Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-05-19
ANOTHER SUGGESTION.
If an Indian Name Is Wanted, Here
Is One.

At present some city papers, and
some people, are making complaints
because the street railway company has
dubbed the Rothschild grove, Pine park
1t don't sound well in their ears, and
they are offering all kinds of sugges.
tions as to what they term more appro-
PIRATE names-something more digni.
fed. Some have suggested Indian
names. If there is any possibility OF
the street railway company changing
the name to an Indian handle, and the
chances are slight. what's the matter
with Wau-ba-ka-nish park /?
Waubakanish was an old Chippewa
warrior who roamed this territory for
Overcome hundred years and this par
ticular section for over half century.
Do not let it be inferred that he was in
any way related to the long lived
Methuseleh. He was born in 1853 and
died in the winter or early spring of
1873. making him 120 years old. To
the whites who settled early in this sec.
tion he was known as "Old Waba."
According to the laws of the Indian
tribes when one OF their number reaches
an advanced age, ne is turned out to
die or banished FROM the tribe. If he is
unable TO procure his food and care for
himself he is "nepoed" or killed. Old
Waba was banished from his tribe in
1853, but through help from the whites
he was suffered to live for twenty years
after, and perhaps would have lived
longer had it not been for dose of
poison administered to him. He was q
familiar figure in this section whenever
the Chippewas and Winnebagos were
at peace.
His father was Chippewa and his
mother a Pottawatc-nie and he was
known as the warrior chief of the two
tribes. His connection with these two
tribes made him q powerful factor in
the councils of war or peace. In the
massacre of Ft. Dearborn, now Chica-
so, in 1872 the Chippewas were led in
part by Waba, and it was through his
influence in later years that the four
great tribes Of Central and Northern
Wisconsin-Chippewas, Menominees,
Winnebagos and OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
prevented from joining the .Sacs and
Foxes under Black Hawk in 1889. After
the Ft. Dearborn massacre old Waba
became the trusted friend of the wi. ties
and no further depredations were COM
mitted upon the settlers by his tribes.
For long time he made his home on
the Little Eau Pleine and Plover rivers
and was we'll known among the pioneer
river men who RATED lumber down the
Wisconse from the Wausau or Big Bull
Falls mills.
He had one son, another familiar
figure in this section in an early day,
Big Pappoose The latter was tower
of flesh and strength and "heap bad
Injun" when under the influence of
"skit-a-wa-boo." He died after drink
ing quart of alcohol and sleeping out
on logging road when the mercury
was below zero. Waba also had
daughter of the name of She. .mock-wa,
called She-mock for short.
In the last years of his life old Waba
was totally blind, and his daughter, it
was generally supposed, gave him
dose of poison. She-mock was lame
and walked with cane and when beg
ging always asked for five cents, thus
gaining the sobriquet, "Old Five Cents"
She lies buried down in the town of
Bergen, the silent and sluggish waters
Of the Little Eau Pleine passing within
q stones throw of her grave
Old Waba's bones repose somewhere
out on the banks of the Plover river,
the exact location not being known.
The name Waubakanish park might
be offensive to some-they might stutter
in trying to pronounce it-but it is at
least suggestive of an Indian who had
much to do with the early history of