This worak was told by a Hotcâk chief about 80 years of age in 1828 (b. ca. 1750) in the Anishinaabe tongue, which the listener, Mr. Warriner, understood. He later set the story down to the best of his recollection in English. We pick up the narrative as Mr. Warriner and a small group of Hotcâk refugees arrive at a special place.

"After traveling several hours across a beautiful prairie, we approached a lake, the bank of which was adorned with a few large trees, and its shore presented a series of regularly ranged mounds, conveying to a distant eye the appearance of a formal town. On entering the cluster of these, each individual, in turn, ascended quite to the top of the highest, preceded by the aged veteran, where he first turned his face to the sun, (which was low in the west,) then towards the Mississippi, and making a violent motion with the right hand, as if wielding the tomahawk, he ejaculated a few words in his native tongue, and immediately rejoined us by the path he had ascended. . . .

[The chief begins a story designed to explain this rite:] 'My friend -- the Winnebagoes are not like other men. They came not from the east; they are the only children of the Great Spirit. He put them on one side of the great waters (Lakes) and the two great lights on the other. He gave us the buffalo, the moose, the elk, and the deer, for food, and their skins he taught us to use for clothing. He filled the waters with fish, and covered the land with choice fruits. All these he gave to us; and he marked with his finger between us and the great lights, that we might not approach them. Upon the other side of us he placed a land of winters, where no Indian could live. After this the Big Knives (English) came, not as enemies, but as friends -- They took our bows and gave us guns, for our skins they gave blankets and calicoes, and they gave strong drink to our hunters. They enticed away the young squaws, and when the Winnebago went after them they would not come back. Soon the hunter get lazy, love strong drink, and die. Many, very many die so. Then it was that the Great Spirit told his oldest child, the great chief of the Winnebagoes, in his sleep, to leave the country to the Big Knives, and cross the great water to the land nearer the great lights, where no white man had gone. We went forward, found a good land where this river (Fox, which enters into Green Bay) goes into the great water. [inset map] For two moons we found plenty of game, and saw no Indians. We thought the Great Spirit had taken them all away to make room for his children; when one morning we found the river full of canoes and Indians for one day's ride in length. Our chiefs and old men held a talk, and a canoe was sent to the strangers with as many men as there are moons in a year. They carried presents of wampum, fruits, sugar and meat. These never returned. Their pipes of peace were thrown into the river, and their mangled bodies were hung upon the trees. Dogs were fastened in the canoe dressed like the Winnebagoes, and the bark, with these, came down the river to our villages. Our good chief seeing the tears of his warriors for their friends who were slain, struck his foot in wrath upon a solid rock, which sank it to his ankle, and called his father, the Great Spirit, to witness that the tomahawk be unburied with the Foxes, Sacs, and Chippewas, until a tree should grow from the place were his foot stood. He then burnt a council fire in sight of his enemies, and put blood upon the trees that they might see more was soon to be wasted. When they saw this, they fled up the river to Winnebago Lake. [inset map] Our warriors followed -- a battle was fought on its banks, which we lost, as part of our fighting men were deceived in the long grass by their guide. The Winnebagoes being swiftest on foot, gained this spot before the evening. It was then the enemy's town, and they soon came, with their prisoners, little thinking we were here. Finding as in their town they kindled their fires upon all sides, and sent in word that they next day they would eat the Winnebago chief. With the dawn the fight began. We soon drove the Foxes down the river, but they went round and joined the Sacs, who were above us. The rest of that day all was quiet, but the next night, at the rising of the moon, they again came out from their hiding places. This fight did not stop for three days; and we lost ten men for each day and night of the year, before it was ended. On the third day our chief fell, covered with wounds. While he still lived, he called to his warriors to remember his wrongs; and, with his own hands he pressed the blood from his wound, where he lay, he opened his mouth, and his spirit departed. In that battle the Winnebagoes kept the town, took many hundreds of canoes and many prisons. These, except the young squaws, we killed. These that escaped fled up the river, and the next day we pursued them. We came to the lake which makes the Fox river, and hunted for our enemy three days. Thinking the Great Spirit had taken them all from the country, to stop our pursuit, we were about to obey his wishes and return, when we discovered a trail in the high grass. This we followed a little, when we came to a strange river (the Ouisconsin,) running towards the Father of Rivers, (the Mississippi,) into which they had put their canoes. We now agreed to follow and fight our enemy, until he should leave this stream, and cross the Father of Rivers. At the Blue Mounds we fought them; and there we were joined by the Pattawatomies, and they by the Menominies. At the mouth of the Ouisonsin they made mounds, and put their women and children behind them, for they expected a great battle. The Winnebagoes had more fighting men than their enemies, but they fought for the last of their country, and the Winnebagoes for revenge. For thirteen days the bloody strife did not cease, and hundreds of brave men fell on each day. At length the Great Spirit raised a loud storm of thunder, lightning, hail and wind, which caused both parties to stop, for they thought the Great Father of all was angry with his children. The Winnebagoes stood still, and their enemies all crossed the Father of Rivers, where they now live, at eternal war with our nation. No Fox or Sac meets a Winnebago, (except in council,) but one must die. All that great land between the Ouisconsin and the Mississippi is to this day disputed ground, and neither can safely occupy it. Chippewa or Winnebago go there, he die -- but no matter, Winnebago, Chippewa, Fox and Sac, all have country enough now. Sixty winters have passed over us since my father, who was then strong, told me of these deeds of our nation [1768]. . . .

My friend, this place was long since called, by white men, 'Bout de Morte.' The mounds you see were raised, each over the grave of some renowned chief, who fell in the great battle here. By a custom of our nation, every Winnebago who comes in sight of this mound upon which we are now seated, must ascend to the top, and observe the rites you witnessed. When turning to the sun, we swear that our arm, while it has power, shall be exerted in defence of this land, in remembrance of the son of the Great Spirit who sleeps below; and when facing the Sacs and Foxes, we swear ever to remember to revenge the death of the best of Chiefs, the favorite son of the Great Spirit, who fell by their hands'." [1]

Commentary. "Great Spirit" -- the constant reference to the Great Spirit intervening and being appealed to by the Hotcâgara is inauthentic. The Hotcâk Great Spirit, Earthmaker, is not a god who interferes in daily life, nor does he wield the thunder as suggested above. Furthermore, he is completely a god of peace. The warlike wielders of thunder are the Thunderbirds, called Wak'âdja in Hotcâk and literally meaning, "Divine Ones." This was probably confused in translation with the term Manitou, "Spirit," having been used. The term "Great Spirit" is known to the Hotcâgara (Waxop'ini Xetera), but is in origin an Algonquianism, from Gitchi Manitou. Another Algonquianism is "tomahawk," by which we would ordinarily understand a hatchet-like weapon. The Hotcâgara used warclubs (mâtce) in preference to axes. The author also uses the word "squaw," another loan word from the Algonquian languages, and last but not least, he refers to the Hotcâgara by the term used by their Algonquian enemies -- "Winnebago." These several Algonquianisms probably owe to the fact that the story was told in Anishinaabe, rather than any deliberate distortion on the part of the writer.

"the great waters (Lakes)" -- the writer is confused on geography as well. That the Hotcâgara were on the other side of the Great Lakes before they established themselves at Red Banks on Lake Michigan belongs to a tradition about the primordial age, not the period at which they were in contact with the whites (Big Knives). According to the writer's understanding, the Hotcâgara were on one side of the Great Lakes and the Fox and Sauk were on the other, which is not what is historically or traditionally attested. However, Lake Winnebago, into which the Fox River also empties, was the boundary between these nations. This is the lake meant, since the Hotcâk name for it is De Xede, "Great Lake." Thus the confusion with what the whites call the "Great Lakes." The migration referred to, therefore, is to the lands on the other side of Lake Winnebago, which better matches the time frame.

"two great lights" -- It is said that the Great Spirit "put them [the Hotcâgara] on one side of the great waters (Lakes) and the two great lights on the other." These "lights" may be fireplaces, a metonymic term for nations. The closely related Anishinaabe, Potawatomi, and Ottawa formed the "Three Fires," but by the time of this writing, Lower Michigan was not much occupied by the Anishinaabe, leaving the latter two "lights" or fires. However, it seems likely that since the enemy tribes being referred to are the Sauk and Fox, that the "two lights" almost certainly refers to them.

Links: Earthmaker (Great Spirit), Lake Winnebago, The Wazidja.

Stories: about the migration of the Hotcâgara: The Green Waterspirit of the Wisconsin Dells, The Hotcâk Migration Myth, The Hotcâk Arrival Myth, Quapah Origins, cf. Introduction, Hotcâk Clans Origin Myth; mentioning the Fox (Mesquaki): The Fox-Hotcâk War, The Masaxe War, The Mesquaki Magician, The Annihilation of the Hotcâgara I (v. 2), Annihilation of the Hotcâgara II, Gatschet's Hotcank hit'e (Extracts ...), Introduction; mentioning the Sauk (Sac, Sagi): The Annihilation of the Hotcâgara I (v. 2), Annihilation of the Hotcâgara II, The Blessing of Kerexûsaka, Big Eagle Cave Mystery, Gatschet's Hotcank hit'e (St. Peet ...), Introduction. mentioning the Big Knives (white Americans): The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Shawnee Prophet -- What He Told the Hotcâgara, A Prophecy, The Cosmic Ages of the Hotcâgara; mentioning the Anishinaabe (Chippewa, Ojibway): White Thunder's Warpath, The Masaxe War, The Two Children; mentioning the Wazidja: The Hotcâk Migration Myth, Trickster and the Geese, The Hotcâgara Migrate South, The Cosmic Ages of the Hotcâgara, Deer Spirits, Warughápara, The Creation of Man; about the (post-Columbian) history of the Hotcâgara: The Cosmic Ages of the Hotcâgara, The Annihilation of the Hotcâgara I, Annihilation of the Hotcâgara II, The Hotcâgara Migrate South, The Fox-Hotcâk War, The Masaxe War, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Shawnee Prophet -- What He Told the Hotcâgara, Great Walker's Medicine, Great Walker's Warpath, How Little Priest went out as a Soldier; set at Lake Winnebago (De Xede): Lake Winnebago Origin Myth, White Thunder's Warpath, Traveler and the Thunderbird War (v. 2), The Great Fish, The Wild Rose, The Two Boys, Great Walker's Warpath, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, The Fox-Hotcâk War, Holy Song, The Two Children (?); set on the Fox River: The Foolish Hunter, Winneconnee Origin Myth, Neenah.

The story, The Hotcâgara Migrate South, is an excerpt of the present worak.

Themes: the Hotcâgara arrive in the Wazidja by crossing a great body of water: The Hotcâk Arrival Myth, The Hotcâk Migration Myth; the Hotcâgara are the first human beings: The Creation of Man, v. 2; descriptions of human warfare: The Annihilation of the Hotcâgara I, Annihilation of the Hotcâgara II, Great Walker's Medicine, How Little Priest went out as a Soldier, Wazûka, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Four Slumbers Origin Myth, Big Thunder Teaches Tcap'ósgaga the Warpath, The Fox-Hotcâk War, Great Walker's Warpath, The Lame Friend, White Thunder's Warpath, The Osage Massacre, A Man's Revenge, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion; anthropophagy and cannibalism: A Giant Visits His Daughter, Turtle and the Giant, The Witch Men's Desert, The Were-Grizzly, Grandfather's Two Families, The Roaster, Redhorn's Father, Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth, The Lost Blanket, Young Man Gambles Often, White Wolf, The Shaggy Man, The Twins Get into Hot Water, Partridge's Older Brother, The Fox-Hotcâk War, The Hotcâgara Contest the Giants, Morning Star and His Friend, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Seven Maidens, Cûgepaga, The Reincarnated Grizzly Bear, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, Shakes the Earth, The Stone Heart, Thunder Cloud is Blessed.

Notes:

[1] 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 [Appendix 6]. Originally published in the Buffalo [New York] Journal, September 15, 1829. The informant was an unnamed Hotcâk chief.