Chapter 10 Urban Indians 150 Think About It 150 Tribal History 152 Early Days 152 Urban Indian Migration 152 Red Power 153 Urban Indian Life Today 153 Urban Indian Populations 153 Urban Indian Support Systems 154 Indian Community School 155 First Nation Studies UW Green Bay 157 Remembering 158 Native People of Wisconsin Up Close 160 Beyond 171 Glossary 174 Acknowledgments 184 Index 186 About the Author 197 viii
Introduction First People of Wisconsin If you are reading this book at school it is probably because you are learning about Wisconsin history Fourth grade is usually when you study our state’s history and perhaps are introduced to Wisconsin’s original people for the first time In this book you’ll learn about the Menominee muh nah muh nee the Ho-Chunk the Ojibwe oh jib way and the Forest County Potawatomi pot uh wah tuh mee They were here when the first European explorers arrived in the 1600s You will also learn about the Indian nations from New York state who migrated here in the 1820s These include the Oneida oh nI duh the Mohican moh hee kuhn and the Brothertown Indians You will also read about urban Indians These are Native people who live in cities These are not the only tribes that lived in Wisconsin before it became a state There were other Native people who were forced to leave These tribes include the Sauk sawk Meskwaki mes kwah kee also known as the Fox the Sioux soo several other bands of the Potawatomi the Kickapoo kik uh poo of Oklahoma and the Nebraska Winnebago wi nah bay go who are related to the Ho-Chunk Some of the Native people who are still in Wisconsin today were nearly forced to move away as well Some fought relocation Others were removed but eventually found their way back to Wisconsin Others live on reservations Native People of Wisconsin is a book about the Native people who live in our state today Often Wisconsin Indian people celebrate their culture and traditions which are different from those of non-Indians But Native people also share many things in common with their non-Indian neighbors relocation A policy in the 1950s that attempted to move Indians from reservations to cities removed Forced to move to Indian reservations west of the Mississippi River in accordance with government policy in the 1800s reservations Areas of land set aside by treaty for tribes to live on ix
You will find several words used for the American Indian people you’ll meet in this book Native people tribal people tribe and nation The word nation appears in the book many times Native people are legally citizens of two governments the United States of America and their own Indian nation That’s because Indian governments existed before there was a United States When the US officials entered into treaties with Indian tribes they recognized the tribes as sovereign sah vruhn Indian nations still possess sovereignty sah vruhn tee today despite the fact that the US Congress has attempted to place limits on it If the relationship between Indian nations and the American government seems complicated that’s because it is As a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe I have not liked many of the history books about the Native Americans of this area Many of the histories rely on the written words of early European visitors to the Great Lakes area What these visitors learned is interesting but not complete and sometimes not even true Native people have different ways of telling history For example they use stories songs cave paintings and objects that help keep the past alive In this book I have attempted to use many of these different ways of telling history Native people do not view everyday life the same way that non-Indians do For example they do not separate things that are spiritual things that have to do with the soul and spirit from those that have to do with the natural world To Native people everything that the Creator has given is sacred say kruhd which means that deserves respect Thinking of our stories in a circle reflects that viewpoint This book has a few dates and timelines but it tries to pay more attention to the way Native people think about history That way it introduces you to many of the stories songs dances beadwork and other ways Native people remember the past In a history book like this one that contains true stories from the past the words that real people have said or have written appear in quotation marks This is to show that a real person actually said or wrote them Each chapter begins with a brief description of the past and present The Think About It sections ask important and interesting questions about the chapter that will be answered as x treaties Legal agreements between two nations sovereign Independent having the right to govern themselves sovereignty Independence
you read Maps throughout the chapters will help you see the locations of tribal lands and the movement and travels of the different nations New vocabulary words are highlighted and their definitions appear at the bottom of the page or are explained in the chapter Other words and names appear in bold with pronunciation keys so you’ll know how they sound even if you know their meanings There’s also a glossary at the end of the book where you can find vocabulary words listed in alphabetical order As you read Native People of Wisconsin you’ll find that although the histories of the twelve Indian tribes in Wisconsin are different from one another they share many things in common You will also discover many things that these tribes have in common with non-Indians Native peoples stories are about values about homes about families and about struggles to survive Because we make our homes in Wisconsin we just might find out something about ourselves in the stories our stories that help us understand more about our state’s history Time as a Line Date of Birth First Day of School First Bike Met best friend Chris Trip to the Dells When most people think about history they think of it as a timeline that moves from the past to the present Your own history might look something like the timeline above Time as a Circle Many Native people think about history as something that would look more like a circle with stories about the lands of their ancestors That history looks more like the circle on the right 1
