Wisconsin Native Americans

1. Wisconsin Native Americans Objectives: Understand Wisconsin tribal history and the diversity of WI’s Indian nations. Understand the difference between treaty lands and tribal lands today

2. Background Information • Land that is now Wisconsin has been a junction for many different native people. • Rich resources • Location on important waterways • Native groups ceded lands to the U.S. that formed the land base for WI (determined to stay in the state) • Ojibwe (Chippewa), Menominee, Potawatomi, and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) • Some tribes were resettled in WI from the north-eastern United States • Oneida and Mohican (Stockbridge-Munsee) • Wisconsin has more reservations than any other state east of the Mississippi River • At one time, the Dakota (Sioux) and Sauk and Meskwaki (Sauk and Fox), also lived in Wisconsin

3. Continued… • Native peoples have diverse cultures and histories • Wisconsin has been a crossroads of many different peoples, who arrived at different times but sometimes co-existed • Different nations are as culturally and linguistically distinct from each other as European nations are from each other.

4. Early Cultures • Paleo-Indians arrived as the glaciers retreated (8000-11000 BC), living by hunting large mammals that grazed on the land. • Hunted with spears that had jutting corners, which served as barbs. • Either traveled or traded widely based on evidence found • Ancestors crossed the continents from Asia to North America, then trekked south and east and then back north (came in as the Ice Age drew to a close).

5. Early Cultures continued… • Archaic People (6000-8500 BC) could no longer rely on mastodon meat as they were gone. • The forest contained a wide variety of fruits and nuts, however, and theses forest dwellers turned to them. • Garbage areas at their sites show axes and spear pieces, along with plant foods and tools used to crack, grind, and mill them. • Meat came from elk and white-tailed deer in the south and moose and caribou in the north, along with other small animals. • Old Copper Culture (6500-800 BC) – hunter-gatherers, fashioned tools from copper they found in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

6. Early Cultures continued… • Woodland Culture (800 BC – present) – built numerous villages and became WI’s first farmers (Hopewell Culture). • Corn was their major crop with origins from Meso-America (evolved to adapt to cooler and wetter climates as it moved north) • Burial mounds (effigy form), ceramic and artisan skills • Mississippian Culture (1000 – 1200 AD) – migrated to WI from the south along river systems and built large platform mounds. • Oneota Culture (1000 – 1500 AD) – highly developed agricultures, fishers and hunters who made distinctive tools and pottery.

7. Effigy Mounds/Rock Art • Effigy Mound Culture • Built as burial sites, clan symbols, symbols of Native American cosmology, and ceremonial centers • In the shapes of animals, predominantly birds, bears, and long-tailed panthers • Only about 1/5 effigy mounds have survived modern development, including both agriculture and urbanization. • Rock Art – petroglyphs (carvings) and pictographs (paintings) on rock surfaces. • Illustrated ancient stories from their oral tradition – communicating important aspects of their cultures.

8. Treaties • The U.S. concluded treaties (written agreements between nations) with tribal nations • To acquire specific resources in the ceded lands • Timber, prairie (for farmland), and minerals • Ho-Chunk = lead and farming; Ojibwe = timber and copper; Dakota = timber; Menominee = timber and farmland; Potawatomi = farmland and natural harbors. • Negotiations were made between government officials and Native Americans • Native Americans had little knowledge of English and concepts of land ownership • Thought they were signing away access to just the specific natural resource, not the land itself. • Treaties are backed by Article 6 of the Constitution as part of “supreme law of the land”

9. Treaties continued… • 1820s-70s – U.S. government forcibly removed many Indians west of the Mississippi River to make way for settlers. • Sauk Indians – fought removal west of the Mississippi River and fled present-day Iowa. • Led by Black Hawk, they moved through present-day Illinois and returned to Wisconsin • Looped back to cross the Mississippi river to avoid advancing troops (many of Black Hawk’s people were killed). • Some tribal members loved Wisconsin so much they hid out in the woods to avoid this “ethnic cleansing” or walked back home after they were removed. • Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi were moved to various reservations over a period of years, before some settled in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, or Wisconsin • The Ojibwe were removed to Minnesota briefly, but came back after suffering many deaths • Menominee refused to move • Determination against forced removals by these tribes enabled them to continue living in Wisconsin

10. Indian Lands Today • Reservations – federally recognized Indian territories – and tribal lands are much smaller than the land ceded and remain today • The Ojibwe retain the right to hunt, fish, and gather plants on their ceded lands that lie outside the reservations. • Each Wisconsin tribe has its own culture, language, and history.

11. Your Maps • The color map (Native American Treaty Lands, 1825) depicts the lands of Native nations as they were defined in the 1825 Treaty of Prairie du Chien, just before the start of tribal cessions (land sales) to the United States in an ensuing series of treaties. • Wisconsin Indian Lands Today show the much smaller reservations and tribal lands that remain in the 21st century. • 6 Ojibwe reservations • Two reservations on Menominee land of the Oneida and Mohican (resettles in 1820s from NY) • Potawatomi reservation is far north from their original homeland (small parcel was established in Milwaukee) • Ho-Chunk retained small plots of land that have never had reservation status.