Chief Sweet Corn

[Dietmar]

Sept 9, 2009 15:34:44 GMT -5 lgarcia said:

Ojupi is the Indian name of Sweetcorn (Sisseton Dakota)
I don't know if the Sweetcorn name survives today at Sisseton (Lake Traverse). You could check the Census records.
Wasuiciyapi is Ojupi's son. I have seen thename translated as Hail Knocking Together (Wasu= hail, ici= upon ones self; yapi= they have). A little sloppy but you get the idea.
Ojupi was closely related to Standing Buffalo and Waanatan.
Later,
Louie

In addition to Louis´ reply I have found information in "Dakota Uprising" by Curtis Dahlin (Beaver´s Pond Press).

Chief Sweet Corn was born about 1813 and died in 1888.

Dahlin writes he visited the grave of Sweetcorn, who is buried on a hilltop overlooking Lake Traverse, near of the site of his village.
The inscription on the gravestone reads:
"James Sweetcorn, Wasuiciyapa, Died 1888, aged 75 Years, Chief and peacemaker"

It seems that both men, the father and his son, were mixed up here.

[rschliesman]

The 3rd agent at the Lake Traverse Reservation Moses Adams included the death of Wasuiciyapci, who he called Sweet Corn, in his annual report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1874 report, p. 237. 

[cinye80]

Sweetcorn or Ojupi (the Planter). He is supposed to be named because he developed a new variety of Corn.

James Wasuiciyapi gravestone is marked "died 1888, age 75" which makes his date of birth 1813 who was the son of Ojupi. (see below)
The photo of Ojupi can be found in the 1858 treaty delegation, sitting in the front row. Reference: The Dakota Uprising: A Pictorial History. By Curtis A. Dahlin
Edina, Minnesota: Beaver Pond Press, 2009. Mr. Dahlin was taken on private property to see James's grave.

In North Dakota we have the Sweetcorn Treaty 1858 between Chief Wilkie (Nabexxa) of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa and MatoWakan (Holy Bear) of the Yanktons with Makaideya (Burning Earth) of the Sissetons.
Signed in the vicinity of Brinsmade, North Dakota. This set the north and south boundary down the middle of Devils Lake.
This treaty just adjusted the boundary set down by the 1825 Treaty of Prairie du Chien.

The 1825 treaty was signed by Chief of the Ojibway: Emaydaska (Flat Mouth) and Dakota Chiefs: Ojupi I and Waanatan I.

The 1858 treaty signed by Ojupi, son of Ojupi, second Chief of the Sisseton and Yankton tribes, and Waanatan, son of Waanatan, first chief of the Sisseton and Yanktons.
They wish to abide by the 1825 agreement signed by their fathers. There is a fold in the paper which blots out a line in the document.

Copy of original 1858 treaty is in the archives of the North Dakota State Historical Society, Bismarck. (Wa= noun marker; Anatan = to rush or charge upon).

Louie Garcia Ft. Totten, ND.

[Dietmar]

Thanks Louie,

this is Sweet Corn in 1858:



Sweetcorn or Ojupi (the Planter), 1858

[gregor]

Hi Dietmar, I would agree - father and son seem to be mixed up.

There was an Ožupi “Planter” Sweetcorn I (1790 -1874) see: de.findagrave.com/memorial/209282412/o%C5%BEupi-sweetcorn

and his son James - Sweetcorn II - Wasuiciyapa (1813 - 1888), see: de.findagrave.com/memorial/59110016/james-wasuiciyapa-sweet_corn
Is the man in the photo really Sweetcorn II? He looks a little bit old to me for 45 Years.

This is the Treaty: www.dibaajimowin.com/tawnkiyash/defining-territory-sweet-corn-treaty-of-1858

BTW: Gabriel Renville, for many years a head chief of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux, was born in the spring of 1824 or 1825 at Sweet Corn's Village on the western shores of Big Stone Lake.

[gregor]

The following is from "CULTURAL RESOURCES INVESTIGATIONS AT THE LAKE TRAVERSE BOIS DE SIOUX PROJECT, ROBERTS COUNTY. SOUTH DAKOTA, TRAVERSE COUNTY, MINNESOTA" (University of South Dakota Archaeology Laboratory, Vermillion, South Dakota (September 1984):

" ... Sweet Corn, a Sisseton chief who supposedly earned his name after developing a particularly sweet and succulent variety of corn, had a village, . that included a large garden area, on the northwest shore of - Lake Traverse, north of Jim Creek near the present-day Kaufman Resort [?]. A dugout, located on a hilltop west of the village, was used as a lookout post for detecting approaching Chippewa warriors. A ditch connecting the dugout to the village allowed sentries to descend the hillside undetected to warn the village of approaching enemy warriors. During the Sisseton and Wahpeton claims trials Sweet Corn was accused of participating in the siege of Fort Abercrombie during the Dakota Uprising. Sweet Corn died in 1888 and his grave, marked by a monument, is situated on a hillside overlooking the Kaufman Resort.

Although most of the Sissetons and Wahpetons did not participate in the uprising, they fled from the advancing military force commanded by General Henry H. Sibley and spread out over the plains of Dakota Territory. After following a nomadic life for several years, the majority gradually gathered on the Coteau des Prairies, just west of the Lake Traverse - Big Stone Lake area, near Fort Wadsworth which was established in 1864. Since the Sisseton and Wahpeton had generally remained loyal to the U.S. Government during the uprising, a treaty signed in 1867 established a triangular -shaped reservation between Lake Traverse and Fort Wadsworth for these Dakota bands. The Sisseton Reservation, also known as the Lake Traverse Reservation, encompassing 918,770.58 acres, had its apex at Lake Kampeska, near presentday Watertown, South Dakota, and its base along, but not parallel to, the present North Dakota - South Dakota border.
The west shore of Lake Traverse formed a portion of the reservation's eastern boundary. By the 1880's, white settlers were pressuring the government to open the reservation to settlement. The Sisseton Reservation had been intact for 20 years when the Dawes Act became law in 1887. ...."