384 



DEKANISORA— DEKAURY 



[b. a. e. 



he should Uve, and so resolved to rear 

 him. Rapidly he grew to man's estate, 

 and then, saying that he must take up 

 his foreordained work, departed south- 

 ward, first assuring his mother that in 

 the event of his death by violence or 

 sorcery, the otter skin flayed entire 

 which, with the head downward, he had 

 hung in a corner of the lodge, would 

 vomit l)lood. Dekanawida was probably 

 a Huron by blood, but perhaps an Iro- 

 quois by adoption. In the long and 

 tedious negotiations preceding the final 

 establishment of the historical confed- 

 eration of the five Iroquois tribes, he 

 endeavored to persuade the Erie and the 

 Neuter tribes also to join the confedera- 

 tion; these tribes, so far as known, were 

 always friendly with the Huron people, 

 and their representatives probably knew 

 of •Dekanawida's Huron extraction. 

 Many of the constitutional princi- 

 ples, laws, and regulations of the con- 

 federation are attributed to him. His 

 chiefshipdid not belong to the hereditary 

 class, but to the merit class, commonly 

 styled the ' pine-tree chiefs.' Hence, he 

 could forbid the appointment of a suc- 

 cessor to his office, and could exclaim, 

 "Toothers let there be successors, for 

 like them they can advise you. I have 

 established your commonwealth, and 

 none has done what I have. ' ' But it is 

 probable that prohibition was attributed 

 to Jiim in later times when the true nature 

 of the merit chiefs had become obscured. 

 Hence it is the peculiar honor of the 

 merit chiefs of to-day not to be condoled 

 officially after death, nor to have suc- 

 cessors to their chieftaincies. For these 

 reasons the title Dekanawida does not 

 belong to the roll of 50 federal league 

 chiefships. (j. n. b. _h. ) 



Dekanisora. An Onondaga chief who 

 came into prominence in the latter part 

 of the 17th century, chiefly through 

 his oratorical powers and his efforts to 

 maintain peace with both the French and 

 the English. He was first mentioned by 

 Charlevoix in 1682 as a member of an 

 embassy from the Iroquois to the 'French 

 at Montreal. He was also one of the em- 

 bassy to the French in 1688, which was 

 captured by Adario (Le Rat), and then 

 released by the wily captor under the 

 plea that there had been a mistake, blam- 

 ing the French for the purpose of widen- 

 ing the breach between them and the 

 Iroquois. Golden (Hist. Five Nat., i, 165, 

 1755) says Dekanisora was tall and well 

 made, and that he "had for many years 

 the greatest reputation among the Five 

 Nations for si^eaking, and was generally 

 employed as their speaker in their nego- 

 tiations with both French and English." 

 His death is supposed to have occurred 

 about 1730, as he was a very old man 



when he was a member of an embassy at 

 Albany in 1726. (c. t.') 



Dekanoagah ('between the rapids.' — 

 Hewitt) . A village, inhabited by Seneca, 

 Nanticoke, Conoy, and remnants of other 

 tribes, placed by Gov. Evans (Day, Penn., 

 391, 1843) in 1707 on Susquehanna r., 

 about 9 m. from Pequehan, the Shawnee 

 village on the e. side of the Susquehanna, 

 just below Conestoga cr., in Lancaster 

 CO., Pa. 



Dekaury, Choukeka. A chief, eldest of 

 the Winnebago, born about 1730. He 

 was the son of Sabrevoir De Carrie, an 

 officer of the French army in 1()99, and 

 Hopoekaw, daughter of a principal Win- 

 nebago chief, whom he married in 1729, 

 spoken of by Carver (Travels, 20, 1796) 

 as the queen of the Winnebago. Their 

 son, Choukeka ('Spoon'), was known 

 to the whites as Spoon Dekaury. After 

 having been made chief he became the 

 leader of attacks on the Chijjpewa during 

 a war with the Winnebago, but he main- 

 tained friendly relations with the whites. 

 It was principally through his influence 

 that the treaty of June 3, 1816, at St 

 Louis, Mo., was brought about. He died 

 at Portage, Wis., in the same year, leav- 

 ing 6 sons and 5 daughters. 



Dekaury, Konoka. The eldest son and 

 successor of Choukeka Dekaury, born in 

 1747. He was named Konoka ( 'Eldest' ) 

 Dekaury, and is often mentioned as "Old 

 Dekaury," but is equally well known as 

 Schachipkaka. Before his father's death, 

 in 1816, Konoka had joined a band of 

 Winnebago who took part, in 1813, in 

 tlie attack led by Proctor on Ft Stephen- 

 son, on lower Sandusky r., Ohio, which 

 was gallantly defended by Maj. George 

 Croghan. He fought also in the battle 

 of the Thames, in Canada. He was held 

 for a time, in 1827, as a hostage at Prairie 

 du Cliien for the delivery of Red Bird. 

 His band usually encamjied at the port- 

 age of Wisconsin r., the site of tiie present 

 Portage, Wis. Mrs Kinzie (Wan-Bun, 

 89, 1856) describes him as "the most 

 noble, dignified, and venerable of his 

 own or indeed of any other tribe," hav- 

 ing a fine Roman countenance, his head 

 bald except for a solitary tuft of long, 

 silvery hair neatly tied and falling back 

 on his shoulders, and exhibiting a de- 

 meanoralways courteous, while his dress 

 was always neat and unostentatious. An 

 unpleasant peculiarity of his face was an 

 immense hanging under lip. He signed 

 the treaty of Prairie du Chien Aug. 19, 

 1825, on behalf of the Winnebago, and 

 died on Wisconsin r. Apr. 20, 1836. 



Other members of the family, whose 

 name has been variously written DeKaury, 

 DeKauray, DayKauray, Day Korah, Da- 

 corah, and DeCorrah, were noted. From 

 Choukeka'sdaughters, who married white 



