Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020
Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ, or the Woman Who Sits at the High Place, was born in the Minnesota Valley area around 1817 among the large circle of her Dakota relatives.
According to some researchers, Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ was the daughter of Colonel Menary, a soldier at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and a “Sioux Indian girl.” Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ was a close relative of Ṡakpe II. According to Patricia Jeanine Arnold Cates, the great-great-granddaughter of Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ, her relative might be a full Dakota Indian because Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ’s father might be a Dakota, rather than a soldier. Patricia believes that she was full Dakota, but in census forms put her name as half Dakota to obtain scrip used for land purchase.
Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ grew up as a Mdewakaŋtoŋwaŋ, or Spirit Lake People, Eastern Dakota girl and young adult. She lived along the Mnisota Wakpá (or Minnesota River) Valley.
Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ wore long deerskin or elk skin dresses and moccasins on her feet. She also wore buffalo-hide robes in bad weather. Over time, Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ learned how to sew clothing using material from the fort.
Dakota women, like Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ, were in charge of the home. Besides cooking and cleaning, she helped build her family’s house and dragged the heavy posts with her whenever the tribe moved. Later, when she was married, Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ became in charge of the log cabin built in Tínṫa Otuŋwe near the springs at Prairie des Français on the Rivière Saint-Pierre. Houses belonged to the women in the Dakota tribes. Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ also took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine.
In 1837, she married Oliver Faribault in a civil/Indian ceremony. On February 11, 1844, Oliver married Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ (in a religious ceremony) at the St. Francois Xavier Sioux Mission, located at Little Prairie on the St. Pierre River. Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ spoke Dakota and French, and a bit of English.
Together, they had nine children: Gabriel Olivier Faribault (1838-December 1859); Olivier Emile (born about 1840); Angelique (birthdate unknown); Mary Josephine Jessie (born 1842); Jane Luce (born 1843); Pelagie Eliza (August 27, 1845-December 1, 1937); Sarah-Iréne (1847-May 23, 1924); Henriette Luce (born 1848); Lauren Philippe (born 1850).
Gabriel Olivier, who was born in 1838, probably was with Pelagie’s sibling, as is often done with young Dakota boys, in order to learn the Dakota way of living. He died in December of 1859. Oliver Emile, Angelique, Henriette Luce, and Lauren Philippe all died in infancy or early childhood.
In 1844, Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ and Oliver built and established a trading post near three springs, later called Faribault Springs, amid Tínṫa Otuŋwe, a Dakota summer planting village in what was later the east part of Shakopee.
Oliver was in his early thirties and Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ was about 27 years old when they moved to the area. Mary Josephine Jessie, their daughter, was two years old, and Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ was also pregnant with another daughter, Pelagie, who was born in 1845.
The Faribaults built their home on the west side of the springs. The original structure was a small cabin built with tamarack logs which were cut from a swamp nearby. It is likely that Oliver, as well as Joseph Godfrey, who was enslaved, both worked to build the cabin.
Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ spent her time as a mother and wife. She took care of Mary Josephine Jessie, Jane Luce, and Pelagie Eliza, along with Sarah-Iréne. Her last child, Lauren Phillippe, died in infancy in 1850. According to purchases in 1845-1846, the log cabin included a cookstove, and from 1842-1845 kitchen utensils included a pitcher, a coffee pot, a wrought iron tea kettle, four tin pans, three tin dishes, a set of blue cups and saucers, a dozen plates, six blue plates, four blue bowls, and a broom.
Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ’s husband, Oliver, died on October 12, 1850, after contracting quinsy while digging out Faribault Springs.
The girls were still very young when their father died. Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ, remained in the home and raised the four girls, Jessie, Jane, Eliza, and Sarah-Iréne. Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ preempted a quarter of the land in 1856 but gradually was forced to sell small parcels of it.
Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ died of typhoid fever on November 7, 1880. According to the Shakopee Argus, she had been unwell for weeks, but during the past ten days she was apparently improving.
Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ was buried at Valley Cemetery in Shakopee, Minnesota.
Eventually, the logs of the original house built by Oliver and Wakan Yaŋke Wiŋ were covered with wood frame siding. The house was lived in by the Faribault family until 1949 and was moved to Murphy’s Landing during 1969. Now a historic site, the house is used to interpret the fur trading era at The Landing in Shakopee.