When she was grown up, Mountain Wolf Woman left her first husband and married a man that her oldest brother, Crashing Thunder, recommended. In all, she had 11 children and lived in Wisconsin, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Oregon. She had a busy life. Mountain Wolf Woman continued to do many of the things she had done as a child—plant vegetable gardens, pick blueberries and cranberries, make mats, sew and cook, and go to feasts and dance. She also learned Indian medicines from a grandfather and worked as a midwife, helping other women have their babies.
Mountain Wolf Woman’s children had children, and these children have had children! Today, Mountain Wolf Woman’s descendants include nurses, schoolteachers, and bookkeepers. Some work for the Ho-Chunk Nation making sure that the Ho-Chunk people and their traditions continue to thrive in their homeland, the land we call Wisconsin.
Mountain Wolf Woman lived to be 76 years old. Through these years, she saw many changes around her. She herself also changed. In 1958, Mountain Wolf Woman flew to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and spent 5 weeks with her adopted niece, anthropologist Nancy Lurie. Mountain Wolf Woman liked the running water at Nancy Lurie’s house. But she did not trust the electric stove because she was used to cooking over an open fire outdoors or with a wood-burning oven. Sometimes, when Lurie was out of the house, Mountain Wolf Woman made her own meals in the living room fireplace and baked bread in the hot coals. At the age of 73, she even chopped the firewood! During those weeks, Mountain Wolf Woman shared her life stories with her niece. Because she did, people today know who Mountain Wolf Woman was and how she lived.
Mountain Wolf Woman in her later years