The name Sweetcorn was given to a Sisseton Dakota leader because he supposedly developed a new sweet variety of corn. His name is Ojupi (Oh-zhu’-pee) which translates the Planter. He was born circa 1790 and died in 1874. He is known as Ojupi I as his son, Ojupi II born in 1813 and Died in 1888. He was known as James Wasuiciyapa (Wha- soo’- ee-chee-yah-pah) Holding Hail in his Mouth. Chief Waanatan I (1795 -1940) and Ojupi ! were co-leaders of an Earth Lodge village located on the west side of Lake Traverse. The mother of Waanatan I, was probably a daughter of Ojupi I. When The famous Yanktonai Dakota Chief Waanatan I was assonated in 1840 his family dissolved. Sons Red Thunder II and Catfish moved away and are historically mentioned as Pabaksa (Cut-Head) Yanktonai, while Waanatan II decided to stay with his mothers’ people the Sisseton Dakota.

The co-village composed of earth lodges was located on the west side of Lake Traverse (Bde Hdakinyan = Crosswise Lake) in what is now Roberts County, South Dakota. In 1825 Ojupi One, traveled to Prairie du Chien [Wisconsin] at the request of the United States Government to meet with former enemy tribes to establish the boundary of each nations land. This meeting led to the Treaty of 1825 which is the origin of various nations land ownership. In 1851 Ojupi One, may have signed this famous treaty in which the Dakota sold all their land claimed in the State of Minnesota, except for a strip of land located on both sides of the Minnesota River. Ojupi One, had his photograph taken when he traveled to Washington, D.C. to sign away the north half of the land, some 10 miles by 140 miles, on behalf of the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota in 1857. In 1862 the Dakota realized they were cheated out of the funds received, went to war to take the land back, known as the Minnesota Uprising. The Dakota were defeated in a series of battles and fled west. The next year 1863 General Sibley and his army pursuing the Dakota burnt the earth lodge village.

Fleeing west and then north to Fort Gary [Winnipeg, Manitoba] to ask for aide based on the promise made by the British during the War of 1812 for the Dakota warriors service against the Americans. Aide was mostly rejected because the British wanted to remain neutral in the American Indian wars. Waanatan II and Ojupi I attack Fort Abercrombie now located in Ransom, County, North Dakota, without success. Fleeing west pursued by General Sibley they participate in the battle of Big Mound in which the Teton Lakota were drawn into the fight although they had nothing to do with the war in Minnesota. The Dakota and Lakota forces cross the Missouri River at a location now known as Mary College, Mandan, North Dakota. Sibley gives up the pursuit and returns to Minnesota.

Waanatan II and Ojupi I returned north to Pembina to see Father Andre to make a peace with their old enemy, the Metis. Andre councils them to surrender, but are afraid they will be hung as the other Dakota were at Mankato, Minnesota. Major Hatch who was in the area was cautioned by Sibley not to kill any peace chiefs including Ojupi ! as they would become hostile and the war continued. Most of the buffalo have moved west of the Missouri River making for poor hunting and putting the Dakota into an almost starving condition. Ojupi I now travels to Fort Wadsworth seeking aide, but refuses to surrender. In 1866 the Dakota are at Fort Rice [located south of Bismarck, North Dakota] and again refuse to surrender. Ojupi I stated he didn’t have blood stained hands- didn’t kill any white people. He said because of the war, the Dakota lost their treaty annuities from the 1851 treaty, and also lost their land in Minnesota. In the spring 1867 he Refuses to go to Washington to sign the peace treaty with the Government and the Sisseton – Wahpeton Dakota. In the summer of 1867 smallpox swept away many of the Indian people. In 1869 smallpox returned killing some 741 along the Missouri River. Many also died of starvation as the buffalo had disappeared. The father and son Ojupi eventually came into the Lake Traverse Reservation, established with the 1867 Sisseton Wahpeton Treaty. Young Ojupi, the Planter is designated as Little Wheat in the historical record.

The 1858 Sweetcorn Treaty in which Wasuiciyapa [Ojupi II) and Waanatan II reaffirm their fathers participation in the 1825 Treaty is located: www.diaajimowin.com/tawnkiyash/defining -territory-sweet-corn-treaty-of-1858.

Now I have reached the end as there was little information to be gleamed from the historical record. Most of the above information was learned from master historian Mark Diedrich.

Bibliography

Cox Bill https;//www.findagrave.com/59110016/james-wasuiciyapa-sweet_com

Dahlin, Curtis Dakota Uprising. Beavers Pond Press

Diedrich, Mark The Odyssey of Chief Standing Buffalos Northern Sisseton Sioux. Coyote Books, Minneapolis/ Kasson, Minnesota 1988.

Schliesman, R. Report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1874 Report of Sweetcorn [Ojuipi I] death. A Post on American-Tribes.com

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