Surnames: Holt

To the Neillsville, UCC Winnebago Indian Mission

I have a speech about Emma Big Bear and I am at a loss to figure out the word [chipodoka] if you can help I would appreciate it . Thank you

Responses

Part of Marquette and McGregor, Iowa’s history lives on in the story of Emma Big Bear, born on July 5, 1869 to Chief Big Bear and Mary Blue Wing in a small frame home on the Winnebago Indian Reservation at Tomah, Monroe Co., Wisconsin. Emma spent her childhood and young adult life in Wisconsin, but lived mostly in and around small northeast Iowa Mississippi River towns. Emma claimed to be a direct descendent of early 19th Century Winnebago Chief Decorah, refusing to live on a reservation by not wandering far from the graves of her ancestors, preferring to live in the prehistoric area near Effigy Mounds’ sacred space along the Mississippi River.

Emma’s first husband was Little Beaver, also a Winnebago, about which little is known. Emma and her second husband, William J. “Henry” Holt of Winnebago and Sioux parentage, lived by traditional tribal means. To this union was born a daughter Emmaline. After Henry died accidentally in 1944 and Emmaline died of an illness in 1945, Emma moved down river to McGregor to live alone in a contemporary chipodoka, which was eventually destroyed by floods. Living out her last years in a house on Marquette’s main street, Emma became ill, relocated to a nursing home and died on August 21, 1968 at age 99 years.

Local fishermen gave Emma their carp for her soup and she would skin muskrats and raccoons for hunters and trappers in exchange for the meat. To earn a living, Emma is best known as a basket maker, bead worker and herb gatherer. Many of the older generation recall Emma sitting on the riverbank making her beadwork and baskets from black ash trees and natural dyes, selling her wares by the Marquette bridge and downtown McGregor. Being dirt-poor didn’t stop Emma from helping out a needy neighbor, even if all she could only afford to give was an empathetic look and a caring smile.

Emma Big Bear is long gone but cherished as the last full-blooded American Indian to live by traditional Winnebago (now Ho-Chunk) means in Clayton Co. and possibly all of northeast Iowa.  Little Bear

Responses

Re: Church: Neillsville, UCC Winnebago Indian Miss
Contact: Susanne Nelson
Email:  sandwnelson@hotmail.com

Hi Ms. Roseburrough, 4/29/09 I am a member of the Outreach Committee of Christ Church, UCC in Bethlehem, PA. I have read in the information that there is/was a school for Indian children. Does this school still exist? Is there any up-to-date information about this school. I would appreciate any information you could forward to my e-mail address: sandwnelson@hotmail.com Thank you for your time and effort. Sincerely, Sue Nelson