John was a man from the (Ho-Chunk) Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska
(Curator Note: Wikitree identifies his tribe as Ho-Chunk. The Ho-Chunk, also known as the Winnebago, are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, and are now represented by the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.)

The Ho-Chunk: A History of Removal and Endurance
Like most groups of Native American peoples, the Ho-Chunk, commonly called the Winnebago, have a long, unfavorable history of forced removal and ethnic cleansing at the hands of the U.S. government. Originally residing on what is now Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula, the Ho-Chunk were given the name Ouinepegi by the French, a term heard as Winnebago by U.S. officials. It translates roughly to “People of the Stinky Waters” and is thought to have been given to them because of their location near scented marsh lands. Correctly termed Hochungra, or “The People with the Big Voice”

Tribal boundaries negotiated at the 1825 Prairie du Chien treaty
It was shortly after the War of 1812 that the U.S. government gained an interest in the region inhabited by the Ho-Chunk. The first treaty between the U.S. and Ho-Chunk was signed in 1816 to end hostilities heightened by the War of 1812. Then, in 1825, the U.S. and an assortment of Native groups, including the Ho-Chunk, negotiated the Treaty of Prairie du Chien, an agreement that established firm boundaries among those Native groups. Even though the Ho-Chunk had not ceded any territory, miners pursuing rich lead deposits quickly began moving into the region. This led to a violent incident in 1827 that became known as the Winnebago War. Following the incident, new treaty negotiations were held in 1829 in which the Ho-Chunk reluctantly agreed to sell a portion of their land.

A few years later the Ho-Chunk became embroiled in the Black Hawk War of 1832 with divided loyalties among them. With the loss of the war, the Ho-Chunk were compelled to sign a new treaty. In this treaty, the Ho-Chunk agreed to sell their land in southeastern Wisconsin in exchange for land in eastern Iowa along with annual cash payments and other provisions. Known as the Neutral Ground, the Ho-Chunk’s new territory was selected by the U.S. government as a buffer zone between the warring Dakota tribes to the north and Sauk and Meskwaki to south. Five years later, the same year the Ojibwe and Dakota signed a major land cession treaty, the Ho-Chunk ceded their remaining Wisconsin lands and those Ho-Chunk that did not agree to the 1832 treaty were removed to the Iowa Neutral Ground reservation.

The so-called Neutral Ground proved unlivable for the Ho-Chunk and by 1848 they were removed again. This time, the Ho-Chunk were sent north to Minnesota Territory where they were resettled at the Long Prairie Reservation.

Cessions of Ho-Chunk Homelands: 1829, 1832 and 1837
In 1853, the Ho-Chunk negotiated the Watab Treaty which was to give them five hundred thousand acres of land further south on the Crow River, near the Mississippi. However, settler-colonialists of the burgeoning settlement of Saint Anthony feared the Ho-Chunk’s new land would impede on future expansion of the white settlements. Therefore, the Watab Treaty was never ratified. Instead, in 1855, the Ho-Chunk ceded 897,900 acres of their land near Long Prairie in exchange for two hundred thousand acres along the Blue Earth River, just south of Mankato.

Relocations of the Ho-Chunk Tribe
..according to Wisconsin First Nations, “the Ho-Chunk Nation is not located on a reservation or a single continuous land base in Wisconsin, but rather, the Ho-Chunk Nation owns land in fourteen counties in Wisconsin, including Adams, Clark, Crawford, Dane, Eau Claire, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Marathon, Monroe, Sauk, Shawano, Vernon and Wood Counties and also land in the State of Illinois.” Those that stayed in Nebraska are still there today and are called the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. It’s clear now that from 1816 to 1874, the U.S. government perpetrated a continuous effort to remove and ethnically cleanse the Ho-Chunk people...
Source: Mustful, Colin. “The Ho-Chunk: A History of Removal and Endurance.” Colin Mustful, 2 May 2022, www.colinmustful.com/ho-chunk/.

Biography:
John Rave was born c. 1856 to unknown parents it seems in Minnesota. there are varying reports that his parents were born in Wisconsin or Illinois. John married twice.

Marriages:
His first marriage was to Alice (or Sally or Allie) Baker as early as 1894 or earlier as he had a son born c. 1889. Alice died before June 30, 1915, and John remarried before June 30, 1917 to Mrs. U.S. Grant. They had no children.

In the earlier censuses, his wife is always referred to as "Mrs. Rave", which at least incidentally conceals any change in his wives' identity.

He was one of the men "married" to the polyandrous Sallie (or Allie) English, who kept the surname of one of her other husbands, William Baker. She was in the habit of changing her residence within the Winnebago Reservation fairly often. She was living with John Rave as her husband in 1893, 1898, 1900-1902, 1910, and 1913 censuses.

In the last years of his life, in 1915 or 1916, he married the elderly widow of U. S. Grant. Apart from her Hocąk name, Wakąjaziwewįga, "Traveling Yellow Thunder", she was known only as "Mrs. U. S. Grant". She died a few years after John on 19 December 1924.

John Rave and Family, probably wife Allie Baker and son Wauk-Cho-Ne-Kaw 'Charles' Rave c. 1900

Religion:
John Rave may be fairly described as the founder of the Native American Church (Peyote Cult) among the Hocąk (Winnebago) tribe. Oliver Conąkehųka F. LaMere gives an account of John Rave's role:

John Rave belonged to the Bear clan, the members of which had the functions of what might be called sergeants-at-arms. He and his ancestors used to be in charge of the manupetci (i. e., the sergeants-at-arms lodge), to which all malefactors would be brought for punishment.

Rave, although he belonged to this highly respected class of people, was a bad man. He roamed from place to place. He has participated in all the ceremonies of the Winnebago, the medicine dance alone excepted. He had been married many times. Up to 1901 he was a heavy drinker. In that year he went to Oklahoma and while there ate the peyote. He then returned to the Winnebago and tried to introduce it among them, but none with the exception of a few relatives would have anything to do with it. This did not in any way discourage him, however, and he continued using the peyote, now and then getting a few converts. There was not very much religion connected with it in the beginning and the reason people drank it was on account of the peculiar effects it had upon them.
Nevertheless these Peyote people preached good things and gradually lost all desire for intoxicating drinks or for participating in the old Winnebago ceremonies. Then Rave began to do away with the old Indian customs. About four or five years ago the membership in the Peyote religion began to increase, for many people now noticed that those connected with the Peyote cult were the only people in the tribe leading a Christian life. (Radin 394)
Source: Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990); John Rave's Account of the Peyote Cult and of His Conversion @ https://hotcakencyclopedia.com/ho.JohnRavesAccount.html
(Curator Note: Paul Radin (April 2, 1883 – February 21, 1959) was an American cultural anthropologist and folklorist of the early twentieth century specializing in Native American languages and cultures.)

According to the book Vanished in Hiawatha, author Carla Joinson says nothing about John, other than he was Winnebago. [This is speculation, but...given his use of peyote, peyote intoxication is not out of the question as a diagnosis that would have been acceptable to Harry Hummer to accept John as a patient/inmate. : (Peyote use can result in visual or auditory hallucinations. The drug can produce a phenomenon known as synesthesia, where an individual may experience alterations in perception such as hearing colors or seeing sounds. )ther symptoms may include: euphoria. anxiety, an altered thought processes, a distorted perception of space and time, a distortion in how the body feels (e.g., weightlessness), more intense sensory experiences (seeing brighter colors, hearing more acutely, etc.), and an altered sense of reality (e.g., sense of being able to communicate with deities and/or transcend the earth).)]

This photo of John is dated c. 1908, but he looks younger than the photo above, his hair is not gray so the photo seems to be a studio portrait (enhanced and edited by dvb using tools at MyHeritage). The source of this photo is probably the book by Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990)

Original B&W provided by Richard Dieterle on 29 Nov 2020 at Find a Grave

His profile is part of the https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Canton_Asylum.

Research Notes:
-John Rave was NOT in the 1904 or 1910 censuses of the Winnebago Indians of Wisconsin
__________
Sources:

John Wanįkšujᵋxųnųnįka Rave
Born 1856 in Minnesota Territory, United States
Died 1917 at about age 61 in Thurston, Nebraska, United States
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rave-22

1891 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6FPN-1X5M : Sun Mar 10 01:21:38 UTC 2024), Entry for John Rave, 1891, pg. 748/750, line 1208 (age 37, single), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebraska

1894 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPS2-Q3MB : Mon May 06 17:37:45 UTC 2024), Entry for John Rave, from 1890 to 1899, pg. 365/792, line 1182 (age 40), census of the Winnebago Indians, Omaha and Winnebago Agency, Nebraska

1900 Jun 16 - "United States, Census, 1900", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MST8-DNM : Wed Feb 19 06:52:02 UTC 2025), Entry for John Rave and Allie Baker, 1900, pg. 190/208, line 29 (age 43), census of the Winnebago Precinct, Thurston County, Nebraska

(Curator Note: says father and mother were from Illinois?)

1904 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll663unit/page/n91/mode/1.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 92/332, line 484 (age 48), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebraska

1905 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll663unit/page/n152/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 153/332, line 486 (age 49), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebraska

1906 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll663unit/page/n205/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 206/332, line 487 (age 50), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebraska

1907 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll663unit/page/n259/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 260/332, line 471 (age 51), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebraska

...There was no 1908 census

1909 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll663unit/page/n309/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 310/332, line 485 (age 53), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebraska

1910 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4NN1-2XN2 : Sat Jul 13 22:21:26 UTC 2024), Entry for John Rave, 1912, pg. 79/522, line 480 (age 54), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebr.

1911 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGT8-RCTW : Tue Jan 14 06:58:38 UTC 2025), Entry for John Rave, 1911, pg. 209/522, line 521 (age 55), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebr.

1912 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll664unit/page/n304/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 305/519, line 785 (age 56, B.H.S.), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebraska

1913 Jun 30 "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4JC3-Q6T2 : Sat Jan 18 14:50:37 UTC 2025), Entry for John Rave, 1912, pg. 407/522, line 802 (b=1856), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebr.

1914 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGR2-B36F : Sat Jan 11 19:15:25 UTC 2025), Entry for John Rave, 1914, pg. 508/522, line 815 (b=1856, B.H.S.), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebr.

1915 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:48BB-JS6Z : Sat Jan 18 20:28:53 UTC 2025), Entry for John Rave, 1916, pg. 40/681, line 810 (b=1856, B.H.S.), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebr.

1915 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:48VW-BW3Z : Sat Jul 06 12:04:34 UTC 2024), Entry for John Rave, 1916, pg. 85/681, line 810 (b=1856, B.H.S.), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebr.

1916 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:48BB-JS6Z : Sat Jan 18 20:28:53 UTC 2025), Entry for John Rave, 1916, pg. 131/681, line 808 (b=1856), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebr.

1917 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4813-QNT2 : Fri Jul 19 15:40:05 UTC 2024), Entry for John Rave, 1916, pg. 189/681, line 808/856, (b=1856), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebr.

1917 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11489849/john-rave: accessed April 7, 2025), memorial page for John Rave (1856–1917), Find a Grave Memorial ID 11489849, citing James Rave Cemetery (aka Meseal Cemetery), Winnebago, Thurston County, Nebraska, USA; Maintained by Linda Harwell (contributor 47129105).

"Meseal Cemetery: Prior to 2001, the cemetery was known as the Peyote Cemetery or the Native American Church Cemetery. In 2002, the cemetery was officially renamed the “James Rave Cemetery”. The cemetery is currently in fair condition and is under the jurisdiction of the Winnebago Wake & Burial (WW&B) established in 1975 by the tribe."

Rave, John, b. 1856, d. 1917, "Sleep in Jesus", Oldest Grave In Cemetery, son of James Rave

1917 - "BillionGraves Index", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6B3N-XFHX : Wed Feb 26 05:06:10 UTC 2025), Entry for John Rave.

John Rave
Born: 1856
Died: 1917
Meseal Cemetery
Winnebago, Nebraska

1918 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll665unit/page/n252/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 253/678, line 798 (John Rave now deceased), census of the Winnebago Indians, Winnebago Agency, Nebraska