Wabokieshiek

Wabokieshiek, commonly known as the Prophet, was a Ho-Chunk spiritual leader closely associated with Black Hawk and the Sauk resistance that culminated in the Black Hawk War of 1832. Living at Prophetstown on the Rock River, he combined religious authority with political influence and opposed the removal pressures and treaty claims that were displacing Native communities from Illinois and Wisconsin.

He advised Black Hawk and played an influential role in the movement that preceded the Black Hawk War. His town on the Rock River became known as Prophetstown, and his predictions of support from other nations and the British shaped the British Band’s decisions in 1832.

Robert Shea’s Shaman places Wabokieshiek—the Winnebago Prophet—inside the crisis that becomes the Black Hawk War. He is the religious and political figure encouraging Black Hawk’s British Band as Saukenuk is lost and the refugees are pursued across Illinois and Wisconsin, giving the novel a historical counterpart to Gray Cloud’s fictional apprenticeship as a healer and shaman.