Great Lady: Glory of the Morning of the Winnebago

Women held esteemed positions in many tribes.  Some served on women's councils, appointed chiefs and other leaders, administered family and clan property, and held veto power over certain decisions, such as going to war with a neighboring tribe or encroaching Settlers.  When their husbands, brothers or other relatives were absent, they could serve as administrators of their village or band.  However, very few actually held the rank of chief in the own right.  Glory of the Morning of the Winnebago/Ho-Chunk, who died at over 100 years old c 1832, was one such esteemed woman.

Oral tradition stated that she had been born the daughter of a Ho-Chunk chief of the Thunderbird Clan.  Her family lived in what Doty Island in what is now Menasha, Winnebago County, Wisconsin.  At some point, Glory of the Morning succeeded her father as a leader of her people.  European visitors, who often misunderstood Native society, frequently called her a queen.  Sometime prior to the French and Indian War, an expedition from the French colony of La Louisiane made contact with the Ho-Chunk people.  The leader of the expedition, named Sabrevoir de Carrie visited the Ho-Chunk.  He soon came to realize that being a fur trader was far more lucrative than being a soldier, resigned his commission and married Glory of the Morning.  They had two boys and a girl.  Whether Glory of the Morning had attained the chiefship at this point or later isn't known for sure, but oral tradition held Carrie in high regard, remarking on him as a leader of men.

Eventually, he and Glory of the Morning went their separate ways.  This often happened in relationships between Natives and Whites and shouldn't be taken in the same way as a modern divorce.  The relationship lasted as long as the partners wished it to last and it was over.  Carrie took their daughter, likely to be educated in a convent school in Montreal.  She would later marry a fur trader.  The two boys, one known as Spoon, and the other as White Beast or Buzzard, would remain with their mother.  Their father's French name, de Carrie, became Decorah.  Both sons would become Ho-Chunk leaders after their mother, and their descendants would provide leadership for the Winnebago/Ho-Chunk people for generations to come. 

During the French conflicts with the Fox tribe over the fur trade, Glory of the Morning supported the French, dispatching her warriors to fight alongside them.  She did likewise during the French and Indian War (1755-1763).  Sabrevoir de Carrie returned to the army during that war and was killed in battle.  Following his death and the defeat of the French, Glory of the Morning made peace with the English and kept her people out of Pontiac's Rebellion.  Captain Jonathan Carver, a New Englander serving with the British army, encountered her in 1766.  He observed Glory of the Morning presiding over a council and the two developed a mutual respect.  Glory of the Morning gave Carpenter safe passage through her hunting range.

Glory of the Morning lived on until around 1832, when a trader's wife described her, still leading her people and raising her grandchildren despite infirmities.  At some point prior to her death, while the woods, Glory of the Morning heard an owl hooting, a sign of impending death.  On the night of her death, though it was winter and a blizzard was blowing, thunder was heard.  The Winnebago took it as a sign that the Thunderbird had taken her home, that she had lived a good life and died a blessed death.  Her grandson was Waukon Decorah, whose leadership stopped the Winnebago War of 1827 before it could escalate any further.