Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
TETES DE MORTS
TETES DE MORTS. French name meaning "heads of death." Site of a creek and rugged bluffs south of Dubuque, the area was, in the early days, the home of a band of WINNEBAGO. A chief of the tribe fell in love with the daughter of a FOX chief living near Prairie du Chien. One day, finding her in the company of another man, the Winnebago chief showed his contempt by spitting in her face. Her father vowed revenge.
Moving south with his braves, the Fox chief caught the unsuspecting Winnebago tribe asleep. Fierce fighting drove the defenders to the top of the bluff from which they jumped to their death rather than being made captives.
The approximate location of the site was first observed by white explorers and recorded on maps made in Paris in 1702 by Gullaume Delisle. When Julien DUBUQUE requested that Governor Franceso Luis Hector, Baron de Carondelet, the governor of Spanish Louisiana, grant him the possession to the MINES OF SPAIN he used the Tetes de Morts in his petition. Dubuque described his mining area as running from the heights above the Little Maquoketa River southward to the heights above the Tetes de Morts and three leagues wide.
