Ethnological Material on the Winnebago, Manuscript 1989-a (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives, 1889, 1890-1891) 1 - 104.

[3] James W. Springer and Stanley R. Witkowski, "Siouan Historical Linguistics and Oneota Archaeology," in Oneota Studies, ed. Guy Gibbon (1982); Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 2-3.

[4] Springer and Witkowski, loc. cit.

[5] Henry Schoolcraft, Information respecting the Historical Conditions and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1852-1854) 3:236; Thomas Foster, Foster's Indian Record and Historical Data (Washington, D. C.: 1876-1877) vol. 1, #1, p. 2, col. 2.

[6] Publius V. Lawson, "The Winnebago Tribe," The Wisconsin Archeologist 6, #3 (1907): 77-162 (78-83).

[7] Samuel Gardner Drake, The Book of the Indians of North America (Boston: Antiquarian Bookstore, 1833) V.130-132; The Aboriginal Races of North America, 15th ed (1880) 16, 637, 638, 639, 706 ("Winnebagoes").

[8] Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix (1682-1761), History and General Description of New France, 6 vols. (New York, F. P. Harper, 1900) (1866 ed.) 6:225.

[9] Lawson, "The Winnebago Tribe," 83-84.

[10] James Owen Dorsey and Paul Radin, "Winnebago," Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30 (Totowa, N. J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1979) 2:958-961 (958, 961); from the manuscript of Chippewa (Anishinaabe) words submitted by Gatschet to the Bureau of American Ethnology. Foster's Indian Record, vol. 1, #1, p. 2, col. 1.

[11] Foster's Indian Record, vol. 1, #1, p. 2, col. 1.

[12] Walter James Hoffman, The Menominee Indians, in the Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1892-1893 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896) 14:205.

[13] Dorsey and Radin, "Winnebago," 2:958.

[14] John Tanner (1780?-1847), A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner during Thirty Years Residence among the Indians in the Interior of North America (New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1830) 316.

[15] English-Potawatomi dictionary: online at http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/pbp/books/dicto/dicto_en.html#e_w. Given as Winbiégûg in a manuscript of Potawatomi words submitted by Gatschet to the Bureau of American Ethnology.

[16] Jesuit Relations (1858 edition) vol. 3, index; Emma Helen Blair, The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes, 2 vols (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996 [1911]) 1:288 nt 199.

[17] Stephen Denison Peet, American Antiquities, 3 (1886): 304.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Le Jeune, Jesuit Relations for 1640, 35.

[20] Jesuit Relations (1858 edition) vol. 3, index.

[21] John Gilmary Shea (1824-1892.), Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, with the Original Narratives of Marquette, Allouez, Membre, Hennepin, and Anastase Douay; with a Facsimile of the Newly-Discovered Map of Marquette (New York, Redfield, 1853) xxiii.

[22] Jesuit Relations for 1648 (1858 edition) 62.

[23] Jesuit Relations for 1656 (edition?) 62; Pliny Warriner, "Legend of the Winnebagoes," Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for the Year 1854 (Madison: State Historical Society, 1855) 1:86-93 (88-89) [Appendix 6]. Originally published in the Buffalo [New York] Journal, September 15, 1829. The informant was an unnamed Hotcâk chief. This may also be an Oto tradition, as S. H. Long relates, "This great nation [the Chiwere], they [the Oto] say, originally resided somewhere to the northward of the great lakes ..." Edwin James, comp., Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains (an account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819 - 1820), in Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed), Early Western Travels, 1748 - 1846 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1904) 15:131. See in particular, The Hotcâgara Migrate South.

[24] Jesuit Relations for 1636 (edition of 1858), 92.

[25] Vimont, Jesuit Relations for 1640, 35.

[26] Jesuit Relations for 1646, 81.

[27] Jesuit Relations for 1649, 27.

[28] Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1, #1, p. 2, col. 2.

[28.1] Albert Samuel Gatschet, Linguistic and Ethnological Material on the Winnebago, Manuscript 1989-a (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives, 1889, 1890-1891) 1 - 104. Informants: Reuben David St. Cyr (b. 1864), and his father, John Michael St. Cyr.

[29] so La Potherie says explicitly -- Claude Charles Le Roy, Bacqueville de la Potherie, "History of the Savage Peoples who are Allies of New France," in Emma Helen Blair, The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes, 2 vols (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996 [1911]) 1:275-372 [1:288-290].

[30] Lawson, "The Winnebago Tribe," 84.

[31] Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1, #1, p. 2, col. 1.

[32] Jesuit Relations of 1659-60, p. 41.

[33] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 169; Charles E. Brown, Wisconsin Indian Place Legends (Madison: Works Progress Administration, 1936) 4-5.

[34] Publius V. Lawson, The Winnebago Tribe, Wisconsin Archeologist, 6 (1907), #3: 90, 93; Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 6-7.

[35] Thus Fr. Allouez (Jesuit Relations of 1669-70) says of this spot, "The water of this Bay and its rivers is similar to that which stagnates in ditches." The Jesuit Relations of 1670-71 explain the name Baye des Puants this way: "It bears this name, which is the same that the savages give to those who dwell near the sea, perhaps because the odor of the marshes which surround this bay is something similar to the sea."

[36] Kinsey, Juliette Augusta (Magill), 1806-1870. Wau-Bun: The "Early Day" in the North-West. (Chicago: R.R. Donnelley and Sons Co., 1932 [1867]) 63.

[37] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 114.

[38] "These Howchungerahs, or Winnebagoes, well deserve the name of 'Puans,' which the first French adventurers gave them. Establishing themselves where fish is plentiful, they never change the site of their wigwams, at the entrances to which they throw down the entrails and offal of their fish. They have thus become notorious amongst the other Indians for the filthy existence they lead." George W. Featherstonhaugh, A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor (London: Richard Bentley, 1847 [1970, reprint]) 2:102-103. See also, Capt. Don Saunders, When the Moon is a Silver Canoe. Legends of the Wisconsin Dells (Wisconsin Dells, Wisc.: Don Saunders, 1947) 42. Informant: Albert Yellow Thunder (1878-1951) of the Thunderbird Clan.

[39] Lawson, "The Winnebago Tribe," ...

[40] Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1, #1, p. 2, col. 4.

[41] "Huron," Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30 (Totowa, N. J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1979) 1:585; Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1971) 686, sv "Sioux."

[42] Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1 #1, p. 1, col. 4.

[43] Edward Duffield Neill, The History of Minnesota (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1858 [reprint, 1975]) page given as 190, but this could not be verified; Dorsey and Radin, "Winnebago," Handbook of North American Indians, 2:961.

[44] John Long, Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter and Trader (April 10, 1768 - Spring, 1782), in Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed), Early Western Travels, 1748 - 1846 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1904) 2:186. Augustin Grignon, "Seventy-two Years' Recollections of Wisconsin," Wisconsin Historical Collections 3 (1857): 195-295 [285-286], from a Menominee source. Followed by Col. Thomas Loraine McKenney and James Hall, The Indian Tribes of North America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs, ed.. Frederick Hodge and David Bushnell, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: John Grant, 1934 [1842]). . . See Origin of the Name "Winnebago" (Menominee).

[45] Wisconsin Historical Collections, 16:360.

[46] A manuscript of Wyandot words submitted by Gatschet to the Bureau of American Ethnology.

[47] Mary H. Eastman, Chicóra and Other Regions of the Conquerors and the Conquered (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, & Co., 1854) 21.

[48] Charlevoix, History and General Description of New France, as quoted by Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1 #1, p. 2, col. 2. See Albert Gallatin, A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes within the United States East of the Rocky Mountains, and in the British and Russian Possessions in North America, in Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society (Cambridge, Mass.: 1836) 2: 120.

[49] Reverend James Owen Dorsey, Winnebago Vocabulary (unpublished manuscript, submitted to the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1878) sv Hotcangara, "primitive language." Followed by McGee, Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1897), 15:162 ("people of the parent speech"). Some attempt at parallel sense development is given by Gatschet -- see Albert Samuel Gatschet, Linguistic and Ethnological Material on the Winnebago, Manuscript 1989-a (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives, 1889, 1890-1891) 1 - 104.

[50] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 5.

[51] Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1 #1, p. 2, col. 2. He gives the name as Hotcâg´era., misapprehending ga-ra for ge-ra.

[52] The belief that the Hotcâgara are the original people is well attested: The Morning Star, A Winnebago Legend," collected by Louis L. Meeker, Nov. 22, 1896 (National Anthropological Archives, 1405 Winnebago, A.D.S.); "The Morning Star," in David Lee Smith, Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997) 105; David Lee Smith (Thunderbird Clan), "How the Valleys and Hills Came to Be," in David Lee Smith, Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997) 100; Emily L. Smith (Bear Clan), "Ma-ona and the Creation of the World," in David Lee Smith, Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997) 13-14. See the stories in The Creation of Man (vv. 2, 3, 4). Foster thinks that something of a pun is preserved in the Dakota name, Hotânke, where tânke means "big," but tânké means "a man's elder sister." (Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1, #1, p. 2, col. 2).

[53] "Every one of them that I conversed with stated the name of the nation to be Howchungerah, form howrah, fish, and wungerah, man; they being a fish-eating tribe of the great Nacotah nation, further to the west, a dialect of whose tongue they speak, and having separated from whom, they settled in a lake country abounding in fish, which thus became their principal diet." Featherstonhaugh, A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, 1:168. "There are two possible interpretations of this name, one being 'Great Fish-people', and the other "'Great Voice-people'. The former is in all probability the correct meaning." Jasper Blowsnake and Paul Radin, "A Semi-Historical Account of the War of the Winnebago and the Foxes," Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1914) 193 nt 4. Told by Jasper Blowsnake in June, 1908.

[54] Saunders, When the Moon is a Silver Canoe, 42. See the portrait of his grandfather Yellow Thunder.

[55] Personal communication from B. W. Brisbois to Rueben G. Thwaites (1882), Wisconsin Historical Collections, 10 (1885): 500; Lawson, "The Winnebago Tribe," 83.

[56] Francis LaFlesche, A Dictionary of the Osage Language, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 109 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1932) 67, sv hótonga.

[57] Maximilian, Prince of Weid, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834, in Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed), Early Western Travels, 1748 - 1846 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1904) 24:313.

[58] Gallatin, A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes within the United States, 2:120; followed by Schoolcraft, Information respecting the Indian Tribes of the United States, 3:277. Gallatin says, "The Winnebagoes, so called by the Algonkins, but called Puans and also Otchagras by the French, and Horoje ('Fish easters') by the Omahaws and other southern tribes, call themselves Hochungohrah, or 'Trout' nation."

[59] Edwin James, comp., Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains (an account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819 - 1820), in Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed), Early Western Travels, 1748 - 1846 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1904 [1823]) 15:131.

[60] Schoolcraft, Information respecting the Indian Tribes of the United States, 3:277; followed by Jacob Piatt Dunn, True Indian Stories (Indianapolis: Sentinel, 1908) 317.

[61] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 5.

[62] Mary Carolyn Marino, A Dictionary of Winnebago: An Analysis and Reference Grammar of the Radin Lexical File (Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, December 14, 1968 [69-14,947]) 435, sv. xede.

[63] This is from a list of animal names (ssvv "Turtle," "Snapping Turtle") given to me by Süle Shigley of the Hocak Wazijaci Language & Culture Program.

[64] LaFlesche, A Dictionary of the Osage Language, 289, 85, sv. kétônga.

[65] Ibid., sv ke.

[66] Marino, A Dictionary of Winnebago, 184, sv tcâk.

[67] Felix White, Sr. (Wolf Clan), "Origin Story of the Winnebago Clans," in David Lee Smith, Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997) 15.

[68] Marino, A Dictionary of Winnebago, 259, sv ho.

[69] Ibid., 423, sv wiho.

[70] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 174.

[71] Quoted from Riggs, Dakota-English Dictionary, 151, sv ho; also followed by Buechel, Dictionary of Teton Dakota, 180, sv ho.

[72] LaFlesche, Dictionary of Osage, 67, ssvv hu, hú-ca-gi, hótô; 63, sv. hó-ca-gi; Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1, #1, p. 2, coll. 2-3.

[73] James H. Howard, The Ponca Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 1995 [1965]) 134.

[74] Alice C. Fletcher and Francis La Flesche, The Omaha Tribe, 2 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 1992 [1911]) 102.

[75] James Owen Dorsey and John R. Swinton, A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages, in Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 47 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1912) 323, sv hóhe.

[76] Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1 #1, p. 1, col. 4.

[77] Rev. Eugene Buechel, A Dictionary of the Teton Dakota Sioux Language (Pine Ridge: Red Cloud Indian School, 1955?) 185, sv Ho´tâke; John P. Williamson, An English-Dakota Dictionary (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1992 [1902]) 261, sv "Winnebago"; Stephen Return Riggs, A Dakota-English Dictionary (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1992 [1890]) 155, sv Ho-tâ´-ke; Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1 #1, p. 2, col. 2 (Hotânk´e); Paul WarCloud, Dakotah Sioux Indian Dictionary (Sisseton: Tekakwitha Fine Arts Center, 1971) 180, sv Ho-TÔ-keh; Alexander H. Ramsey in Rep. Ind. Aff. for 1849 (1850) 88; compare the Otonkah of Schoolcraft, Information respecting the Indian Tribes of the United States, 3:277.

[78] Riggs, loc. cit., sv. tâ´-ka.

[79] Buechel, loc. cit., 185, sv. ho´tâke; Riggs, loc. cit., 155, sv. ho´-tâ-ke; Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1 #1, p. 2, col. 2.

[80] Riggs, loc. cit., 151, sv. ho.

[81] Ibid.; Williamson, loc. cit., sv. "fish"; Buechel, loc. cit., 180, sv. hoghâ´.

[82] Rev. James Owen Dorsey, "The Social Organization of the Siouan Tribes," The Journal of American Folk-Lore, 4 (1896): 331-342.

[83] Howard, The Ponca Tribe, 134.

[84] Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1, #1, p. 2, col. 2-3.

[85] Fletcher and La Flesche, The Omaha Tribe, 102.

[86] Ibid., 66; LaFlesche, Dictionary of Osage, 29, sv. "good."

[87] Ibid., 63, sv. Hó-ca-zhî-e.

[88] LaFlesche, Dictionary of Osage, 67, sv. hu.

[89] Ibid., 67, sv. hú-ca-gi; 29, sv. ca-gi.

[90] Ibid., 63, sv. hó-ca-gi.

[91] Ibid., 67, sv. hótô.

[92] Ibid., 68, ssvv.

[93] Ibid., 67, sv Hótôga, 356, sv "Winnebago Tribe"; 68, sv Hútôga.

[94] Ibid., 68, sv Hútôga ïe; 356, sv "Winnebago Language."

[95] http://www.ho-chunk.com/

[96] Dorsey and Radin, "Winnebago," 2:961, sv. O.tan.gan. See Thomas Forsyth, "Memoirs of the Sauk and Foxes," in Emma Helen Blair, The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes, 2 vols (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996 [1911]) 2:139-245 [199 nt 73].

[97] Foster, Indian Record, vol. 1, #1, p. 2, col. 2.

[98] Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 11.

[99] Marino, A Dictionary of Winnebago, 349, sv nûk, "ear."

[100] Fletcher and La Flesche, The Omaha Tribe, 1: . . .

[101] Marino, A Dictionary of Winnebago, 265, sv hûk.

[102] Ibid., 66-68, and 317, sv. mâ.

[103] In addition to the primary work of footnote [1], see the following works by Paul Radin: Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of an American Indian (New York and London: Appleton and Co., 1926); The Evolution of an American Indian Prose Epic. Bollingen Foundation, Special Publications, 3 (1954): 1-99; 5 (1956): 103-148; "The Hare Cycle of the Winnebago Indians," in Studies in North American Mythology, Vol. 1, Part 1 (Santa Fe, New Mexico: New Mexican Printing Co., 1915); "Literary Aspects of Winnebago Mythology," Journal of American Folklore, 39 (1926): 18-52; Monotheism among Primitive Peoples (London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1924); Primitive Man as Philosopher (New York: D. Appleton Co., 1927); "The Thunderbird Warclub: A Winnebago Tale," Journal of American Folklore 44 (1931): 143-65; Winnebago Hero Cycles: A Study in Aboriginal Literature (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics, Memoir 1, 1948), Republished in the International Journal of American Linguistics Memoir 1 Supplement to International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 14, #3; "Winnebago Myth Cycles," Primitive Culture 1 (1926): 8-86; "The Winnebago Myth of the Twins," Papers of the Southwestern Anthropological Society 1 (1915): 1-56; "Winnebago Tales," Journal of American Folklore, 22 (1909): 288-313; "Winnebago Text," in Handbook of American Indian Languages, ed Franz Boas (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 40, 1911), 1: 959-65.