Ho-Chunk were formerly known as the Winnebago. They are a Native American people of east-central Wisconsin. About 5,000 Ho-Chunk live in the United States. The Ho-Chunk call themselves Ho-chungra, which is often translated as people of the sacred language, people of the parent language, or people of the big voice. The Ho-Chunk language is part of the Sioux linguistic family.
According to tradition, the Ho-Chunk originally occupied the Red Banks near present-day Green Bay. Later, their territory expanded southward to Lake Winnebago, southern Wisconsin, and northern Illinois.
Culturally, Ho-Chunk society was divided into two divisions, known as moieties, which included the Air or Sky clans and the Earth clans. The Ho-Chunk hunted, fished, and cultivated such crops as beans, squash, tobacco, and corn. These historical traditions remain important among the Ho-Chunk today.
Through treaties and land cessions, from 1840 to 1865, the United States government relocated the Winnebago to Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and eventually to a reservation in Nebraska. Under the leadership of Chief Yellow Thunder and Chief Dandy, many Winnebago resisted the forced relocation, and by the late 1800’s some had acquired land and settled in central Wisconsin. In 1963, under the Indian reorganization Act, descendants of this group created a government separate from the Nebraska reservation to become the Wisconsin Winnebago. In 1994, they passed a new tribal constitution and formally became the Ho-Chunk Nation.
See also Winnebago.
