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Native American Life Along the Shores of Lake Wingra

11/15/2021 02:10:33 PM

Nov15

by Marcia Vandercook

On a warm, sunny Sunday morning in October, 31 Temple Beth El members took a stroll along the shores of Lake Wingra to learn how the land near Temple was used by the Ho-Chunk people in earlier times. The group included Rabbi Bonnie Margulis’s 8th grade class of students preparing to be next year’s madrichim (teaching assistants).

The tour was guided by Dr. Amy Rosebrough, assistant state archaeologist at the Wisconsin Historical Society. As we walked from Vilas Zoo to Temple along Edgewood Drive, Dr. Rosebrough interpreted features in the landscape and helped us visualize how the Ho-Chunk people lived there. Wisconsin was the center of a prehistoric mound-building culture that became the Ho-Chunk people. Wisconsin has the largest number of mounds in the country, a tangible reminder of the vibrant culture that preceded the arrival of European settlers.

Prior to contact, the Ho-Chunk people lived in groups of 50 to 150. Their dwellings were framed bent-pole-frame houses located over depressions, so that they could be partly below ground for warmth. There would be an extended entry area with storage pits and drying racks outside. Tents were set up in pairs, but the pairs were dispersed across a wide area. People were very mobile, coming to the lakes to fish and garden, and going to the uplands to hunt and harvest nuts in the fall. Dietary fat was essential for surviving the winter, and after hunting deer, people would render the fat in the bone marrow.

From our first stop at Vilas Beach, Dr. Rosebrough pointed out how the landscape had been altered over the years. To the east, there used to be a 70-foot high ridge running along Park St. It was quarried for gravel from 1900 to 1915 to meet the road-building demands of the growing city. Many archaeological sites and burial grounds were destroyed as the city grew.

Dr. Rosebrough cited early archaeologist Charles E. Brown as an early non-Native advocate for protecting the mounds, who realized that the forces of development were lined up against him. Instead of directly approaching the city fathers, he reached out to the city mothers, promoting the creation of city parks in places where there were sites of archaeological significance. Through this less-threatening approach, he was able to preserve a number of important sites.

Our second stop was near the warming hut on the Lake Wingra lagoon. Dr. Rosebrough described the area as a “ghost village,” a place where historically Ho-Chunk families camped, farmed, and harvested ducks, turtles, and deer. “Wingra” is a Ho-Chunk term meaning “place where the turtle rises” and also “duck.” Although the disruption caused by white explorers and settlers began many years earlier, Ho-Chunk families kept returning to the area as late as 1910 in an attempt to maintain their traditional lifestyles.

Dr. Rosebrough told us about the arrival of French and British explorers and colonists and the way that Indian tribes were enlisted as proxies for the European powers, leading to war and disease. At one point, Ho-Chunk oral history says that only 50 adult men were left, a near genocide. Then came the tragedy of Indian removal, when loss of the land through shady treaties was followed by forcible relocation. After the Civil War, the Ho-Chunk people were removed at gunpoint and shipped to camps in Iowa and later in Nebraska. While some Natives stayed in Nebraska, others walked back to Wisconsin multiple times. Interestingly, there was a loophole in the removal laws that allowed land owners to remain. Some Ho-Chunk were able to buy multiple 40-acre parcels near Black River, which is the center of the Ho-Chunk Nation today.

Our group walked down Edgewood Drive to the Mazzuchelli Center, where Dr. Rosebrough pointed out an intact mound site created between 750 and 1200 CE. At the time this mound was built, corn was being introduced as a crop from tribes to the south, and the bow and arrow was introduced for game. The population started to boom, but people also died from cavities caused by the high sugar in corn, and mounds were used as burial sites. Sometimes people would be buried in a reclining position, other times in a fetal position. When people died in winter, their bodies were scaffolded up into trees to stay safe from animals, and buried the following year.

Dr. Rosebrough said that it is common for humans to reuse burial sites. Not only did various Indian tribes use each other’s mounds to bury more remains, but white colonists also created cemeteries around mounds, for instance at Forest Hill Cemetery. However, many mounds also go unrecognized or are buried under vegetation, and then are plowed under when a road or building is built. Mounds today are protected by both state and federal law, giving the tribes greater ability to control archaeological finds. The Wisconsin Archeological Society is trying to improve the signage and protect the known mounds. Ms. Rosebrough quoted Deuteronomy 19:14, which says: “Do not remove your neighbor’s landmark established in times of old.”

Unlike Monona and Mendota, which are part of the Yahara drainage, Lake Wingra is spring-fed. One of its springs is considered sacred by the Ho-Chunk people, with a white clay bottom that serves as a path to the world below. When someone died, there would often be several days of speeches, games, gifts, and feasts, allowing people to feel happy and peaceful so the spirit of the dead person could move on. Spiritual leaders would talk to the dead and guide them on their journey to the underworld.

As we continued on to the Edgewood College campus, we came to a large bird mound in front of the Stream Theater. Some mounds hold many remains, while others hold only one or two high-status people (so identified because they had fewer broken bones and better nutrition than average). The Edgewood bird mound is likely the burial place of an important member of a bird clan.

As we walked back toward Temple Beth El, we learned that Monroe St. near Knickerbocker is another ghost site of campsites, built along trade routes that extended across the continent. There is another ring of mounds near the apartments to the east of Temple Beth El. Ms. Rosebrough passed around a spear point that was 12,000 years old, saying that it might have been used to hunt a mammoth or mastodon. She pointed out that the Ho-Chunk who live in Wisconsin today have deep roots. Their oral history includes the story of a great noise followed by the discovery of new lands in the Devil’s Lake area. Some believe this story refers to the catastrophic draining of Lake Wisconsin, in which case it might be a 14,000-year-old memory.

The 8th grade class later discussed things that they might do to follow up on what they learned. Ideas included donating money to put up signs around the mounds to let people know they are on sacred ground; raising awareness among their peers by using school assignments to make a presentation on Native history; and advocating with their schools to have more substantive activities throughout Native American Heritage Month.

The walkers agreed that the tour was highly informative and gave an important context to the land under Temple Beth El. Our thanks go to Dr. Rosebrough, and to Pam Robbins and David Friedman for making the arrangements.


 

April 30, 2025 2 Iyar 5785