The History of the Indian Tribes of North America
Thomas McKenney and James Hall
Waemboeshkaa, a Chippeway Chief
Colonel McKenney called this Chippewa chief one of the “most remarkable” he met at the 1826 Fond Du Lac treaty council. The Indian superintendent reported Waemboeshkaa was the only man present “who seemed to have a right conception of the kingly crown, and to have succeeded in constructing a very successful imitation of that appendage of royalty.”
McKenney and the other commissioners noted that Waemboeshkaa was not an outstanding orator or statesman but he certainly was the peacock of the large council. He seemed to have a flair for the dramatic and even came late so he could strut and show off “the ornaments of his person.”
Painter: Original by James Otto Lewis, Fond du Lac council, 1826, later copied in Washington by Charles Bird King