Wakąjaziga (Wau-kaun-tshah-zee-kaw)​

Yellow Thunder

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Yellow Thunder was born around the 1770s.   By the late 1820s, he had come of age as a leader of the Fox River band and was appointed in 1828 to accompany a delegation to Washington, D.C., to meet with President John Quincy Adams.  His wife accompanied him on the journey, thereafter becoming known as “Washington Woman.” At the time of the census, he lived near a spot called the Yellow Banks on the Fox River just upstream of Lake Butte des Morts and Mau-shee-kaw-kaw Village.  His family is recorded with these neighboring communities. 

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After having witnessed the injustices of the treaty of 1837, Yellow Thunder determined—along with fellow Lake Winnebago band leaders including Dandy—to resist efforts to remove them from their homes.  The group’s intention was discovered at the 1838 annuity payment.  By 1840, the military at Fort Winnebago was instructed to resolve the matter.  The commanding officer of the fort sent a messenger to request that Yellow Thunder and Dandy (mis-identified in De La Ronde’s narrative as Little Soldier) come to the portage to receive provisions at the fort.  Upon arrival, they were placed in stocks and transferred to Prairie du Chien prior to being removed to Iowa.

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This event launched a series of removals which Yellow Thunder endured.  After each attempt, he returned to Wisconsin.  Yellow Thunder gravitated toward the Sauk County region along with other exiles upon his returns.  Eventually, in an effort to prevent the continued removals, Yellow Thunder purchased a 40-acre homestead.  As a property owner he could no longer be legally removed.  An increasing number of his fellow Hoocąk tribal members followed his example of return, adaptation, and resilience.

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Yellow Thunder lived out the rest of his days in Wisconsin, passing away in 1874 after having witnessed decades of rapid change.  His memorial marker is cared for by the Sauk County Historical Society.