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Several terms redirect here. For other uses, seeWabaunsee (disambiguation).
Waubonsie

Waubonsie(c. 1760 – c. 1848) was a leader of thePotawatomiNative Americanpeople. His name has been spelled in a variety of ways, including Wabaunsee, Wah-bahn-se, Waubonsee,Waabaaniziiin the contemporaryOjibwe language,andWabanziin the contemporaryPotawatomi language(meaning "He Causes Paleness" in both languages).

Biography

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The documentary record of Waubonsie's life is sparse. His birth name, parentage, and place of birth are unknown.[1]The year of his birth has been estimated from 1756 to 1765.[1]His brotherMucadapuckee( "Black Partridge" ) was also a chief.[1]According to tradition, Waubonsie acquired his name (which means "Break of Day" (waaban-izhi)[1]or "He Causes Paleness" (waabaanizii)[2]) after sneaking into a place where some enemyOsageswere located, killing and scalping one or more of them, and escaping at daybreak.[1][3]

DuringTecumseh's Warand theWar of 1812,Waubonsie supportedTecumsehand the British against American expansion. In September 1811, Waubonsie led an attack on one ofWilliam Henry Harrison's supply boats as it ascended theWabash RiverinIndiana.Waubonsie jumped on the boat, killed the lone American on board, and leapt off before the Americans on the far shore could respond.[2]Waubonsie,Shabonna,andWinamacled Potawatomi warriors against Harrison's troops at theBattle of Tippecanoeon November 7, 1811.[4]

Waubonsie opposed theattack on Fort Dearbornin 1812, and protected the family ofJohn Kinzieduring the massacre that followed.[1]After the war, he signed treaties with the United States, and thereafter worked to avoid confrontation with the Americans. With other Potawatomi leaders, in 1827 he refused to join theWinnebago Waragainst the Americans.[5]

When theBlack Hawk Warerupted in 1832, Waubonsie and other Potawatomi leaders worked to keep their people out of the conflict, but found it difficult to do so.[6]Many white settlers, recalling the Fort Dearborn massacre, distrusted the Potawatomis and assumed that they would joinSaukleaderBlack Hawk'suprising.[7]Potawatomi leaders worried that the tribe as a whole would be punished if any Potawatomis supported Black Hawk. Waubonsie and Potawatomi chiefShabbonatold Black Hawk that they would not come to his aid.[8]Hoping to demonstrate their good intentions to the Americans, the Potawatomis offered military assistance, fielding a force underBilly Caldwelland Waubonsie. They were less than enthusiastic allies, but managed to demonstrate support for the Americans while avoiding battle.[9]

After the war, Waubonsie visited Washington, D.C., on two occasions, and met once with PresidentAndrew Jackson.[1]He signed treaties that sold Potawatomi land in Indiana and Illinois to the United States, and moved westward to Iowa. The U.S. government built Waubonsie a house nearTabor, Iowa,where he died in 1848 or 1849.[1]

Additional sources indicate Chief Waubonsie died as a result of injuries he sustained in a stage coach accident in Ohio, December 1845, upon a return trip from Washington, D.C.,[10]another states he died in Booneville, Missouri, as a result of his injuries in early 1846.[11]

Toponyms and Memorials

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USSWaubansee(YTM-366),a United States Navy harbor tug placed in service in 1944 and stricken in 1983, was also named for him.

References

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  1. ^abcdefghDavid Holmgren (2009)."Waubonsie".The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa.University of Iowa Press Digital Editions.RetrievedMarch 27,2011.
  2. ^abR. David Edmunds,The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire(University of Oklahoma Press, 1978,ISBN0-8061-1478-9), 176.
  3. ^The narrative in theOjibwe language,the wordwaabanosetranslated as the English phrase "escaping at daybreak" or "walks away at daybreak" is a near homophone both towaaban-izhi( "Break of Day" ) and towaabaanizii( "He Causes Paleness" ).
  4. ^Edmunds, 176–77.
  5. ^Edmunds, 231.
  6. ^John W. Hall,Uncommon Defense: Indian Allies in the Black Hawk War(Harvard University Press, 2009,ISBN0-674-03518-6), 125.
  7. ^Hall, 122.
  8. ^Patrick J. Jung,The Black Hawk War of 1832,(University of Oklahoma Press, 2008,ISBN0-8061-3994-3), 86–87.
  9. ^Hall, 165–67.
  10. ^Elliott, Richard (1883).Notes Taken in Sixty Years.St. Louis, MO: R. P. Studley & Co. p.212.
  11. ^Hurbult, Henry (1881).Chicago Antiquities.Chicago: Printed For The Author. p. 444.
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