White Crow, Ho-Chunk chief | Wisconsin Historical Society

Historical Essay

White Crow, Ho-Chunk chief

White Crow, Ho-Chunk chief | Wisconsin Historical Society
Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

His Ho-Chunk name is generally given in printed sources as Kau-kish-ka-ka. White Crow was an important leader during the first third of the 19th century, especially during the Black Hawk War of 1832, when he played both sides off against each other to protect the interests of his people. According to historian Reuben G. Thwaites (1895), White Crow "had but one eye and something of a reputation as an orator. His village, which comprised about 1,200 persons housed in tepees covered with red-cedar bark, appears to have been situated about where is now the little village of Pheasant Branch [Middleton] at the west end of Lake Mendota, Dane County." View more information in historical newspaper articles.

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[Source: Wisconsin Historical Collections, 1895]