Sudden Flash of Lightning Jąbᵋjikerewįga (abt. 1817 - bef. 1896)

Sudden Flash of Lightning was Ho-Chunk.

Biography

Name

Jipson gives the phonetic rendering of her name as Champchekeriwinke, which he says means, "Flash of Lightning." Champchekeriwinke is very clearly a phonetic version of Jąbᵋjikerewįga, "Sudden Flash of Lightning." This comes from jąp, "lightning"; jikere, "to make a sudden movement, to do suddenly"; -wį-, an infix indicating feminine gender; -ga, a definite article suffix used in personal names. This is obviously a Thunderbird Clan name.

Lineage

The fact that Jąbᵋjikerewįga is at least an Upper Moiety name allows us to clarify her relationship to Four Legs. Marriages were always between people of opposite moieties, and given that Four Legs was of the Wolf Clan (Lower Moiety), Jąbᵋjikerewįga's mother must have been his sister, since a Lower Moiety woman would marry an Upper Moiety man, and their offspring would belong to that moiety. Given that Jąbᵋjikerewįga is an Upper Moiety name, she was born into that moiety. Therefore, Four Legs was her maternal uncle.

Life

"My name is Mauchhewemahnigo [Mąxiwimąnįga] (Walking Cloud). I was born on the Wisconsin River. I was about ten years of age when the treaty was held at Prairie du Chien [in 1825], where they fixed the boundaries between the Winnebagoes and the Chippewas and our cousins the Sioux. I went with my father to that treaty. My squaw's name is Champchekeriwinke [Jąbᵋjikerewįga] (Flash of Lightning). Her uncle was Hootschope (Four Legs). She was born at his village on Lake Winnebago. During the Black Hawk War, my father had his lodge near La Crosse. I did not go to the war; I was too young. But my brother did. His name was Seeorouspinka." (Narrative, 463)

Death

Concerning his time of death, Reuben Gold Thwaites writes in a footnote, "Moses Paquette writes me (Black River Falls, Nov. 6, 1895) that Walking Cloud still lives; his squaw, however, is dead." (Narrative, 463 nt. 1)

Sources

• "Narrative of Walking Cloud," Wisconsin Historical Collections, XIII (1895): 463-467.