Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022
Witch-e-aim was around 15 years old in early 1844. Witch-e-aim’s father was another chief named Mock-ah-pe-ah-ketah-pah (although some people said that Witch-e-aim’s father was Wapahaṡa).
The name of Witch-e-aim is closest to the Dakota word wićíte, “the human face,” although like some of LaFayette Houghton Bunnell’s other names, it is highly corrupted. The name “Face” could allude to her beauty and seductiveness. The name may also be a corrupted front formation from Wićítokapa, “the eldest born,” although this posits such a degree of corruption as to defy probability.
In 1844, a special celebration was happening in Wapahaṡa’s band. They assembled, and after elaborate preparation and sanctification of the ground by invocations and incense, the chief speaker came forward, and in a sonorous address of lauded the virtues of chastity and warned against the sin of bearing false witness.
Wah-kon-de-o-tah, the great war-chief of the band, addressed his warriors in a quiet and affectionate manner, and told his braves to maintain the truth as sacred, and not offend the spirits of their ancestors.
Wapahaṡa then called for the virgins and matrons to come forth, and for some time there was the silence of expectation.
Again, the call was made for any virgin to come forward and receive her reward. Two maidens came partly forward, but upon reaching the line of denunciation, faltered and turned back, probably from modesty. We-no-nah, the wife of the speaker, and eldest sister (or cousin) of Wapahaṡa, motioned to her youngest daughter, Witch-e-aim, to come forward, according to Winona (We-No-Nah) and Its Environs on the Mississippi in Ancient and Modern Days in 1897 by Lafayette Houghton Bunnell.
After repeated calls by the crier of the assembly, Witch-e-aim came modestly forward and was crowned goddess of the feast that immediately followed. Her head was encircled with braids of rich garniture and scented grass, and presents of colored cloths, calicoes, yarns, beads, and ribbons were lavished upon her as the tribe’s representative of purity.
Wapahaṡa said that Witch-e-aim could pick either Lafayette Houghton Bunnell or Thomas A. Holmes, as both allowed royal alliance for the family.
Witch-e-aim said she did not like the trader, and preferred Lafayette Houghton Bunnell. When Bunnell decline her offer, Witch-e-aim withering, silent contempt was clear.
During the feast, Holmes was so enchanted that he decided at once to make Witch-e-aim his wife. Witch-e-aim was allowed to marry European American traders, like Thomas A. Holmes, in the fashion of the country. This means that these marriages were not recognized by law or religion.
The French speaking traders of Canada term for this is a la faḉon du pays. Some people would call them “country wives.”
While many marriages brought loving couples together for the rest of their lives, other marriages were very short-lived or violent. Many traders married native women but also had other wives back home Sometimes when the men retired from the fur trade, they returned to their legitimate, or legally married, wives.
These marriages came with the expectation that trade between the woman’s relations and the trader would be secured, and that aid would be mutually provided in times of need. It was also the hope of the woman’s family that the trader’s generosity would increase after the marriage took place.
The marriages between these two groups would lead to the creation of the Métis people, who would be considered the offspring of the fur trade.
So, Thomas A. Holmes gave Wapahaṡa an offer that he accepted. Based on this, Witch-e-aim then picked Thomas A. Holmes. It happened around 1844.
Thomas A. Holmes then married Witch-e-aim a la faḉon du pays. They were married in the fashion of the country and lived together.
But Witch-e-aim did not like living with Thomas A. Holmes. She was 14 years old, while Tom was forty. Witch-e-aim did not enjoy living at his trading post at Wah-ma-dee, or Eagle Bluffs. It was later called Holmes Landing, and later was called Fountain City in Wisconsin. She missed the Winona prairie in what was later Minnesota.
Like a caged bird, she soon pined for her Dakota prairie home. By the spring of 1845, while flowers bloomed, Witch-e-aim died of consumption.
And that is what the Shakopee Heritage Society learned about Thomas A. Holmes’s second marriage, and the sad experience of Witch-e-aim of the Wapahaṡa’s prairie.
Bibliography
Bunnell, Lafayette Houghton. Winona (We-No-Nah) and Its Environs on the Mississippi in Ancient and Modern Days in 1897, 2013.