Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023
In the book Great North American Indians by Frederick J. Dockstader in 1977, out of three hundred notable individuals, only twenty-two of them are women. Only 22! In fact, not even one female representative from Eastern Dakota or Santee tribes is listed.
And so, the Shakopee Heritage Society is working on other Dakota men and women, and one that is often remembered is Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ.Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ (ha-zah eehn-yahn-ka wihn), who was born in 1803 in Kapoza, now South St. Paul. She was also known as Runs Bringing Huckleberries, and in old age she was called Old Betsey by the soldiers who built Fort Snelling.
Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ, according to a bookmark from Hoċokata Ti [ho-cho-kah-tah-tee], the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s (SMSC) cultural center and gathering space, “Her story was well known when little was written about Native woman, and her friendly and outgoing personality toward everyone helped her be written about in local papers.”
Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ was considered a mother to the Dakota, as well as a friend to the settler-colonists. “She was known for being honest, reliable, kindhearted, and respected by all in her village,” said the bookmark.
Mark Diedrich, in 1995, wrote a book, Old Betsey: The Life and Times of a Famous Dakota Woman and Her Family by Coyote Press, “She was highly extroverted in her contacts with whites. Not at all the shy and retiring type, she was the epitome of a performer with a street act, with a feistiness to match. She was also noted for a high degree of industriousness. She once attempted to start a ferry service one the Mississippi, and on one occasion saved two white men from drowning.”
Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ had charisma, but for many white people at that time, Betsey was “a beggar.” She was a solicitor, both for herself and the people who depended on her. This disparaging views about begging, when it was considered by Dakota as a respected way to assure the distribution of goods to those in need. They ask for what they were short of, and this was a socially sanctioned way to distributing goods, according to Mark Diedrich.
Some people felt Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ was the last representative of the Indians, a living relic of her past. Of course, she was not the last of the Dakotas, though for some, this is what people wanted. The nineteenth century whites regarded Indians, and Indian women in particular in stereotypical terms, such as “dusky”, “squaw,” “redskins,” and “savages,” and these words were used by people, even today, without any consciousness of it (or maybe even with knowing about it).
Ohíye S’a (Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman) in 1902, noted “As a motherless child, I always regarded my good grandmother as the best of guides and the best of protectors…Aside from her native talent and ingenuity, she was endowed with a truly wonderful memory. No other midwife in her day and tribe could compete with her in skill and judgment.” Women were an integrated part of Dakota society, and one of them was Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ, who grew up in Thaóyate Dúta (Little Crow) village of Kapożia, in what is now South St. Paul.
Like most Dakota woman, Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ cultivated vegetables, made maple sugar, and gathered edible berries, fruits, and turnips. She helped during the summer villages, taking care of the young and the essential education of the young. The summer village had cornfields and vegetable gardens adjacent to it. Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ, using a hoe, along with other women planted corn, digging with a prayerful consideration to Wakan Tanka that all may have a good crop. Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ owned her lodge. During corn planting time, she would soak the seed corn, then planted by digging with a prayerful consideration to Wakan Tanka that all may have a good crop. Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ owned her lodge. During corn planting time, she soaked the seed corn, then planted by hand. According to Mark Diedrich, “Some of it was eaten green, and some preserved. Preservation was accomplished by boiling the cobs, scraping the shells off, and drying them. Some cobs were husked and hung to dry and shelled with clubs. Corn was stored in barrels made of bark and buried in caches.”
Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ, during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, was remembered by her kindness. She helped to protect captives with her son, Taopi. This kindness allowed her and Taopi to stay in Minnesota while most Dakota were exiled from the state, according to the bookmark from Hoċokata Ti.
Augustin Ravoux visited Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ, when she was sick, and suggested she was baptized at Church of St. Peter. Her baptismal records referred her as Betsey Mary St. Clair. Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ who was born in 1803, was seventy years old at one point, though some people thought she was 120! In 1870, one person believed she was 140 years old. Over time, obituaries about “Old Bets” were published in the St. Paul Weekly Pioneer paper, saying died on Oct. 14, 1871. But she was still alive. According to Mark Diedrich and the Dakota people from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Háza Íŋyaŋka Wiŋ died in 1886 at age 83. She was born as an invalid in obscurity in St. Paul, or at his son’s house in Mendota.
There is no record of her burial.