Sho-Nay-Bagga-Ma, Notable Door County Founding Female

Karin Kopischke, Patti Podgers and Paul Burton researched and depicted notable Door County women in history in Garments of our Foundation. Read about Mary Ann Walker Claflin’s story below.

Read more about Garments of Our Foundation here.

Sho-Nay-Bagga-Ma

1855-?, Gibraltar

Sho-Nay-Bagga-Ma, or “young lady who comes home with her canoe full of wild rice,” was a Potawatomi Indian and granddaughter of a chief.

She befriended a white family and attended school with their children. She loved to learn and studied at a teacher training school, graduating despite taunts from other students.

Because she was an Indian, Sho-Nay-Bagga-Ma couldn’t find a job as a teacher. She eventually became the first teacher at a Menominee Reservation in Neopit.

Kopischke and Podgers noted Sho-Nay-Bagga-Ma had a “salty” way of speaking her mind.

“I finished school and foolishly thought I would come to the white man’s world with pride. But there was no place for an Indian woman, especially one who was educated.”

Portrait by Kopischke. Narrative by Podgers.