Digging a Trench and White Strategy

by Stella Stacey
transcribed and translated by Sheila Shigley

Hōcąk-English Interlinear Text

Wedges (<︎) link to the corresponding interlinear text.

<︎So, the Indians made "shooting entrenchments," as they’re called. <︎They would dig out earth [and form] a flat rim, then pile the earth into high banks. <︎The ditch was intended to create a barrier to horsemen. <︎They made it square. <︎And so the soldiers would take cover there. <︎Accordingly, the brave warrior and chief Šų̄gépàga, they called him, made a statement. <︎Thus there, he would stand and speak and so, well (egų), well the way he put it, <︎"Those Mąįxete, well, they can’t approach and wipe us out," that’s how he kind of put it.¹

Commentary

The events depicted in this observation are set around the time of the War of 1812.² Given that Šų̄gépàga was the chief of the Hōcąk contingent opposing Gen. Harrison, the entrenchments may been for the camp established sometime before the Battle of Tippecanoe, fought on 7 November 1811. See "The War of Indian Tribes against White Soldiers."

"a flat rim"  — a flat rim was left around the square hole in order to create a platform for warriors to fire from behind the dirt embankment. The rim would not have been very wide in order to guard against horses that launched over the breast works and landed on it. Being narrow, the horse would not be able to secure both front and hind feet on the flat surface, causing it to lurch into the pit behind.

"high banks" — the banks serve two purposes. The first is to provide cover for the warriors firing at oncoming cavalry, and the second, as the next sentence explicates, is to make it impossible for a horse to rush the firing line at full momentum. If a horse succeeded in crossing over the embankment, it would plunge into the pit behind it, making the rider an easy target. A parallel to this situation can be seen in the Battle of the Crater in the Civil War, in which infantry troops entered a crater caused by a massive explosion, only to find themselves easy targets for their enemies situated at the rim.

"square" — more details of this edifice would have been helpful. One thing is very clear: not all the dirt was piled in front of this structure, since cavalry could simply bypass the front barricade, and ride around its flank, shooting at the defenders from the flank and the rear. The necessities of this situation would imply that the dirt embankments were also raised up on the flanks of this structure, and indeed very likely in its rear as well. The hidden inspiration behind a square defensive structure was the then current British defensive formation of the square, used in the Napoleonic Wars with the French, as seen below.

Elizabeth Thompson

The Infantry Square of the British 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras, 1815

In the War of 1812 infantry would generally present on a firing line several rows deep. These formations were susceptible to cavalry attack most especially from their flanks and even their rear should cavalry infiltrate behind their firing lines. Therefore, the best defense against cavalry was to form a square of firing lines, making it impossible to effectively launch a flank or even a rear attack. In constructing a defensive entrenchment specifically against the possibility of cavalry attack, as the Big Knives often employed cavalry or dragoons against Indian opponents, clearly Šų̄gépàga was inspired by the standard British defensive formation against horse. Unlike what he may well have thought of as a foolish British practice of infantry standing upright and unconcealed in the open, he devised an entrenchment that avoided this last defect of the standard infantry square.

"the soldiers" — the word used here is mą̄́ną́pera (pronounced). Ordinarily, Indian warriors are called wą̄gwášošé, meaning literally, "brave men," but conventionally translated as "braves, warriors." Ordinarily, mą̄́ną́pe is reserved for members of the Bear Clan. It is usually said of mą̄́ną́pera that they are police, and they certainly have this function in times of peace. However, in battle the mą̄́ną́pera of the Bear Clan have certain special powers in war, supplementing the like powers of the Warrior (Hawk) Clan. One might think that the term mą̄́ną́pera is just being loosely applied here to whatever warriors were manning this barricade, but this is probably not the case. The Bear Clan is chief over the Earth Clans and perhaps the whole of the Lower Moiety, an idea, to some degree and in some ways, contested by the Waterspirit Clan. However, the command over the physical ground, including the right to make treaties concerning its cession, falls uniquely to the Bear Clan. When the earth is to be dug up in a project like the one described here, it would be the Bear Clan soldiers who would be tasked with the entrenchment. Only the mą̄́ną́pera have the right to dig up the ground and to reshape it. Therefore, the use of the term mą̄́ną́pe might be taken literally as a reference to members of the Bear Clan.

	J. O. Lewis
	Dog Head (Sarcel, Teal, Little Duck)

"Šų̄gépà" (pronounced) — "Dog Head" a famous warrior and chief, he quickly became legendary, as we see from semi-mythological accounts of his life in the stories Great Walker's Medicine, The Warbundle Maker, and The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara. "The Warbundle Maker" says, "There was a man named Šų̄gépàga, who belonged to the Eagle Clan."³ The name "Dog Head" is clearly not an Eagle Clan name, and must be a nickname. Prior to the War of 1812, he was known to the French by this same name, Tête de Chien. So what was his Eagle Clan name? The French also knew him by his clan name, which they rendered as Sarcelle, which means "Teal." George recorded the word for teal as being hunašizka, which is for hunašiske, from huna, "to come hither"; šis, "to shoot"; and -ke, a suffix indicating a kind of thing. So a teal is "the kind of thing that comes hither to be shot." So it appears that his Eagle Clan name was Hunašiskega. The Anglos rendered his clan name as "Sarcel," "Teal," or "Little Duck." Col. McDouall in writing to Gen. Drummond in 1814, says of him,

the Susell or tete de Chien, [is] a distinguished Chief of the Winnebago Nation (who came to supplicate assistance) ... The solemn & impressive eloquence of the tete de Chien, excited a general enthusiasm, & never was more zeal or unanimity shown amongst them, this chief is scarcely inferior to Tecumseth, & I doubt not will act a distinguished part in the campaign ...⁴

Brisbois remarks that, "One of the Carimaunee family of Winnebagoes was known as Tête de Chien, or Dog's Head. He lived in 1827, at English Prairie, now Muscoda (ca. 43.210370, -90.30401). He was a prominent man, of considerable good sense, and very honest. The Indians cultivated some fields there, and lived there as one of their changeable localities."⁵ This means that he was related in some way to the famous chief Nąga (Wood), known as the "Elder Keramąnį," who was standing next to Tecumseh when the latter was struck dead by a stray bullet. Lurie's informants told her that the Keramąnįs were originally of Fox or Sauk extraction. Foreign captives who are spared are always put into the Thunderbird Clan, or may enter it through marriage. Mrs. Kinzie said that this name meant, "Walking Rain." This is due to the fact that the name has a double meaning in Hōcąk: Ke-ra-mąnį means literally, "The Turtle Walking," where -ra is the definite article. On the face of it, this name is rather peculiar, since the -ga attached to the end of it to indicate that it's a personal name is also a definite article. This leads to the rather stilted translation, "The Walking One Who is the Turtle." However, the same name differently parsed, Kera-mąnį, means "Walking Cloud," where kera, like the more common mąxí, means both "cloud" and "sky." It could be that Kera-mąnį-ga was originally a Thunderbird Clan name for the ancestor of the lineage, but members of that family liked the mystical association that the double meaning gave them to the God of War. Sometime before 1832, Dog Head had moved to Big Green Lake (43.813354, -88.934092), where he lived in a large lodge with three other men, five women, and six children.⁶ Grignon says, "Sarcel, or The Teal, resided at the Winnebago village at Green Lake, in Marquette county; in his younger days his reputation was not good, but he afterwards became a very good Indian. I have already adverted to his war services. I think he died at Green Lake, before the emigration of his people west of the Mississippi."⁷

BattleofNewOrleans.org	The American Civil War Museum
A Dragoon Officer with a Mąįxete, 1815	A "Big Knife" (US Light Cavalry Saber, 1860)

"Mąįxete" (pronounced) — a term for white Americans on account of their cavalry and dragoons being armed with sabers, a strange weapon from the viewpoint of the Indian armory. The experience of most of the tribes with the Federal forces was with officers of the Army who had swords as part of their standard uniform. As that was the only weapon that they typically carried, the whole of the Army, and eventually whites generally came to be known as Long Knives, or as among the Hōcągara, Big Knives.

Comparative Material. ...

Links: ...

Stories: mentioning entrenchments: The Marin Letter (1730), The Horse Raid; about the (post-Columbian) history of the Hōcągara: The Cosmic Ages of the Hocągara, The Hocągara Migrate South, The Annihilation of the Hocągara I, Annihilation of the Hocągara II, First Contact, Origin of the Decorah Family, The Glory of the Morning, The First Fox and Sauk War, The Fox-Hocąk War, The Masaxe War, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, Black Otter's Warpath, Great Walker's Medicine, Great Walker's Warpath, The Chief Who Shot His Own Daughter, How Little Priest went out as a Soldier, Little Priest's Game, The Spanish Fight, The War of Indian Tribes against White Soldiers, The Man who Fought against Forty, The Origin of Big Canoe's Name, Jarrot's Aborted Raid, They Owe a Bullet, Origin of the Name "Milwaukee," A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga, Origin of the Hocąk Name for "Chicago"; about famous Hocąk warriors and warleaders: How Little Priest went out as a Soldier, Little Priest's Game, The Masaxe War (Hogimasąga), Wazųka, Great Walker's Warpath (Great Walker), Great Walker's Medicine (Great Walker, Smoke Walker, Dog Head, Small Snake), Šųgepaga (Dog Head), The Warbundle Maker (Dog Head), Black Otter’s Sacrifice to a Thunder, Black Otter's Warpath (Dog Head, Black Otter), The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara (Smoke Walker, Dog Head, Small Snake), Big Thunder Teaches Cap’ósgaga the Warpath (Big Thunder, Cap’ósgaga), The Osage Massacre (Big Thunder, Cap’ósgaga), The Fox-Hocąk War (Cap’ósgaga), The Origin of Big Canoe's Name, White Thunder's Warpath, Four Legs, The Man who Fought against Forty (Mącosepka), Yellow Thunder and the Lore of Lost Canyon, The Hills of La Crosse (Yellow Thunder), The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, Fighting Retreat, Mitchell Red Cloud, jr. Wins the Medal of Honor (Mitchell Red Cloud, jr.), The War of Indian Tribes against White Soldiers (Dog Head, Black Otter, Big Sandbar), How Jarrot Got His Name, Jerrot's Temperance Pledge — A Poem, Jarrot's Aborted Raid, Jarrot and His Friends Saved from Starvation, They Owe a Bullet (Pawnee Shooter); about Šųgépaga (Dog Head = Sarcel = Teal = Little Duck): Šųgepaga, The War of Indian Tribes against White Soldiers, The Warbundle Maker, Black Otter's Warpath, Great Walker's Medicine, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara – see also Kinzie's Receipt Roll; mentioning the Big Knives (white Americans): The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, The Fate of Native America: a Prophecy, Brawl in Omro, The Scalping Knife of Wakąšucka, Little Priest's Game, How Little Priest went out as a Soldier, A Prophecy, The Chief Who Shot His Own Daughter, The First Fox and Sauk War, The War of Indian Tribes against White Soldiers, The Cosmic Ages of the Hocągara, Turtle and the Merchant, The Hocągara Migrate South, Neenah, Run for Your Life, The Glory of the Morning, First Contact, Mijistéga’s Powwow Magic and How He Won the Trader's Store, Migistéga’s Magic, Yellow Thunder and the Lore of Lost Canyon, Mighty Thunder, The Beginning of the Winnebago, Soldiers Catch Two Boys, a Black One and a White One.

Themes: concentric fortifications: Turtle's Warparty, Porcupine and His Brothers, How the Thunders Met the Nights.

Notes

¹ Reading by Sheila Shigley, from the audio tape in the American Philosophical Society: 10-04. Fraenkel, Gerd. Stacy, Stella. "Indian warfare and white strategy," Mss.Rec.29, recorded 13 July 1959, 1 .mp3; 00:15.87 - 01:29.6. Copy made by Gerd Fraenkel of an original tape held at the Archives of Languages of the World, Indiana University. This program comes from original tape 528.10. APS accession number 7230; APSdigrec_2185; Recording Number: 02; Program Number: 37. The reading was based on a clean audio copy from Nancy Hall: OT 7696, 28:26.9 - 29:42.
² Carol F. Inman, "The M. G. Chandler Collection: A Case Study for Reappraisal of Archival Materials," Resound. A Quarterly of the Archives of Traditional Music, 2b-3a [2b].
³ W. C. McKern, Winnebago Notebook (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Public Museum, 1927) 167-174 [167].
⁴ Douglas Brymner, "The Capture of Fort M'Kay, Prairie du Chien, in 1814," Wisconsin Historical Collections, 11 (1888) 254-270 [260, 263].
⁵ B. W. Brisbois, "Recollections of Prairie du Chien," Wisconsin Historical Collections, IX (1882/1909): 282-302 [300].
⁶ See Kinzie's Rolls for Big Green Lake.
⁷ Augustin Grignon, "Seventy-two Years' Recollections of Wisconsin," Wisconsin Historical Collections, 3 (1857) 197-295 [288].