Hononegah
| Hononegah | |
|---|---|
| Pottawatomie, Ho-Chunk leader | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1814 Teejopera (day-jope-ra), or "Four Lakes Country", modern day Madison, Wisconsin. |
| Died | September 8, 1847 |
| Spouse(s) | Stephen Mack, Jr. |
| Relations | Sister, Wehunsegah; uncles Conosaipkah, Estche-eshesheek, and Horohonkak |
| Children | Rosa |
| Parents | Father, "Blacksmith" mother, Inoquer |
Hononegah (c.1814–1847) was the wife of Stephen Mack, Jr. an employee for The American Fur Company, a pioneer to the Rock River Valley in northern Illinois and founder of the community of Rockton, Illinois. Hononegah had a strong influence on the Roscoe-Rockton area; the high school of the four towns and the main thoroughfare connecting the towns are both named after her.
Most of what is known about Hononegah is printed in Edson I. Carr's history of Rockton, which was published in 1898. Modern scholarship, however, has discovered more about her background, and has cast doubt on several of Carr's claims.
Hononegah (from the Winnebago hinu, the designation that she was the eldest daughter of her family, ni, "water", and -ga which clarifies it's a name.) was born in the Teejopera (day-jope-ra), or "Four Lakes Country", which is modern day Madison, Wisconsin. This is given as her birthplace by N. W. Jipson. She is first seen as living in a village along the Rock River in what is now Ogle County, Illinois, and at the time of her birth, there is no evidence of the Winnebago living in this area until 1824 when Thomas Forsyth reports the existence twelve to fourteen Winnebago villages located on the Rock River and its tributaries south of Lake Koshkonong.
Hononegah was portrayed by Carr as a Pottawatomie princess and a daughter of a chief. Her father, known only by his English name "Blacksmith", was at least half Winnebago and part Pottawatomie. Her mother was named Inoquer, and was pure Winnebago. She had one sister, Wehunsegah. After the death of her father and mother, Hononegah and her sister were raised by her uncles Conosaipkah, Estche-eshesheek, and Horohonkak, and her family moved to Illinois to a Winnebago village on the site of modern day Grand Detour.
Mack (1798–1850) arrived in Grand Detour from Detroit, Michigan in 1820 and worked as a clerk in a trading post there. How and when Hononegah met Mack has not survived, only a vague tradition that Mack had become sick from fever and that Hononegah nursed him back to health.
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