Who was here when the French arrived?
Native people had lived in the territory now called Wisconsin for centuries before the French ventured there. We know that Native people lived in the area for many thousands of years, for physical remains of their cultures can still be seen. The people of the Late Woodland Period (1400 BC-750 AD) constructed mounds of earth in the shapes of birds, bear, deer, bison, lynx, turtle, panther, or water spirit. These people are known today as the Effigy Moundbuilders. The construction of effigy mounds was a regional cultural phenomenon. Like the people of the Middle Woodland period, the Effigy Moundbuilders also built linear or long rectangular mounds that were used for ceremonial purposes. Effigy mounds of earth can still be seen along the Mississippi River in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
One of the early other cultures for which physical evidence exists is the Mississippian culture, which dates from 800-1300 A.D. Major centers for this mound-building people can be found up and down the Mississippi River, in particular at Cahokia, Illinois, but also in Wisconsin, where the mounds at Aztalan in Jefferson County bear witness to this complex culture.
Closer to the time of the French arrival in the 1600s, there were multiple Native peoples living in the forests, hills, and prairies of present-day Wisconsin and using its waterways for transport and for food. In fact, the name “Wisconsin” is derived from the Menominee Weskohsaeh, meaning “a good place,” and Meskousing, which in Algonquian means “where it lies red.” The lifeways of the Native people—what they used for food, shelter, or clothing—were similar, but varied according to the characteristics of the physical world around them.
Wisconsin has a varied terrain. The area close to Lake Superior has abundant game and fish but a short growing season for crops; the area south and east of Lake Superior features a boreal forest rich in fur-bearing animals; the central plain area stretching to Green Bay has forest and prairie areas supporting deer and bison, among other game animals; the upland area of southwest Wisconsin is characterized by hills and river valleys, with land that supported multiple crops such as corn and squash and offered maple trees for collecting sap; and the south-central and southeastern areas with their lakeshore have some forest and some prairie, also supporting the growing of crops in addition to supplying game.
It would be misleading to think of the Native people and their cultures as unchanging, since the groups moved seasonally and sometimes migrated to new areas as resource needs and supplies changed. This naturally created evolving alliances and conflicts as groups came into contact with one another. Before 1500, what is now called Wisconsin was home to Menominee, Ho-Chunk (also known as Hochungra), and Santee Dakota people. Sometime after 1500, Ojibwe people and other Native nations pushed westward by the Haudenosaunee (also known as Iroquois) moved into this territory, expanding from the eastern Great Lakes area.
Native Lifeways
What were the lives of these Native people like? The Ojibwe, farthest to the north, moved seasonally, living mainly in small villages. They built round lodges covered with birch-bark, but, in the autumn, moved to places where they would be able to hunt big game more effectively. The short growing season meant that they did not do much cultivation of crops for food, but relied principally on big- and small-game hunting and fishing, along with collection of wild rice. They used natural materials expertly, building birchbark canoes and creating harpoons and nets from wood and vines. With time the Ojibwe moved farther south and increased their cultivation of corn, beans, and squash.
The Santee Dakota people, living mostly in western Wisconsin along the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers, had semi-permanent villages, with large bark lodges as summer dwellings and smaller cone-shaped lodges for winter. They cultivated corn, beans, and squash, as well as tobacco. They also organized bison hunts, a complicated venture that required them to travel west from their main area of habitation. It also required that communities work together to hunt, butcher, and preserve the meat and skins. Wild rice and fish also constituted important components of their diet.
The Menominee, living in eastern Wisconsin’s woodlands and prairie, also moved seasonally, living in large villages in summer and winter and, in fall and spring, breaking into smaller groups for hunting and for maple sugaring activities. The region’s abundant fish resources were crucial to their food supply. Nuts, berries, and other plants also supplied food. The Ho-Chunk, like the Santee Dakota, lived in semi-permanent villages and relied on some cultivation of crops like corn, beans, and squash. They also harvested wild rice and maple sap. Communal bison and deer hunts were also important both for sustenance and for cultural cohesion.
The animals hunted by the Native people provided meat, which was often preserved and sometimes stored in underground caches. Corn and beans were also stored in this way, as well as in clay vessels or birchbark containers. Animals provided skins and furs for clothing and bedding as well as cover for lodging; their bones could be used to make tools. While we do not know a lot about the cultures of these Native people, each tribe organized its society around kin groups of one kind or another and had belief systems and rituals that allowed them to mediate their relationship with the natural world and with members of outside groups.
Although all Native groups continually adapted to changing circumstances, the adjustments needed in the mid-1600s, when multiple groups of Native people moved into Wisconsin from farther east and European explorers and traders began to arrive, were profound and deeply disruptive to the societies of the resident Native groups. By this time, the English and French had begun settlements in eastern North America. They had established fur trade relationships with Native tribes. The Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy) in the eastern Great Lakes area had been trading with the Europeans, but as the supply of beaver—the main fur desired by the Europeans—in their principal territory was exhausted, they began moving west into land occupied by numerous other tribes.
The ensuing wars and the Iroquois’ aggressive occupation of territory to the west of their traditional homeland created a cascading set of moves by other Native people from what are now Ohio, Indiana, and southern Michigan. Into Wisconsin moved groups of Potawatomi, Odawa, Meskwaki, Sauk, and Kickapoo. This sudden influx of newcomers strained resources, brought disease, and disrupted the Native communities already present in Wisconsin. The arrival of French explorers and traders at about the same time accelerated the pace of change experienced by all the Native people.
Today, there are eleven federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin who either own land or live on reservations in the state. Their continued resilience testifies to their determination in meeting the many challenges to their survival that they have faced.
Federally recognized tribes:
- Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
- Forest County Potawatomi
- Ho-Chunk Nation
- Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
- Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
- Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin
- Oneida Nation
- Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
- Sokaogon Chippewa Community (Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa)
- St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin
- Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians
Not federally recognized:
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