Another look at Doty Island

Another look at Doty Island.  This was home to Glory of the Morning and her people.  As my two year study of GOM and the Nation's history and research about the roles and cultural practices of contemporary Ho-Chunk women comes to a close, it is important to for me to state that this period of study was intense, difficult, and terribly sad, but very rewarding.  My research brought me closer to the Nation and its Elders.  This was the greatest accomplishment of my studies.  I took the Elders for granted and I hope to never do it again.  They are a treasure! 

My studies took me to Doty Island, Green Lake, Wisconsin Dells, LaCrosse, Green Bay, Belgium, Madison, Mausten, Camp Douglas, Black River Falls, Bangor, Onalaska, Baraboo, Prairie du Chien, Winona, and home to Rochester.  This study brought me closer to the land.  I will never look at this places in the same way.  As I drove from Rochester to Black River Falls one spring day, I started to cry.  I imagined our people traveling to see family, hunt, mine, gather, and make new villages. Their lives were changed forever with each successive invasion by first, the French and then the British colonists.  They were scattered and smitten and suffered all manner of brutality that man can inflict on man, yet Mauna allowed them to survive. We are still striving to attain our sovereignty as granted to us by the Creator, but He obviously has not forsaken us.

I visited libraries in Wisconsin, Minnesota and and thanks to the Internet I visited the archives in Canada at the University of Ottawa.  I ventured into the archives of various newspapers, museums and genealogical centers. I had a unique opportunity to visit with family and Dr. Jan Vansina, father of oral history in historical research.  How fortunate I was to obtain his insights on the Ho-Chunk culture and have my research design approved by him.  He also approved of the final conclusions of my study.  He was a very intelligent and gracious man.

I had the rare opportunity to have two Elders on my thesis team, Betty Greencrow and Anna R. Funmaker.  What amazing and unconventional women.  The Nation should be proud to have these women as ambassadors of our people.  They have been very helpful in my studies and research.  They offered encouragement and candid comments about my findings.  They pushed me to learn more about our people, especially the history and the language.

I am grateful to the Ho-Chunk Nation who granted me permission to conduct my study among the Elders of our people.  Their approval, by the IRB was most appreciated.

After all of this, I have learned that GOM was indeed a Chieftess of a body of Ho-Chunk that resided at Doty Island.  Her election by the grand council split the tribe, roughly in half, with a large portion of the tribe going to live near the Mississippi.  This is known at the first split among our people.  Glory of the Morning's election was a rare break from tradition.  Our people were under great duress.  The loss of Walking Thunder was a terrible loss.  The impending attack from the French, namely Ligney and his men loomed over the people at a time when the tribe was vulnerable.  Glory of the Morning and the Ho-Chunk people at Doty Island weathered the attack and in time became allies of the French.  

Glory of the Morning met and married Joseph Sabrevior Descaris.  He was the third son of Michele Descaris and Marie Cullier from Montreal.  He was an officer in the French Army who gave up his commission to live the life of a voyageur until the Battle of St. Foye.  He and Glory of the Morning married in Indian custom.  He was welcomed into the tribe, given a name and took part in the Medicine Society.  Together they had two sons and a daughter.  The sons and their posterity went on to lead a body of the Ho-Chunk people as Chiefs through their birthright as members of the Thunder Clan and Eagle Clan.  Their only daughter was taken to Montreal by Descaris and she was raised by his family until she married Laurent Filey.

Glory of the Morning was a Chieftess until her sons could take their rightful place as Chiefs.  By the time Carver came upon Doty Island and the Ho-Chunks who resided there, Glory of the Morning was still a high status woman, but unlikely the principal Chief.  She lived to an old age as described by Kinzie when they lived near Fort Winnebago.  It is said that Glory of the Morning walked in the woods one day and as she walked she heard an owl call her name.  Later, her sons found her in her wigwam wrapped in her furs with a smile on her lips.  She was buried in all of her finery and her final resting place is not known, though if it were, out of respect it would not be shared.