Aksiáka (Third Daughter) Rasdall (abt. 1816 - bef. 1838)

Born about 1816 in Wisconsin, Illinois Territory, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Abel Rasdall — married 15 Dec 1834 in Duane, Wisconsin, Michigan Territory

Aksiáka was Ho-Chunk.

Biography

Birth

Aksiáka was born about 1816. She was the daughter of Mąkskaga White Breast.

Name

The name Onck-say-onc-ah fits Aksiáka quite well. The word aksiáka otherwise denotes a tame or dead bear. As a birth order name, it denotes the third born female.

Marriage and Children

"[There] personally appeared Abraham Rasdell a white man aged thirty two years, who being duly sworn 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‘ That he has one Child named Cain a Son begotten on the body of said Onck say onc ah that was three years old the fifteenth day of Jany last. that said child is smart and active, and residing with deponant at Four Lakes [in] the Wisconsin Territory. and deponant further says that on or about the first of March 1837, he was married according to the Indian custom to Naw waw chock wink ah sister to the said 0nc say onc ah and daughter of the aforesaid Indians—That he has one child named Sarah Ann a daughter begotten on the body of the said Naw waw chock wink ah said child was born Jany 22nd 1838 that said child is smart and active and residing at present with this deponant & its mother." 21 Sept. 1838 (Waggoner, 22b)

Death

Tragically, she died at a young age when her child was an infant. (Waggoner 22b) Butterfield (382) gives us the details: "He married a Winnebago woman by whom he had three children. She was a real help-meet to him in the Indian trade, but, accompanying him to Fort Winnebago at some Indian payment there, she sickened and died of small-pox, Rasdall alone attending her and burying her remains. He had been vaccinated when young, and did not take the disease."

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).
• Consul Willshire Butterfield (1824-1899), History of Dane County, Wisconsin ... preceded by a history of Wisconsin, statistics of the state, and an abstract of its laws and constitution and of the Constitution of the United States (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1880).