Red Bird

For other uses, see Red Bird (disambiguation).

Red Bird (Waniksucga pronounced wah-nink-shooch-ga). A Winnebago war chief, so named, according to one authority, because he habitually wore a red coat and called himself English, and by another because he wore on each shoulder, "to supply the place of an epaulette, a preserved red-bird." He was born about 1788 and was the leading spirit in the Winnebago outbreak of 1827. He was friendly with the settlers of Prairie du Chien, Wis., who regarded him as a protector until two Winnebago, who had been arrested for the murder of a family of maple-sugar makers, were erroneously reported to have been turned over to the Chippewa by the military authorities at Ft Snelling and clubbed to death while running the gauntlet. The Winnebago chiefs, on the receipt of this news, met in council and determined upon retaliation, selecting Red Bird to carry out their decree. With this purpose in view he, with two companions, after visiting the house of Lockwood, a trader at Prairie du Chien, proceeded to the house of Registre Gagnier, who with his hired man they shot down after being hospitably entertained by them. An infant was torn from the mother (who made her escape), and was stabbed and left for dead, though subsequently restored. Red Bird and his companions proceeded the same day, June 26, 1827, to the rendezvous of his band, consisting of 37 warriors with their wives and children, at the mouth of Bad Axe River, Minn. A day or two later they attacked a boat on the Mississippi, killing 4 and wounding 2 of the crew, and losing a third of their own number. When the troops arrived and prepared to attack the Winnebago, Red Bird and his accomplices gave themselves up and were tried and convicted, but sentence was deferred until the last day of the general court, and then, for some unknown cause, was not pronounced. With his companions Red Bird was remanded to prison to await sentence, where he died, Feb. 16, 1828. The others were condemned to death, but were pardoned by President John Quincy Adams, in Nov. 1828, at the instance of Nawkaw, who, with a deputation of his tribesmen, visited Washington in their behalf.