Born about 1747, Waub-O-Jeeg was the son of Mamongazida or Big Foot, of the Reindeer clan, ruling chief of the Lake Superior Chippewas at Chequamegon Bay. Big Foot was the son of a beautiful young Chippewa woman who had previously been married to a Sioux chief when the Sioux and Chippewa were on friendly terms. When hostilities developed the Sioux father took the two sons to Sioux territory. It would have been unsafe for his wife to follow though she was brokenhearted to lose her sons. The older of those two boys grew up to become the famous Sioux chief Wabasha. The young mother later married a Chippewa and Big Foot was their son.