FREE ESSAY ON WINNEBAGO TRIBE OF NEBRASKA

WINNEBAGO TRIBE OF NEBRASKA

At the time of first contact with Europeans in 1634, the Winnebago tribe inhabited Red
Banks, the South Shore of what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin (Radin 1990). Although it
appears that the tribe migrated into the area during the second of four Siouan migrations
from the East, the tribe has no migration stories. The Winnebago tribe asserts that their
people originated at Green Bay. All other locations mentioned within the tribe's creation
stories are also located in modern day Wisconsin. The tribe is thought to have migrated
to the area along with the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri tribes. Sometime after the 16th
century, they were isolated from other Siouan groups and formed their own distinct way of
life.
As is common throughout Native American history, the name given to the Winnebago by
Europeans is the name used through another tribe of people when referring to them.
"Winnebago" is not what the tribe initially called themselves, but what their neighbors,
the Algonquin peoples and the tribe's geographical neighbors, called them. Many
similarities exist between the two groups as a result of their close proximity. Prior to
contact, the Winnebago's called themselves "Hotcangara," which has been interpreted to
mean "big fish people" by tribal observers. 
The Winnebago tribe, and their geographical area are associated with numerous effigy
earth mounds. During anthropologist's first attempts to interpret the mounds in the 19th
century, the earthen mounds were thought to be antiquarian. After speaking with tribal
members, however, researchers found that many of the tribal elders remembered when some
of the mounds were erected. The mounds themselves were built as an effigy to the
particular clan's animal, and it appears that the mounds were essentially property
markers that were erected near clan habitations and plantations. Similar effigies are
also seen in porcupine quillwork, on war bundles, and on woven bags still used by the
tribe today. 
The Winnebago speak a Siouan dialect called Chiwere (Sultzman). With the exception of the
Dakota Sioux who were originally located at the western edge of Lake Superior, the
Winnebago were the only Siouan speaking tribe of the Great Lakes. Their language is
nearly identical to that of the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri. These tribes acknowledge that
they separated from the Winnebago not long before the tribe's first contact with
Europeans. Despite the fact that the Siouan language family is named after the Sioux
tribes, Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota, the Winnebago are probably a more important branch of
that particular language family. This is because it is closer in relation to the Dhegiha
dialect of the Osage, Quapaw, Omaha, Kansa, and Ponca, many of whom refer to the
Winnebago as grandfathers or elder brothers.
Prior to contact, the Winnebago resembled the Algonquin in many ways. They fished using
dugout canoes, and hunted buffalo from the prairies of southern Wisconsin. The Winnebago
also gathered a form of wild rice from the nearby lakes during the fall. The tribe
supplemented their hunting and gathering with horticultural crops. In fact, the Winnebago
were one of the northernmost horticultural groups in North America. Despite the limited
growing season at Red Banks, the Winnebago managed to grow three types of corn in
addition to beans, squash, and tobacco. The tribal members used pottery for cooking and
food storage, and copper implements created using resources from the south shore of Lake
Superior. 
The Winnebago also resembled the Algonquin in that they were patrilineal with respect to
descent and clan membership (Sultzman). This means that clan membership is determined
through the father. Clan membership is important because the twelve Winnebago clans
served both ceremonial and social functions. In Winnebago society, the clans were grouped
into two major moieties, an Upper Sky group with four clans, and a Lower Earth group
consisting of eight other clans. 
Clan membership was also extremely important among the Winnebago tribe for political
reasons. The Winnebago's Chiefs governed the tribe with the aid of a Tribal Council
composed of a principal member of each individual clan. Traditionally, the Thunderbird
and Bear clans were the most important groups in Winnebago society because the hereditary
Chiefs of the tribe were always chosen from the Thunderbird (Upper) and Bear (Lower)
clans (Radin 1945). The Upper Chief of the Thunderbird clan was the tribe's
representative of peace. Despite the tribe's apparent emphasis on war, the Upper Chief
could not go to war, or participate in any of the tribe's war ceremonies. He was
responsible for pleading for clemency for an accused criminal, and for providing refuge
to prisoners in order to maintain their safety. His lodge was a sacred asylum, and no one
dared violate it. The Lower Chief's duties, on the other hand, were a sharp contrast from
those of the Upper Chief. He was associated with the policing of the tribe, as well as
responsible for disciplinary and war functions. The Lower Chief was charged with
inflicting punishment on criminals, housing prisoners, and guarding the village. In
addition, he took charge of the tribe when they were on a communal warpath, or hunt. His
lodge is where the sacred war bundles were stored and guarded against contamination.
From five years of age, both boys and girls in the Winnebago society were exposed to a
series of talks from an older male relative in order to teach them various tribal customs
(Radin 1990). This training ended abruptly at puberty when both sexes were sent out to
fast. Boys were sent out overnight after their faces were painted with charcoal and
instructed not to return until dawn. If they were not blessed, then they were sent out
for progressively longer periods of time to fast and pray until they were blessed by the
Spirits. This was the only puberty rite for male adolescents. Females, on the other hand,
had a different puberty custom. Although also encouraged to fast and become blessed,
girls were required to do so while residing in a menstrual lodge. From the onset of
menses to menopause, Winnebago women were required to reside in a menstrual lodge for a
few days each month over the course of their entire adult lives. A lodge may contain
anywhere from one to three women at any given time, but no reason was given as to why a
limit of three women was placed on each lodge. Women were required to retire to the lodge
because it was believed by the Winnebago that if a menstruating woman were to come into
contact with sacred objects, the object would lose it's power. Great care was taken in
this society to keep menstruating women away from anything of value, even other tribal
member's food. It was almost as if the menstruating woman was cursed. 
As soon as a girl returns to her parent's lodge after her first menses, she is then
considered ready for marriage. Both men and women were married off as soon as they
reached the appropriate age, and their spouses were chosen by their parents. No ceremony
was involved aside from the exchange of presents. Polygamy was permitted in Winnebago
society, but rarely chosen. If a man did choose to take a second wife, it was generally a
female relative of his first wife such as a sister or niece.
The religion of the Winnebago is difficult to describe. It appears to have been a close
spiritual relationship with perceived supernatural powers (Radin 1990). The Winnebago of
the past, and many of today, believe in guardian spirits. They attempted to bring such
spirits into close relations with themselves through fasting, prayer, mental
concentration, offerings, and sacrifices. In their religion, the concept of evil, death,
reincarnation, an afterlife, and the soul all exist. Origin myths, such as the origin
myth of the medicine dance, placed an Earthmaker, or Great Spirit, as the giver of life,
and other spirits as his intermediaries. Through both the spirits and shamans, the
Earthmaker bestowed blessings upon the Winnebago people. 
The tribe also believed in a creature dubbed the Trickster (Radin 1956). The Trickster is
an impulsive creative and destructive force who does not consciously make any decisions.
He does not understand the concepts of good or evil, but he is nonetheless responsible
for both. He is not moral or social because he possesses no values, yet somehow it is
through his actions that all values came into being. He is not however the only being in
the Winnebago religion that possesses such powers, other various supernatural beings, as
well as man and the animals are connected with the same characteristics. 
In recent times, other religious ideas have permeated into the Winnebago society. Two
apparently related revival movements have occurred within the Winnebago society (Radin
1990). The first is the teachings of the Shawnee Prophet. He proposed that all Native
American tribes must return to the older, purer way of life that they lived before
contact with the Europeans. The second is the peyote (mescal) religion. Peyote was
apparently brought to the tribe by a man named Rave when he returned from a trip to
Oklahoma in the early 1900's. The man claimed that eating peyote cured him of disease.
Later, elements of Christianity were mixed with the ingestion of peyote. The peyote cult
spread quickly along family lines and is still practiced today in many Native American
tribes, including the Winnebago.
The Winnebago tribe first encountered white men in 1634 when Jean Nicollet, an agent for
Governor Champlain of France, sent him to the Green Bay area. The tribe's pre-contact
population is estimated to be about 8,000 people. Many believe that it was likely much
higher. When Nicollet revisited the Winnebago in 1639, he estimated that the tribe had
about 5,000 warriors. Such a number suggests a total population of around 20,000
Winnebagos living in the area. The higher figure, if true, would be consistent with the
Winnebago's oral tradition which states that, due to over-population, several large
groups, such as the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri tribes, left the Winnebago tribe a short time
before Nicollet's initial visit. For many reasons, such as epidemic disease and war in
the region, when the French returned to the area 30 years later, the Winnebago consisted
of fewer than 500 people.
From near-extinction, the Winnebago tribe began a slow repopulation. In 1736, the French
estimated the tribe to contain only about 700 members. Their population soon grew rapidly
through intermarriage with neighboring Algonquin. As a result, the purest Winnebago
bloodline may actually be the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri tribes. It should be noted,
however, that even after intermarriage with Algonquin, the Winnebago made few changes to
their traditional social and political structures. Remarkably, at a time in history when
other native populations were declining, the Winnebago's numbers actually increased. In
1825, American Indian agents in Wisconsin estimated the Winnebago tribe's population to
be around 5,800 people. Even after a smallpox epidemic in 1835, the tribe's numbers only
dropped to about 4,500 members. The first accurate count of Winnebago peoples was done in
1842 after they were removed by the United States Federal Government from Wisconsin to
Fort Atkinson, Iowa. At the time, there were 2,200 Winnebago living in Iowa, and an
unknown population attempting to remain in Wisconsin.
With Iowa statehood in 1846, the Winnebago were removed again. In 1845, the Winnebago
exchanged their Iowa lands for an 800,000 acre reservation in Minnesota. The move placed
the Winnebago as a buffer between the warring Dakota Sioux and Ojibwe tribes. Some
Winnebago managed to remain in Iowa, but most of the tribe was removed to Minnesota
during the late 1840's. The new location consisted of poor soil and a short growing
season, not to mention the constant battles taking place there between the Dakota Sioux
and the Ojibwe. The Ojibwe used the Winnebago reservation as a battleground to attack the
Dakota Sioux. As a result, in 1856, the Federal Government allowed the Winnebago to
exchange the reservation for another located farther south in Minnesota. Unfortunately,
as the Winnebago tribe's population declined, they were forced to surrender a portion of
their reservation in 1859 because it was deemed by the Federal Government to be "excess
lands."
In 1862, the Winnebago were again forcibly gathered together and deported by the Federal
Government. This time, they were sent by steamboat to the Crow Creek reservation of the
Yankton Sioux in South Dakota. Conditions were unbearable at the Yankton Sioux
reservation. Many members of the Winnebago tribe attempted to return to Minnesota or
Wisconsin. The remaining 1,200 Winnebago living in South Dakota fled down the Missouri
River to the Omaha reservation in eastern Nebraska for refuge. In 1865, the Federal
Government finally accepted the Winnebago self-relocation and purchased 40,000 acres from
the Omaha tribe to provide them with their own reservation. Again in 1868, in the Federal
Indian Bureau's infinite wisdom, a plan was proposed to once again relocate the Winnebago
tribe. This time, they wanted to remove the Winnebago to North Dakota so that they could
act as a buffer between the Lakota Sioux and the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes. The
Winnebago promptly declined the offer, and unbelievably, the Federal Government left them
in Nebraska.
During this time, Winnebago men and women were regularly being arrested in Wisconsin and
returned to their reservation in Nebraska. Within a month, the same individuals were
usually already back in Wisconsin. In 1875, after ten years of arresting the same
Winnebago over and over again, the Federal Government purchased homestead lands in
Wisconsin for the Winnebago, and let them remain there if they wished. As a consequence
of this purchase, over half of the Nebraska Winnebago returned to Wisconsin in the late
1800's and have remained there sprinkled across ten counties ever since. The Winnebago
who remained in Nebraska eventually lost a portion of their reservation to whites through
the Allotment Policy which took effect in 1887.
Currently, both the Nebraska and Wisconsin Winnebago tribes are federally recognized. For
this paper, due to their close geographic proximity to myself, I chose to concentrate on
the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska. The Winnebago tribe of Nebraska currently operates under
a constitution consistent with the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (Winnebago Tribe of
Nebraska). They are governed by a tribal council which consists of a Chairman,
Vice-Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, and nine other elected council members. The Chairman
is elected from within the tribal council and acts as the administrative head of the
Tribe for a one year term, while other Council members serve three year terms. The
Winnebago Tribal Headquarters is located on the 30,647 acre Winnebago reservation which
houses 1,204 members in Thurston County, Nebraska. At this time, 3,736 Winnebago Indians
have tribal membership in the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. Remarkably, unlike many other
Native American tribes, the Winnebago still own over ninety percent of reservation lands,
despite the fact that much of it is allotted to individual tribal members. The majority
of employment available on the reservation is currently provided by "WinneVegas" (the
tribal Casino), the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service, and the tribe
itself.
Bibliography
Radin, Paul. The Winnebago Tribe Reprint 1st ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1990.
Radin, Paul. The Road of Life and Death; a Ritual Drama of the American Indians. Reprint
1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books Inc., 1945.
Radin, Paul. The Trickster; A Study in American Indian Mythology. 1st ed. New York:
Philosophical Library, 1956.
Sultzman, Lee. "Winnebago History." Online source. 28 October 1999.
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. "Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska Community Environmental
Profile." Online source. 28 October 1999.