Friday, April 24, 2020

Winnebago Tribe Of Nebraska Essays - , Term Papers

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 tribes 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 tribes geographical neighbors, called them. Many similarities exist between the two groups as a result of their close proximity. Prior to contact, the Winnebagos 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 anthropologists 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 clans 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 tribes 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 Winnebagos 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

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