Betsy Thunder

Betsy Thunder (c. 1850s – 1913) was a medicine woman of the Ho-Chunk tribe, also known as the Winnebago Sky Clan. Thunder is believed to have been born in the 1850s on native Ho-Chunk land near Black River Falls in Wisconsin. Her exact birth year is not known due to the loss of spoken history. Thunder was part of the respected Decorah bloodline. However, Betsy Thunder is said to have used herbs and other natural remedies to heal her patients.

Greatest accomplishment Betsy Thunder was known for treating both Ho-Chunk and white patients alike. One of her greatest accomplishments was healing John Mills, the son of a white businessman, Hugh B. Mills, after all other white medical practices failed to improve John's health. An oil painting honoring Betsy Thunder was added to the Black River Memorial Hospital art collection in recognition of her respected position as medicine woman. However, Betsy Thunder refused and instead remained in her ancestral land in the mountains at Jackson County for the years leading up to her death in nineteen thirteen. The Ho-Chunk people were described by the French as powerful and skilled warriors who were often in conflict with other tribes. She inherited her chiefdom from her father who is said to have been a powerful Ho-Chunk chief. She ruled for decades despite the losses of land and crops that came with European expansion. Ho-poe-kaw resisted such losses and continued to reside in her homelands, and like many others at the time, married a French fur trader with whom she had several children. Ho-poe-kaws bloodline, the Decorah bloodline, became a well respected name. The Decorah family is said to have become one of the most powerful Winnebago families, with many of its kin becoming respected members of the Ho-Chunk tribe and participating in the signing of peace treaties in the early 1800s. In the mid-1800s, when Betsy Thunder was born, some of the Ho-Chunk continued to reside in their ancestral lands in Wisconsin, but they continued to face challenges with western expansion. Betsy Thunder, like others in the Decorah lineage, gained the respect of her people through her practices as a medicine woman, and resided in her ancestral land until the time of her death.