Wihmuake Wakan "Holy Rainbow"

• from Weucha (Shake Hand)/le Liberateur(the Deliverer): (? - 1804/07)

     On 31 August 1804, he and his band encountered the Lewis & Clark expedition on the Missouri (just above the mouth of the James River) and met in council with the two representatives of the American government. The expedition journals describe Weucha as an old, grand Chief of the Yankton, (Z.Pike in 1805-06 names White Buffalo or Petessung as Head-Chief of this tribe) which numbers 200 warriors.

The journals also recorded his speech which was probably translated by either Pierre Dorion I (who was the expedition interpreter at this time) or Pierre Dorion II (who was present and trading among this tribe at the time):

     "I see before me, my Great Father's two sons. You see me and the rest of our chiefs and warriors. We are very poor; we have neither powder, no ball, nor knives; and our women and children at the village have no clothes. I wish that as my brothers have given me a flag and a medal, they would give something to those poor people, or let them stop and trade with the first boat which comes up the river. I will bring chiefs of the Pawnees and Mahas together, and make peace between them; but it is better that I should do it than my Great Father's sons, for they will listen to me more readily. I will also take some chiefs to your country in the spring; but before that time I cannot leave home. I went formerly to the English, and they gave me a medal and some clothes; when I went to the Spanish they gave me a medal, but nothing to keep it from my skin; but now you give me a medal and clothes. But still we are poor; and I wish, brothers, you would give us something for our squaws"

The Yankton lands at this time included the head-waters of the Des Moines River and to the west including the Sacred Pipe-Stone Quarry and the lower James River region. At one time they were united with the Yanktonai & Assiniboine, making up one of the three main divisions (Dakota, Nakota & Lakota) of what is generally called the Sioux today. Probably some time in the later part of the 17th century the tribe (Nakota) split off into two factions, the Assiniboine migrating to the north-west, than sometime in the mid 1700's the remaining tribe split again with the Yanktonai migrating to the west & the Yankton migrating to the south-west. From early French exploration reports it seems this tribe had long migrated annually to the prairie's for hunts but would winter in the shelter of central Minnesota.

Sources

• "Pedigree Resource File," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/9C4Q-246 : accessed 20 March 2012), entry for Yankton woman (Holy Rainbow).
• 1870 census W.T. Wahkiakum Cathlamet Pg 1 Sarah Olsen

Links

• http://users.usinternet.com/dfnels/dorion.htm
• Yankton Indian Tribe History