The Winnebago Tribe

The Winnebago tribe has two bands. One band of the Winnebago people resides in many places of Wisconsin and the other band of the Winnebago people resides on the reservation in Winnebago Nebraska. The Winnebago people migrated from the Mayans in Mesoamerica to Nebraska. There were plenty of epidemic diseases and wars that caused migrations to the Native American people. Before the Europeans invaded the New World, the Native American people didn’t have a written language, therefore oral traditions were liable.
The Hochunkra which means “The Parent of Speech” or “Big fish People” who are known as the Winnebago people. The French also called them puants or “People of the sea”. The English name Winnebago is derived from an Algonquin form perhaps
from the Potawatomi “winpyeko” which means “People of the dirty water” probably referring to the Fox river because during the summer the river became clogged with dead fish bodies. According to the theories of the Winnebago people they migrated from Mesoamerica around 1000 B.C from the Olmec civilization. The Winnebago people has a traditional religion which is called the Medicine Lodge that is very similar to the old Olmec religion (Smith).
The Winnebago people arrived in Northwest Kentucky and Tennessee during the time of the Adena Culture period. In 200 A.D to 300 A.D the Shawnee People of the snake chased the Winnebago people and Siouan tribes out of Kentucky. The Winnebago people took the Adena Culture of the Dead with them to Illinois and Wisconsin. The Winnebago people practiced the Adena beliefs that is the Effigy Mound building in Illinois (Smith).
During the migration there were four groups of migration that were moving westward.
The first group were the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Crow tribes that moved across the states of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and settled in North Dakota and Eastern Montana. The Second group were the Winnebago, Oto, Missouri and Iowa tribes that migrated across Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and entered Wisconsin along the western banks of Michigan, while the rest traveled through Michigan and entered Wisconsin through the north. This group spoke the Winnebago language and had similar cultural traits. The third group was the Omaha, Ponca, Osage, Kansa, and Quapaw tribes. They traveled north to the Ohio River which they followed to the Mississippi River, continued to the Missouri River. The Osage, Kansa, and Quapaw moved on the plains of Missouri while the Omaha and Ponca followed the Missouri River. The last tribes to migrate out of Kentucky were the Siouan, along with the Assiniboine. The names of the bands are called the Lakota, Yankton and Santee Sioux. The Lakota and Yankton Sioux followed the buffalo on to the plains and the Santee Dakota stayed in southern and eastern Minnesota( Smith).
The Winnebago people arrived in Wisconsin around 700 A.D to 1300 A.D. Some of the Winnebago people settled around lake Winnebago and some settled on the western part of Missouri. The Winnebago people built hundreds of effigy mound through northern Illinois and Wisconsin. In 1200 A.D the Winnebago people
allied with the Mississipian people at a place called Azlatan in Wisconsin. Azalatan was the northern out post of the great Cahokian Culture in St. Louis Illinois (Smith).
By 1600 the Winnebago people were living on the Green Bay area. In 1614 it was reported that the Winnebagos met with Samuel De Champlain of New France. This is when the Winnebago people went to war with the Potwatomis people (Smith). This is when the Winnebago people began going to war with the British, Hurons, Iroqouis, and Europeans. They allied with the French. Small pox hit the Winnebago people three times. The Winnebago moved to Nebraska because of a war. They bought land from the Omaha and still reside there this day.