Local Native Americans Buried in Blue Wing Cemetery

Recently, through the kindness of part-time Lake Delton resident and neighbor Mary Fairchild, my wife and I were able to revisit the Blue Wing Cemetery near Tomah.  Mary is interested in Indian mounds and is rapidly becoming an authority on the subject.

The entrance to the Blue Wing Cemetery with spirit houses in the background.

We also visited the Decorah – Red Cloud Cemetery near Black River Falls.

Ho-Chunk Cemeteries that are exclusively Indian still have mounds in them which if properly covered with soil and seeded with grass lends charm to the cemetery.  If not they look like just another pile of dirt.  But the mounds are evidence that the local Indians are descended from the mound builders such as we have at Kingsley Bend as burial practices are among the last to change.

There are also spirit houses on many older graves.  These resemble little dog houses in the size of a coffin that are placed on top of graves.  We do not see them in the Spring Grove Indian Cemetery because the practice is not permitted there.

These spirit houses provided a place for the deceased person’s spirit to dwell until he/she returned to Manitou.  I did not see any new ones since we were there 20 years ago and all of them still present were mostly in a state of disrepair, but the building of mounds on graves continued unabated.

Blue Wing Cemetery is named for Ah-Who-Chloe-Ga which is Ho-Chunk for Blue Wing.  He used to live south of Reedsburg in Narrows Prairie where he was known to the white people as Artichoker.  His stone says he lived 149 years and died sometime after 1877.  Other reports by relatives say he lived to be 114.

My grandmother’s cousin, whose father used to live there as a boy in 1846, wrote me years ago that her father, George Barringer, used to play with him as a boy.  Since George was born in 1840 these dates do not reconcile very well with either of these advanced ages.

Blue Wing, like Old Decorah, got along well with both whites and Indians.  His stone calls him the last true Chief of his band.  After his death the band ceased as an organized group.

The cemetery seemed to have deteriorated somewhat since the last time we were there.  This is partly because spring cleanup had not yet been done.  Also, the lot next door was an unsightly collection of implements and old cars.

Here in Blue Wing Cemetery lies the final resting place of Roger (Little Eagle) Tallmadge who died in Saudi Arabia while on a goodwill tour in 1979.  He was well known in the Dells/Delton area as a prominent speaker.  He is buried only a stride from the Blue Wing marker.  Nearby is his son Randy who died a couple years ago.

Ross Curry kneels by the grave of Roger (Little Eagle) Tallmadge.

Also well known to Dells area residents is Richard Day who is buried near his parents and Howard Windlowe who often visited my parents house.

Nathan Bird who I met several times years ago is also interred here.  Many of the other names in the cemetery are families that I heard of but I did not personally know.  There are numerous mounds and old spirit houses in the cemetery.

Next week we hope to have more detailed life of Blue Wing and after that one on the Old Decorah/Red Cloud Cemetery.

This article was published in the “Wisconsin Dells Events,” Wednesday, April 22, 2009, http://www.wiscnews.com/wde/ , and was posted  by Mary Fairchild with permission by it’s author Ross M. curry.  Ross Curry is a local Dells historian and author.  Contact him at rcurrysr@verizon.net .

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