Lifeways

The traditional Winnebago way meant living in villages in rectangular bark lodges; farming corn, beans, squash, and tobacco; cooking corn in a deep pit by piling up layers of husks, fresh corn, more husks, and a layer of dirt on top of heated stones, then pouring water on top to trickle down and make steam; tracking and trapping small game in the dense virgin forests; living in tents and lean-tos on the trail; buffalo hunting on the prairies of tall, coarse grass along the Mississippi valley; paddling across Green Bay in birch-bark canoes to trade buffalo robes with the Menominee for wild rice; spearing fish on Lake Michigan or on the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers; shaping artistic work with dyed porcupine quills, bright feathers, and supple leather; and carving sophisticated hickory calendar sticks that accurately marked lunar and solar years.

The traditional Winnebago way also meant social organization into two groups, or moieties—the Air (or Sky) and the Earth. Each moiety was further divided into clans with animal names symbolizing the air or earth, such as the Thunderbird and the Bear. It meant that one could only marry someone in the opposite moiety; that children would belong to the clan of one’s father, not one’s mother (patrilineal, not matrilineal); participation in the secret Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society; and belief in mythological beings or culture heroes such as Trickster, who supposedly played practical jokes on the Winnebago. The Winnebago way meant reverence for nature. As a Winnebago saying goes, “Holy Mother Earth, the trees and all nature, are witnesses of your thoughts and deeds.”

In the years after the Black Hawk War, the Winnebago were forced to relocate west of the Mississippi, first to Iowa, then to Minnesota, then to South Dakota, and finally to Nebraska. During this period of forced relocation between 1840 and 1863, some 700 Winnebago died.

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska presently has reservation lands adjoining those of the OMAHA. Other Winnebago managed to stay in or return to

Wisconsin, where they were finally granted reservation lands and now are known as the Ho-Chunk Nation (formerly the Winnebago Tribe) of Wisconsin. Some tribal members also live in Minnesota. The operation of casinos by both groups has helped them develop their economy and invest in new tribal enterprises.