Weshcubb, Chippewa Chief

Weshcubb, the Sweet, A Chippeway Chief
Weshcubb, the Sweet, A Chippeway Chief

Weshcubb, the Sweet, is a chief of Red Lake, north of the sources of the Mississippi. He is the son of Le Sucre, a chief who is mentioned by General Pike, in his narrative of his voyage up the Mississippi, in 1806. The similarity of the names of the father and son would seem to indicate the existence of some family trait of character, which was designed to be described by their respective names, which have reached us in English and French translations. The father died on Lake Superior, while on his return home from a visit to Michilimackinac. The son is represented as worthy of the place he holds in the estimation of his tribe. He is considered a just and good man, but has never evinced much capacity, nor shown a disposition to lead war parties. The family is noted for a singular freak of the son of Weshcubb, who feigned or fancied himself a woman, and assumed the female dress and employments. The cause of this transformation, so especially remark able in a savage, who considers the woman an inferior being, and in the son of a chief, who can aspire to the office of his father, if worthy, but not otherwise, is not known. It might have been suggested by a dream, or induced by monomania, or by some bodily infirmity. He, however, joined war parties, and after serving in seven expeditions, was at last killed by the enemy.


Collection:
McKenny, Thomas & Hall, James & Todd, Hatherly & Todd, Joseph. History of the Indian tribes of North America: with biographical sketches and anecdotes of the principal chiefs. Embellished with one hundred portraits from the Indian Gallery in the War Department at Washington. Philadelphia: D. Rice & Co. 1872.

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