The following is the 17th of a series of book excerpts the LCO News will feature from local author, John Dettloff. The excerpts will be from his new book.
Detloff has lived on the Chippewa Flowage, near New Post, for over 50 years. His family has had a small resort just east of New Post for 56 seasons and for 40 years he has been writing historical articles about the flowage, tribal history (especially Old Post), old guides, old resorts, and fishing.
His new book called Whispers of the Past, A History of the Chippewa Flowage, released on November 1st, gives a comprehensive history of the flowage going back to the fur trade era.
According to Detloff, the book profiles in great detail the people of the "Chippewa Basin" (the area that became flooded by the flowage) and talks about the 300 plus people who were affected by and displaced by the flowage. There were probably 250 plus tribal members and nearly 100 non-tribal members that were affected.
From the Book:
The Nekinse Family
With Pokegama Lake located within the heart of the village of Pahquahwong, it should come as no surprise how many people lived along its shores. In addition to the east end of the lake being well inhabited, the northern shore of Pokegama on its western side was also a perfect place in which to reside. This is where Nekinse lived. The patriarch of today’s Nickence family was known as Nekinse. He was born around 1826, likely in the village of Pahquahwong. The name that was chosen for him, “Ni kens,” means Little Goose in the Ojibwe language. His father and mother were Wabi Manido and Dad-ji-ga, and his paternal grandfather was known as Dedakoside.
Nikinse’s father had two brothers: Netamwewe and Anziwag. His uncle Anziwag had three sons named Bapiion, Andeg, and Nin-gi-win-zi: all of whom were Nekinse’s first cousins. Andeg, born around 1837, was the well-known Civil War veteran known as Vincent Crow, and Nin-gi-win-zi, born around 1823, was the grandfather of the famous ceremonial dancer John Frogg.
Nekinse’s wife was I-kwe-wish (which means, “Bad Woman”) and her parents were Wap-i-ges (“Little Rib”) and An-ji-gi-ji-go-kwe (“Woman who transplants things”). I-kwe-wish was born around 1841. Her mother, An-ji-gi-ji-go-kwe, was recorded as still living in Pahquahwong in 1893, at which time she was eighty-four years old. The 1877 Historical Roll of the Lac Courte Oreilles Bands listed Nekinse and I-kwe-wish as having six children living on the reservation at the time, all of whom were likely born in Pahquahwong. Three of those children who were listed as adults were Missabe, their son, and Odabasaamokwe and Nitamigigidokwe, their daughters.
Nekinse’s son Missabe (also known as John Goslin Sr. or John Sherman) was born around 1853 in Pahquahwong. After marrying an Ojibwe woman named Mary, who was born about 1868, they had five children, one girl and four boys, named Mary, Michael, Andeg Jr., John Jr., and Edward. Missabe and his family lived in a house that he had built on his allotment along the western shores of the West Fork of the Chippewa River, located about one mile upstream from where the Chief River entered the West Fork.
There was a branch road that went from the village center of Pahquahwong to Missabe’s home. When traveling on the Chippewa Road westward through Pahquahwong, once past Thayer’s Hotel, the branch road to Missabe’s veered off to the right and followed alongside the west edge of the West Fork of the Chippewa River, northwards for about a mile, until it reached the Chief River just above its confluence with the West Fork. After fording the Chief River, a traveler would find that the branch road continued to the northeast about three quarters of a mile, along the west edge of the West Fork, until it terminated at Missabe’s place.
Although to the north of his home was a large meadow and wetland area which extended off the west bank of the river, the south end of his property was well wooded. On September 17, 1883, Missabe contracted to have the timber cut on his allotment at a rate of $6 per 1000. It was during the winter of 1883-84 when the logging job took place, at which time 1,150 logs were cut on his property that totaled 264,390 board feet and earned him $1,586.34… before expenses were paid out to the tribal crews who cut and banked the timber for him. With Missabe’s allotment located right on the West Fork, and him likely doing much of the work himself, labor costs were greatly reduced.
Missabe was no stranger to logging; he worked as a laborer in the lumber camps regularly. Tragedy struck one cold February day in 1889 while he was away from his family working at camp. His wife Mary had left the house to get some firewood and somehow the house caught fire; presumably, it may have been accidentally started by one of the children. The house was destroyed and their two sons, Michael and Andeg Jr., who were only one and four years old, perished in the fire. Upon Missabe’s return he was met with the devasting news from his wife.
In December of 1917, Missabe was so ill that the doctor was summoned from Hayward to care for him. On December 27, 1917, he died. Four and a half years later, when the waters of the Chippewa Flowage flooded the landscape, most of Missabe’s land and his home were swallowed up by the flowage. (Today, the large bay that is located across the river from his home site, just to the southeast, is called Sherman’s Bay, a spot that was named after Missabe (aka, John Sherman).
The Nekinse’s had another daughter named A-te-ge-kwe (Gambling Woman), who was born around 1855 in Pahquahwong. A man named William Gordon, a logger who regularly visited The Post during the early 1870s, met A-te-ge-kwe on one of his visits. They married in 1874, at which time A-te-ge-kwe left her home and moved to the town of Gordon, Wisconsin, to live with her husband near the trading post that his father Antoine (Gaudin) Gordon had founded there in 1860. Antoine Gordon was a first cousin, through his mother, to the legendary Ojibwe chief known as Hole-in-the Day, the Younger. Antoine’s son William Gordon, who was metis (mixed blood), and his full blood Ojibwe wife A-te-ge-kwe went on to have twelve children, the most well-known of whom was Philip B. Gordon.
Born on March 31, 1885, in Gordon, Wisconsin, Philip was given the Indian name of Ti-bish-ko-gi-jik, meaning “looking into the sky.” This name was very fitting – and prophetic – because he had developed a calling early on in life to become a priest. Upon being ordained as a Catholic priest in December of 1913 – and after fulfilling assignments he had been given in various other places – in January of 1918, Father Gordon was finally blessed to be assigned to the one place where he felt that he could do the most good, ministering to his own people on the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation. There he served as both a spiritual and political champion for his fellow Ojibwe, and when the issue of creating the Chippewa Flowage came up, Father Gordon channeled the spirit of his Pahquahwong ancestors to galvanize his resolve to become a tireless fighter for both fair treatment and the rights of his people. In 1918, after many of his friends and fellow Ojibwe encouraged him, Father Gordon ran (unsuccessfully) for the Republican nomination of the 11th Wisconsin District Congressional seat.
A women named Gi-wi-ta-gi-go-kwe, also known as Jeannie Bell, was another of Nekinse and I-kwe-wish’s daughters. She was born around 1862 and married a man named Joseph Bell (Chin-go-jig) around 1881. Together they had three children between 1881 and 1885: Josette, Mary Frances, and Susan. Shortly after the birth of her children, Gi-wi-ta-gi-go-kwe died in about 1887 at the age of twenty-five. Josette must have died young because she vanished from the records, but her two sisters grew up and had families, with Mary marrying a laborer named Frank Frost and Susan marrying a teamster named Charles Baker.
The youngest of Nikense’s children was Mitchell Nekinse, who was born around 1877 at Pahquahwong. Mitchell married Esther James on September 15, 1902, and they had one daughter named Nellie. Esther James was born in 1879 at Pahquahwong, the daughter of Indian Jim (Oja-wash-ko-gi-jig Jr.) and Julia James (Wabiginikwe). Mitchell and Esther divorced, and around 1912, he married Julia Coon… with whom he had twelve children. Mitchell worked as a logger and did resort work, passing away in 1961.
In June of 1881, Nikense was granted a land patent for the 81-acre allotment that he had selected along the north shore of Pokegama Lake. Located on a high, picturesque natural ridge, it offered a most remarkable view of the lake and its meadows, wetlands, and rice beds which blanketed the western tip of Pokegama Lake. There, Nikense built a spacious, sturdy log house, with a good-sized woodshed attached to it. He and his wife maintained a large garden nearby to provide for their food needs.
Nekinse died around 1895 and his wife I-kwe-wish died sometime between 1910 and 1917. Their allotment on Pokegama Lake was inherited by their two surviving children, A-te-ge-kwe and Mitchell Nekinse, and three of their grandchildren, who chose to sell it to the Wisconsin-Minnesota Light and Power company for $650.72 on March 17, 1922.
(To order a copy of John Dettloff's new book, send a check or money order for $29.95, plus $6 shipping and 5 1/2% sales tax, made out to Trails End Publishing and send it to: Trails End Publishing, 7431 N Flowage Rd., Couderay, Wi 54828.)
