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An Annual Affair
A New Part of the Yearly Routine​
For untold generations, the HoocÄ…k followed seasonal patterns of life. A visit to the Agency was incorporated into the autumn transition around September to October each year. Here, the families would be registered and were paid a sum of $18,000 for land which they had sold to the government. Those funds, split evenly among tribal members (although reduced by settler claims for purported losses), amounted to $3.69 each (appx. $117 in today's money). It was often then used to purchase supplies for the winter from traders who had also gathered.
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This gathering each autumn resulted in the creation of annuity registers. The one from 1832 forms the last intact picture of the HoocÄ…k before events of the following spring initiated their wholesale displacement from their homeland. As a per-capita payment, the agent had to count the number of people in each family. Indian sub-agent John Kinzie's (1830-1833) method of documentation incorporated not only numbers, but also names and villages. He further split the gross totals into men, women, and children. The process not only crossed cultural barriers, but also language barriers. Those who assisted Kinzie with the payment and audited his records did not know the HoocÄ…k language. Kinzie's solution which allowed each head-of-household to non-verbally convey the size of their family proved memorable to one eyewitness, whose stories are transcribed on this page.
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As with any gathering which required a substantial distance of travel and long waits, this annuity process occasioned its share of hardships. The history surrounding the annual census of 1832 is remembered for some of the most serious challenges of the era.
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Cultural Expression​
From various sources, we glean that these occasions for representatives of the majority of the HoocÄ…k Nation to gather in one place were used as an opportunity for cultural expression. Ceremonial dances were performed on the agency house lawn. Traditional games, such as foot races and la crosse, were also played. It is unclear how long a normal annuity gathering would last, but cultural expressions of both leisurely and serious communal matters were incorporated into these times of assembly.
...And Even Humor​
From wording woven within the annuity register, we can infer that one of the family representatives from Garlic Island (possibly Kaw-nee-nank-kay) approached the table and announced his name as "Nee-aunp-po-kaw." As John penned the word, he would have begun to recognize its translation as "Coming Alive." John then asked the individual about his status, and the answer came, "dead." Apparently realizing the joke, Kinzie crossed out the entry and wrote that Coming Alive was dead. Even in the midst of a devastating year, a resilient people still found time to poke fun at the agent's linguistic abilities.
A Bystander's Perspective:
Juliette Kinzie​
We can't go back in time to see what these annual gatherings fully entailed, but firsthand accounts from Juliette Kinzie—the Indian sub-agent's wife who was a witness of a total of three annuity payments—survive to this day. Descriptions in her memoir, Wau-Bun, provide an inside look at the process and context of the payments. As with any observer unfamiliar with the culture around her, she did not fully understand everything she saw, but the observations she makes below are nevertheless an important record of these events.
1830 Payment​
"There were two divisions of the Winnebago [HoocÄ…k] Indians, one of which was paid by the Agent, at the Portage, the other at Prairie du Chien, by General Street. The first, between four and five thousand in number, received, according to treaty stipulations, fifteen thousand dollars annually, besides a considerable amount of presents, and a certain number of rations of bread and pork, to be issued in times of emergency throughout the year.
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"The principal villages of this division of the tribe were at Lake Winnebago, Green and Fox Lakes, the Barribault, Mud Lake, the Four Lakes, Kosh-ko-nong, and Turtle Creek. Messengers were dispatched, at or before the arrival of the annuity-money, to all the different villages, to notify the heads of families or lodges to assemble at “the Portage.”
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"When arrived, the masters of the families, under their different chiefs, give in their names, and the number in their lodges, to be registered. As, in paying, a certain sum of money is apportioned to each individual, it is, of course, an object to a head of a lodge to make the number registered as great as possible. Each one brings his little bundle of sticks, and presents it to the Agent to register. Sometimes a dialogue like the following occurs:
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"'How many have you in your lodge?'
The Indian carefully, and with great ceremony, counts his bundle of sticks—'Fifteen.'
'How many men?'
'Two.' The Agent lays aside two sticks.
'How many women?'
'Three.' Three more sticks are separated.
'How many children?'
'Eight.' Eight sticks are added to the heap.
'What is the meaning of these two sticks that remain?'
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"The culprit, whose arithmetic has not served him to carry out his deception, disappears amid the shouts and jeers of his companions, who are always well pleased at the detection of any roguery in which they have had no share.
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"The young officers generally assisted in counting out and delivering the money at these payments, and it was no unusual thing, as the last band came up, for the chiefs to take a quantity of silver out of the box and request their Father [agent] to pay his friends for their trouble, seeming really disturbed at his refusal. In this, as in almost every instance, we see the native courtesy and politeness, which are never lost sight of among them. If a party comes to their Father to beg for provisions, and food is offered them, however hungry they may be, each waits patiently until one of the company makes an equal distribution of the whole, and then, taking his share, eats it quietly, with the greatest moderation."
1832 Payment​
"A great part of the nation were in the immediate neighborhood, in obedience to a notice sent by Governor Porter, who, in virtue of his office of Governor of Michigan Territory, was also Superintendent of the Northwest Division of the Indians. Instead of calling upon the Agent to take charge of the annuity money, as had heretofore been the custom, the Governor had announced his intention of bringing it himself to Fort Winnebago and being present at the payment. The time appointed had now arrived, and with it the main body of the Winnebagoes [HoocÄ…k].
"...They continued still in the vicinity of the Portage, in the constant expectation of the arrival of the annuity money, which they had been summoned there to receive. But the time for setting out on his journey to bring it was postponed by Governor Porter from week to week. Had he foreseen all the evils this delay was to occasion, he would, possibly, have been more prompt in fulfilling his appointment.
"Many causes conspired to make an early payment desirable. In the first place, the Winnebagoes, having been driven from their homes by their anxiety to avoid all appearance of fraternizing with the Sauks, had made this year no gardens nor corn-fields. They had, therefore, no provisions on hand, either for present use or for their winter’s consumption, except their scanty supplies of wild rice. While this was disappearing during their protracted detention at the Portage, they were running the risk of leaving themselves quite unprovided with food, in case of a bad hunting-season during the winter and spring.
"In the next place, the rations which the Agent had been accustomed, by the permission of Government, to deal out occasionally to them, were now cut off by a scarcity in the Commissary’s department. The frequent levies of the militia during the summer campaign, and the reinforcement of the garrison by the troops from Fort Howard, had drawn so largely on the stores at this post that there was necessity for the most rigid economy in the issuing of supplies.
"...As day after day wore on and “the silver” did not make its appearance, the Indians were advised by their Father [agent] to disperse to their hunting-grounds to procure food, with the promise that they should be summoned immediately upon the arrival of Governor Porter; and this advice they followed.
"…At length, about the beginning of November, two months after the time appointed, Governor Porter, accompanied by Major Forsyth and Mr. Kercheval, arrived with the annuity money. The Indians were again assembled, the payment was made, and having supplied themselves with a larger quantity of ammunition than usual,—for they saw the necessity of a good hunt to remedy past and present deficiencies,—they set off for their wintering grounds."