The Ho-Chunk Nation

The Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, formerly known as the Wisconsin Winnebago Tribe was known to the French of Quebec, Canada, as early as 1616. This tribe has remained and continues to be one of the strongest indigenous Nations in the United States. The Ho-Chunk originated at Red Banks which is the Door Peninsula on Green Bay and means “People of the Big Voice.” By the 1660’s, the Ho-chunk had suffered devastating defeats at the hands of their enemies along with famine and disease that reduced their population from 5,000 people to 1,000 people. Adapting to the fur trade during the French and British regimes in Wisconsin, their population increased and they began expanding West to Lake Winnebago and along the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers towards the Mississippi. Abandoning the Green Bay area, they established 30 villages and laid claim to large portions of Southwestern Wisconsin and into Illinois. They accepted the British as allies after the defeat of the French in North America and allied with them in the American Revolution, particularly the War of 1812. Part of the Ho-Chunk tribe signed their first treaty with the Americans in 1816 pledging loyalty and peace in return for land. Unfortunately, between 1825-1829, American settlers were pouring into Wisconsin due to the lead mines. Hostility broke out near Praire du Chen and the Winnebago, as they were then called by the government, and gave up a third of their land. Many treaties were forced over the next 50 years, until The Ho-Chunk reservation was established in 1875 and spread over Dane, Jackson, Juneau, Clark, Monroe, Sauk, Shawno, and Wood counties in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Ho-Chunk were inspired to organize under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 to better their impoverished circumstances. Overcoming enormous obstacles the tribe voted in favor of their constitution in 1963. Since then the tribe has acquired 100’s of acres of tribal trust land for new housing in the communities at Black River Falls, Wisconsin Dells, Tomah, Wisconsin Rapids, and Wittenberg. Their Constitution was revised in 1994 when the Ho-Chunk formerly changed their name and became the Ho-Chunk Nation. As of 2011, the reservation was 4,600 acres large with a population of approximately 5,100 people.