De Cora, Angel, 1871-1919

Angel De Cora Dietz (1871–1919) was a Winnebago painter, illustrator, Native American rights advocate, and teacher at Carlisle Indian School. She was a well-known Native American artist before World War I; Angel De Cora, also written Angel DeCora, or Hinook-Mahiwi-Kalinaka (Fleecy Cloud Floating in Place), was born at the Winnebago Agency in Dakota County (now Thurston), Nebraska, on May 3, 1871. She was the daughter of David Tall Decora, a Winnebago man with French ancestry and a son of the Little Decorah, a hereditary chief. Angel was born into the Thunderbird clan. Her English and Ho-Chunk names were chosen by a relative who was asked to name her, opened the Bible, and the word "angel" caught her eye. Her mother was a member of the influential LaMere family.

Angel was kidnapped at a young age from the agency and sent to school at the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School in Hampton, Virginia. She would go on to describe how it happened as follows: "A strange white man appeared on the reservation and asked her, through an interpreter, if she would like to ride on a steam car; with six other children, she decided to try it, and when the ride was ended she found herself in Hampton. '[It was] three years later when I returned to my mother' says Angel De Cora. 'She told me that for months she wept and mourned for me. My father and the old chief and his wife had died, and with them, the old Indian life was gone ...