Hopįga Good Voice (abt. 1797)

Born about 1797 in Wisconsin, Northwest Territory, United States

Descendants

Hopįga was Ho-Chunk.

Biography

Name

The name Hopįga is superficially a male name, whose analysis is straightforward: ho means, "voice"; pį means, "good"; and -ga is a definite article used in personal names. The female name ought to end in -wį-ga, where -wį- is a feminine gender infix. What has apparently happened is that the pį-wį has resolved to pį̄ so that Hopįwįga becomes Hopį̄ga. The name Hopįga, "Good Voice," is an Upper Moiety name. The male line of White Breast, her husband, were members of the Bear Clan, which is Lower Moiety (Earth Moiety). The rule was that a member of a moiety always married a member of the other moiety, which is what we see here. The name Hopįga refers to the clarion voice of raptorial birds.

Children

"[There] personally appeared Abraham Rasdell a white man aged thirty two years, who being duly swom according to Law doth depose and say that about the fifteenth day of December 1834 he was married with Onck say onc ah a full Blood Winnebago woman daughter of Monk skaw kah & Hopink ah according to Indian custom." (Waggoner, 22b)

Sources

• Linda M. Waggoner (ed.), “Neither White Men Nor Indians: Affidavits from the Winnebago Mixed-blood Claim Commissions, Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, 1838-1839” (Roseville, Minnesota: Park Genealogical Books, 2002). Extracted from Territorial Papers of the United States, Wisconsin, 1836-1848. M236. “Special Files of the Office of Indian Affairs,” 1836-46. “Special File 161” (Roll 41). “Special File 190” (Roll 42). National Archives, Washington D.C., Documents on Microfilm, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Record Group 75).