Category Archives: Wolfchild vs. U.S.

Background on our interest in Wolfchild vs. U.S.

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A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from Bruce White (left), a historian (his company: Turnstone Historical Research) I’d met back in 2002 at a ceremony dedicating the Minnesota Historical Society’s opening of the restored Hypolite Dupuis House (formerly known as the Sibley Tea House) in Mendota. (See this photo album for more photos from that day… click the photos above to enlarge.)

Bruce informed me about the Wolfchild vs. U.S (pdf) case moving through the federal courts, knowing that we trace our lineage to Hypolite Dupuis and his wife, Angelique Renville. Charles Wigley married one of their daughters, Marie Agnes Dupuis, and she’s listed on the 1899 McLaughlin census of Mdewakanton, along with her two children, Sarah and Herbert (my grandfather).

Angelique Renville (Dakota Name: Agatha We Oui Nar Xha [Red Woman] ) was the daughter of missionary Joseph Renville and his Dakota wife, Marie (Mary?), who was the sister of Wakoyantake (Big Thunder), chief of the Kaposia band of Dakota.

So ever since Bruce called, we’ve been trying to learn as much as we can about this case and decided to include what we’re learning via this Wigley family weblog. More to come.