32 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



five warriors were painted during their imprisonment in Jefferson Bar- 

 racks, with cannon balls attached to their ankles, in 1832. 



The Prophet is a very distinguished man, and one of the principal and leading 

 men of the Black Hawk party, and studying favor with the whites, as will be seen 

 by the manner in which he was allowing his hair to grow out. — Page 211, Catlin's 

 Eight Years. 



The Prophet, or Wa-bokies-hick (White Cloud), is about 40 years old, and nearly 6 

 feet high, stout, and athletic; also called Opee-kee-Hieck. 



He was by one side a Winnebago, and the other a Sac or Saukie. He has a large, 

 broad face, short blunt nose, large full eyes, broad mouth, thick lips, with a full 

 suit of hair. He wore a white cloth hea.d-dress, which rose several inches above the 

 top of his head, the whole exhibiting a deliberate savageness — not that he would seem 

 to delight in honorable war, or fight, but marking him as the priest of assassination 

 or secret murder. He had in one hand a white flag. * * * He was clothed in 

 very white dressed deer-skins, fringed at the seams with short cuttings of the same. 

 This description was written before any portrait or engraving was made of him. 

 Drake's Book of the Indians, part 4, page 163. 



He carries with him a huge pipe, a yard in length, with the stem ornamented with 

 the neck feathers of a duck, and beads and ribands of various colors. To its center is 

 attached a fan of feathers. He wears his hair long all over his head. — Ibid. 



The Prophet was believed to have been the prime mover of the Black 

 Hawk war of 1831-'32. 



This personage (the orthography of whose name is given by some writers as Wa- 

 pa-she-ka) was an important character previous to and during the Black Hawk war. 

 His name signified "The Light," or, as otherwise defined, " White Cloud." It was 

 supposed that he was the chief instrument in plotting the war, and in giving encour- 

 agement to Black Hawk to engage in it. Colonel Whittlesey says he was a half-breed 

 Pottawottamie, but Wa-bo-ki-e-Shick himself claimed to be part Winnebago and part 

 Sac, his father belonging to one and his mother to the other of these tribes. It is cer- 

 taiu that his opinions and advice were held in much respect both by the Winnebagos 

 and the Sacs. He presided over a village known as the " Prophet's Village," on Rock 

 River, about 35 miles above the mouth, as early as 1824 and up to the breaking out 

 of hostilities. He constantly urged Black Hawk not to comply with the demand 

 for removal west of the Mississippi. When Black Hawk's lieutenant, Neopope [No. 

 8 herein] went to Maiden to consult his British father in regard to the right of 

 the Indians to retain their lands on Rock River, the latter on his return stopped at 

 the Prophet's village, where he remained during the winter. — Red Men of Iowa, page 

 269, 270. 



Here the scheme of revolt against the Government was completed. 



Wa-bo-ki-e-Shiek was captured with Black Hawk after the battle of 

 Bad Axe, and was his companion until released at Fort Armstrong in 

 August, 1833. 



He was an orator of note. His speech to President Jackson, at Wash- 

 ington, in 1833, was a model of brevity and frankness. 



At Norfolk, Ya., June 5, 1833, after his release from Fortress Monroe, 

 he addressed a mass of people from the balcony of the hotel : 



Brothers, the Great Spirit sent us here, and now happily we are about to return to 

 our own Mississippi and our own people. It affords us much happiness to rejoin our 

 friends and kindred. We would shake hands with all our white friends assembled 

 here. Shoald any of them go to our country, on the Mississippi, we would take 



