One of the best-known Indians with whom Wisconsin Territorial pioneers
were thrown into personal contact was Oshkosh, the last of the Menominee
sachems, or peace chiefs. It is worth while briefly to relate the story
of his career, because it was the life of a typical Indian leader, at
the critical time when the whites were coming into the country in such
numbers as to crowd the reds to the wall.
Oshkosh was born in 1795, at Point Bas, on the Wisconsin River.
Cha-kau-cho-ka-ma (meaning Old King), the peace chief of the Menominees
at that time, was his maternal grandfather. The war chief was Glode, the
orator of the tribe, and a mighty hunter. The Old King lived until 1826,
but Glode died in 1804, his successor being Tomah (the French
pronunciation of Thomas, his English name).
In the War of 1812-15, a large band of Wisconsin Indians joined the
ranks of Tecumseh, in raiding upon the American borderers. The principal
Menominee chiefs were Tomah, Souligny, Grizzly Bear, and Iometah, and
among the young men was Oshkosh.
Their first expedition was against Fort Mackinac, in 1812, that
stronghold being captured from the Americans without bloodshed. Among
white men, such an enterprise would not seem to offer much opportunity
for the display of personal bravery; but savage and civilized standards
of courage differ, and young Oshkosh appears to have satisfied the old
men upon this occasion, so that he then received the name by which we
know him, meaning in the Menominee tongue, "brave."
By the following May, Oshkosh, now in his nineteenth year, and prominent
among the young warriors, went out with Souligny and Tomah, and joined
Tecumseh in the siege of Fort Meigs at the rapids of the Maumee River.
Later, during the same summer, he was engaged in the memorable
British-Indian siege of Sandusky. The succeeding year he was one of a
large party of Menominees assisting the British to repel a fierce but
futile American attempt to recapture Fort Mackinac. This was his last
campaign, for peace between Great Britain and the United States soon
followed.
Oshkosh, now living upon the lands of the tribe in northeastern
Wisconsin, appears to have passed a quiet existence, after his exploits
of 1812-15. Lacking the stimulus of war, he maintained a state of
artificial excitement by the use of fire water, and soon won a bad
reputation in this regard. But he was not wholly debased. Few in council
had more power than he. Although he was slow to speak, his opinion when
given had much weight, because of a firm, resolute tone, beside which
the impassioned flights of Tomah and Souligny often failed in effect.
When the Old King died without any sons, a contest arose over the
successorship to the chieftaincy. In many tribes there would have been
no question about the election of Oshkosh, for he was the son of Old
King's daughter; but the Menominees did not recognize any heirship
except through sons. So many claimants arose, each determined to fight
for the position, that the United States government feared an outbreak
of civil war within the tribe, with possible injuries to the neighboring
white settlers.
Hence a court of claims was organized, to choose a chief among the
contestants. This court, headed by Governor Lewis Cass, of Michigan
Territory, met at Little Butte des Morts (near Neenah) in August, 1827,
and selected Oshkosh. Cass, in the presence of the tribesmen, hung a
medal about the neck of the victor, shook hands with him, and ordered a
feast in honor of the event.
The first five years of the reign of this dusky chieftain were peaceful
enough, so far as relations with other tribes were concerned. But within
the Menominee villages there were frequent drunken frolics, which
sometimes ended in bloodshed or in endless disputes between families;
and in these disturbances, which often greatly alarmed the white
settlers, Oshkosh had his full share.
When in June, 1832, the great Sac leader, Black Hawk, was harassing the
settlements in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, while being
slowly driven northward by the white troops, fears were entertained in
the valley of the lower Fox that he would turn toward Green Bay. With
the hope of preventing this, a force of three hundred Menominee Indians
was recruited there, and sent to the seat of war, officered by American
and French residents. Oshkosh headed his people, but arrived too late to
do any fighting; Black Hawk had already been vanquished by white
soldiers, at the battle of the Bad Ax. Oshkosh and his braves found no
more savage foe than a small party of Sacs, old men and women and
children, flying from the battlefield, and these they promptly
massacred, proudly carrying the scalps back with them to Green Bay.
Four years later, the Menominees sold all of their lands in Wisconsin to
the federal government, and were placed upon the reservation at Keshena,
where they still live.
In 1840, the little four-year-old white settlement at the junction of
the upper Fox with Lake Winnebago thought itself large enough to have a
post office, hence the necessity for adopting a permanent name. The
place had at first been known to travelers as Stanley's Tavern, because
here a man named Stanley ran a ferry across Fox River, and kept a log
hotel. Then the Green Bay merchants fell into the habit of marking
"Athens" on boxes and bales which the boatmen carried up to Stanley's.
When the question arose over the name for the post office, there were
several candidates, "Osceola," "Galeopolis," and "Athens" being
prominent. Robert Grignon, a French fur trader at Grand Butte des Morts,
desiring to be on good terms with his Menominee neighbors, proposed
"Oshkosh." Thereupon party spirit ran high. Upon a day named, a popular
election without distinction of race was held at the office of the
justice of the peace, who provided a free dinner to the voters; among
them were a score of Indians, brought in by Grignon. Several ballots
were taken, between which speeches were made in behalf of the rivals.
"Oshkosh" finally won, chiefly by the votes of Grignon's Indians.
Harmony was soon restored, and the election ended in drink and smoke,
after the fashion of border gatherings in those days.
We hear little more of old chief Oshkosh, until fifteen years later. In
the year 1852 occurred a kidnaping case, which became famous in the
frontier annals of Wisconsin. Nahkom, a Menominee squaw, was accused of
having stolen a little white boy, the son of Alvin Partridge, of the
town of Neenah, in Winnebago county. The Indians stoutly denied the
truth of this accusation; indeed, Partridge himself failed to recognize
his lost son in the person of Nahkom's boy. But the relatives and
neighbors of Partridge were confident as to the identity, and the
bereaved father was induced to ask aid of the courts in obtaining the
child.
The case hung fire for three years, the courts always deciding in favor
of Nahkom, although Partridge regained temporary possession of the boy
under writs of _habeas corpus_. Finally, pending the decision of a
Milwaukee judge upon the application for a writ, the little fellow was
placed in the jail of that city. From there the Partridges kidnaped him
and fled to Kansas, leaving poor Nahkom childless, for undoubtedly it
was a case of mistaken identity, and the child was really hers.
Ultimately the boy was found and restored to her.
This was in 1855. Oshkosh and a number of Menominee headmen went at once
to Milwaukee, upon learning of the jail delivery, and laid their
complaints before the judge. Recognizing the press as a medium of
communication with the public, Oshkosh and Souligny also visited the
editor of the _Sentinel_, asking him to state their grievance and plead
their cause. The speech which Oshkosh made to the editor was given in
full in that paper, and is a good specimen of the direct, earnest method
in Indian oratory.
He said, among other things: "Governor Dodge told us that our great
father [the President] was very strong, and owned all the country; and
that no one would dare to trouble us, or do us wrong, as he would
protect us. He told us, too, that whenever we got into difficulty or
anything happened we did not like, to call on our great father and he
would see justice done. And now we come to you to remind our great
father, through your paper, of his promise, and to ask him to fulfil
it.... We thought our child safe in the jail in the care of the
officers; that none could get the child away from them unless the law
gave them the right. We cannot but think it must have been an evil
spirit that got into the jail and took away our child. We thought the
white man's law strong, and are sorry to find it so weak." Upon the
conclusion of his visit, Oshkosh and his friends returned to their
reservation, determined never again to mingle with the deceitful and
grasping whites.
Upon their way home to Keshena, Oshkosh stopped at the thriving little
city which had been christened for him, and expressed pride at having so
large a namesake. It was his first and only visit. Three years later he
died in a drunken brawl, aged sixty-three years. He was a good Indian,
as savages go, his chief vice being one borrowed from the whites, who
forced themselves upon his lands and contaminated him and his people.