by Betts Bodoh - Correspondent

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(Wabeno News) - Hi everybody.

On July 10, 1993 I received this letter in the mail from some people we had met at the flea market in Townsend. You all might find it interesting. At the time we were wandering around at this flea market wearing T-shirts that had Wabeno on the front of them. Ed and Julie McAllen from Galesville, WI, saw us there and asked if we knew what the name Wabeno meant? They later sent us this letter with the description of the name. It was in a book called “Indians of Wisconsin.” This is an excerpt from that book.

“The Wabeno was named for the Morning Star and he obtained his power to do good and evil from it. Indians, however, thought that the Morning Star was more evil than good and greatly feared the Wabeno. Often the Wabeno would obtain his powers during his vision quest as a child, but he could not practice his medicine until he was at least middle-aged because of fear of losing his vision’s power and perhaps even losing his life.

The Wabeno often used his powers to inflict harm on a person, so the members of the tribe were very afraid of him. He was supposed to have supernatural powers such as being able to hold hot coals in his hands without getting burned, or he could plunge his hands into boiling water or maple syrup without getting injured.

He was also supposed to be able to change into the shape of animals such as bears, foxes or eagles. Occasionally he was seen in the shape of a fireball at night.

The Wabeno had the greatest knowledge about plants and their properties. Warriors would go to him to obtain charms for hunting, and a lover would seek his help in finding charms that would make the desired woman fall in love with him.

Some of the Wabeno’s work was done with puppets or fetishes - objects that were believed to possess supernatural powers that could bring about the desired results. These puppets or fetishes might be used to bring good health, cause illness in an enemy, or cause a woman to fall in love.

When an Indian developed an illness or had bad luck in hunting, he might suspect that a Wabeno was working evil against him. To counteract it, he would see the powers of a different and hopefully stronger Wabeno to overcome the illness or bad fortune. This might bring on a duel between two Wabeno to see which was the more powerful one.”

So now that is one description of the name and if I know all of you a little bit, I bet each one of you has heard another story about the name. I hope you will write or e-mail me with your stories of this I would like to print them.

I received a call from Bob Doucette, he and his wife LaVon live in Alaska. What a life they have. Winter all night and summer all day. He was explaining to me how it is and that is what I got out of it. Now I know that is not what he said but oh well. Do you know he performed wedding ceremonies? Two of them in fact. He explained that too. Hmmm! It went something like this, they don’t have places in a lot of areas where it is easy to have access to a Justice of the Peace or Minister. So people order the license then specify the person they want to marry them and on that date with that person presiding they then can be married and Bob was the selected one. Only in Alaska can this happen? I wonder. You should hear his fish stories. To think he once lived here in little ole Wabeno. What an honor, what a guy. Don’t you just love this place? I do.

Any news or interest write Betts Bodoh, P.O. Box 222, Wabeno, WI. 54566, call 715-473-3808, or e-mail to lobolu@centurytel.net.

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