First Nations

Before the influx of white settlers, there were First Nations. Miles of rolling hills and woodlands once enveloped the land now called Milwaukee. Over time, that same land was gradually converted into farmland covered with stalks of grain.

First Nations Peoples found a balance of life and land persisting over thousands of years. They respected the bounty of natural resources around them, using only what was needed.

Waterways served as their means of survival. In the Milwaukee region, the three rivers and “big lake” were viewed as sources of life. The Menominee and Ho–Chunk were the first to settle here. Centuries later, they were joined by The Fox, Sauk, Ojibwa, Odawa, Huron, Mascouten, and Kickapoo, most of whom were taken in by the displaced Potawatomi Tribe.

Milwaukee’s Three First Nations

All were fleeing from their homelands due to eastern tribal warfare. By the 1600s, the blend of these Nations would become the key players in the territory’s tribal alliance. 

Thick canopies of leaves blanketed the expanse of rugged wilderness crowded with potential food and pesty insects. When hunting, native garb made from otter, beaver, and a significant amount of tanned deerskin would protect them from dense hordes of mosquitoes.

Simple attire included leggings, a breechclout, and moccasins. If this was not enough, repellents such as aromatic plants native to the area, oil, clay, mud, and even smoke could be used as repellents.

Some wore braids of sweetgrass around their necks, or whatever was available, and adorned their dwellings with the aromatic plant to help repel those uninvited guests.

During the second half of the 17th Century, European explorers and missionaries traveled the Great Lakes and Milwaukee’s rivers, bringing them into contact with Indigenous communities. Fur traders from “New France,” the French colonies of continental North America, joined tribes along the Great Lakes region. These visitors affected their way of life and triggered events leading to the eventual downfall of our First Nations.

Over time, this same land would gradually be converted into farmland, covered mostly by stalks of grain. Otter and beaver, once plentiful and freely roaming, were near extiction. At present time, the local region exists mostly as an urban land-dwelling. Lake Park remains the only local site left with an intact Indigenous burial mound. In Milwaukee County, there is little evidence left of the existence of our three First Nations.

The Menominee Nation

The Menominee and Ho-Chunk tribes are the first recorded inhabitants of lands now called Milwaukee. As early as 5,000 years ago, the Menominee occupied lands between what is now Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Long before French fur traders would arrive, the natives dwelled, hunted, and canoed along the shallow, slow-moving local waters and marshy Jones Island. Natives moved back and forth between summer riverside settlements and winter deer-hunting grounds.

The word Menominee translates to “wild rice people.” Once a wild rice marsh, the tribe gathered their staple food along the heavy red lacustrine clay and cattails lining the Menomonee Valley. This, of course, is how the Menomonee River got its name. An Algonkian-speaking People, they are the only present-day tribe whose origin story indicates they have always lived in Wisconsin.

When French explorer Jean Nicolet arrived in Wisconsin around 1634, he was the first European to discover the Menominee Villages. Seeing gainful opportunity, the French Canadian fur trade quickly eclipsed their economy, dramatically altering Menominee society.

A coureur des bois, or “runner of the woods,” was an independent entrepreneurial French Canadian trader who traveled the interior of North America. Often, they traded with First Nations peoples by exchanging various European items for furs.

Their territory expanded; villages and clans divided into individual roving bands of trappers. The Tribe would later even join forces with the French against the British, who took control of their region in 1765.

In 1816, U.S. Military troops arrived in Wisconsin, building Fort Howard at Green Bay. From that point forward, the Menominee began selling their lands in a series of treaties.

Over the next 30 years, the Menominee would lose most of their territory to the United States. In 1854, they finally accepted a permanent 275,000-acre reservation on the Wolf River.

During the 1950s, the U.S. Government backpedaled, taking back the Menominee’s reservation. The termination of their land converted it into a county of the State.

In response, a group of Menominee formed an organization called Determination of Rights and Unity of Menominee Shareholders (DRUMS). In 1973, the group’s effort paid off and the termination was lifted.

The Menominee Reservation was re-established, and a constitution was created. Sadly, most of their traditional culture has disappeared, although many do still speak the Menominee language.

At present time, the Menominee tribe remains in Wisconsin. They are one of the few First Nations People still living on part of their ancestral lands.

The Ho-Chunk Nation

The Ho-Chunk possess an oral history placing their origin near present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin at Móogašuc, or the Red Banks. Ten million acres of ancestral land are recognized in treaties between the United States and the Ho-Chunk Nation. It lies between the Mississippi and Rock Rivers.

The Ho-Chunk Nation was previously known as the Wisconsin Winnebago Tribe until 1993. The term Winnebago, however, is a misnomer derived from the Algonquian language family. It instead refers to the region’s marshlands. Calling themselves the “People of the Big Voice,” the Hocąk language is the parent language of more than 15 of the Siouan language family.

Traditionally, the Ho-Chunk lived in a few large villages in the Lake Winnebago area. Families would move from area to area, however, to find food with the changing seasons. They were hunters, fishers, and gatherers of wild plants. The Ho-Chunk cultivated wild rice and gathered sugar and sap from maple trees to make syrup and candy.

Although all members made the best use of these resources, the Ho-Chunk women understood best what the forest and river’s edge could provide. Responsible for the survival of the families, they cared for the children as well as elders.

They were responsible for growing, gathering, and preparing food for their families. Women also learned to recognize and use a wide range of roots and leaves for medicinal and herbal purposes. The Ho-Chunk women processed and cooked game such as muskrat, deer and beaver. They prepared dried meats combined with berries to sustain their families when traveling. Wasting very little, remaining game parts were used for tools, binding, clothing, storage bags, and coverings for dwellings.

To become a man, boys would go through a rite of passage at puberty. They fasted for a period during which they were expected to acquire a guardian spirit. The tribal men provided different neccesities. The primary roles of a Ho-Chunk man was hunter and warrior. As hunters, they speared fish and hunted game. Leaders among the men interfaced with other tribes. Some learned to create jewelry and other body decorations out of silver and copper.

Warriors would not go on the warpath without first performing the “war-bundle feast,” honoring both the night-spirits and the Thunderbird spirit. They tried to acquire protection and powers from specific spirits. This was done by making offerings while using tobacco.

The Arrival of French Disruptors

Like the Menominee, European contact came in 1634 and life as they knew it would soon dramatically change. In his journals, French explorer Jean Nicolet noted that the Ho-Chunk (once called the Winnebago) occupied the area around the Green Bay of Lake Michigan, reaching beyond Lake Winnebago to the Wisconsin River and then to the Rock River in Illinois. He reported a gathering of approximately 5,000 warriors.

Historians now estimate the population may have ranged anywhere from 8,000 to more than 20,000 in 1634. With the inflow of French traders, these numbers would soon drastically reduce. By the end of the 1600s, The Ho-Chunk were down to as few as 500 individuals.

In fact, the Ho-Chunk suffered many hardships. After having contact with the Europeans, infectious disease epidemics took many lives.

Hundreds of warriors were soon also lost in a lake storm. Still more would be lost to attacks by the Illinois Confederacy while competing for resources with other migrating Algonquian tribes.

Efforts were made to move the tribe into what would become Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska from 1832—1874. The Ho-Chunk continuously returned during this process, finally using the 1862 Homestead Act to purchase back some of their ancestral land. This strategy of resilience resulted in a new Federal law called the Indian Homestead Act of 1875.

The Ho-Chunk Nation Today

Today, the Ho-Chunk Nation government is located along the falls of the Black River, in central Wisconsin. There are roughly 10,000 Ho-Chunk citizens living throughout the world. The Nation owns and protects land in 14 Wisconsin counties, in the State of Illinois, and a reservation in Nebraska. The Nebraska Reservation is a result of the failed attempts to ethnically cleanse the tribe from Wisconsin and Illinois.

Language remains vital to the flourishing of the tribe’s distinct culture. Since the removal of 1975’s federal assimilation policy, the Ho-Chunk have been focused on language renewal and revitalization. Currently, there are approximately 200 fluent Ho-Chunk language speakers, mostly elders.

The Keepers of the Fire

Over many generations, the Potawatomi have shared the age-old story of the “Seven Grandfather Teachings.” The Seven Grandfathers were powerful spirits given the responsibility to watch over the people by The Creator. The tale follows the journey of Shkabwes, the Seven Grandfathers’ helper, sent to find one who could be taught how to live in harmony with the world.

In the early years, Shkabwes saw the Earth acting hard on the people. Many died from diseases and others just passed on from the tough lives they lived. On Shkabwes‘ seventh trip, he found a newborn baby who was unaffected by the hardships of the world.

When Shkabwes presented the baby, the Seven Grandfathers said, “He is too young to hear our teachings or gaze upon us. Take him out and show him the four quarters of the universe and then return.”

Shkabwes showed the boy many things across the four quarters of the universe. Taking many years, when they returned to the lodge of the Seven Grandfathers, the boy was seven years old.

They pointed him to a water jug the creators had made, painted with the four directions and colors of people. “North is white, West is black, red is South and yellow is for the East,” they told him.

Then they each placed a gift in the water jug, sharing it just as one does in the peoples’ ceremonies today.

The first gift was wisdom, which would allow people to cherish the knowledge they attained. The second was love, because to know it was to know peace. Then, to honor all of the Creation, they gave respect. Bravery in the face of the foe was next, then honesty to face a difficult situation with pride. Humility to know ones place in the expanse of the Creation came next, while the gift of truth to know and understand all of those things came last.

“But remember,” they warned the boy, “for in the world each gift has an opposite, like evil is the opposite of good. You must teach them carefully in the right way to use each gift.” The man returned to Earth and taught the people about the gifts of the Seven Grandfathers and to be careful of their opposites.

The lesson of the story is that beginning at a very early age, we must teach our children about the world. They’re already aware of the things that are happening around them, so we must instill the values provided by the Seven Grandfathers in them that they will need to guide them along life’s uncertain path.

Like the Menominee, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation are an Algonkian-speaking tribe. They call themselves Neshnabek, meaning the “True People.” The term Potawatomi, however, is derived from the Ojibwe word Bodéwadmi meaning, “to tend the hearth-fire.” Local historians attribute the Milwaukee name to a word derived from their native language. The tribe pronounced it Mahn-ah-wauk, meaning council grounds.

Oral traditions of the Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Ottawa tell the story of all three tribes once living as one people at Straits of Mackinac between Michigan’s peninsulas.

Archaeological and historical evidence supports this claim as far back as 796 CE. Linguistically, their three languages are almost identical.

The combined group coexisted like family over generations, then split off into three distinct groups.

The Potawatomi became known as the “Keepers of the Fire,” the Ottawa as the “Keepers of Trade” and the Ojibwa as the “Keepers of Faith.”

The name given to the three nation alliance is “The Council of Three Fires.” They had a saying: “In this Council, the Ojibwe were addressed as Older Brother, the Odawa as Middle Brother, & the Potawatomi as Younger Brother.

The Potawatomi have called the Great Plains, western Great Lakes, and upper Mississippi River region home over more than four centuries. Originally from the lower Michigan region, the Potawatomi were forced westward by the French and Iroquois Wars, along with other tribes in the southern peninsula.

By 1665, the tribe relocated to “Death’s Door;” a strip of land named after the waterway between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island. Early inhabitants referred to Wisconsin’s Door County Peninsula as the “Door of Death” due to the strait’s detached reefs and shoals along the waterway. These natural landforms obstruct safe passage and are responsible for the loss of many lives.

As the Iroquois threat diminished, the tribe moved south along the western shore of Lake Michigan. The Potawatomi, or “People of the Canoe,” became the most prominent among local native tribes.

They established at least seven villages within two miles of what is now the location of Milwaukee’s downtown.

Each village was located at the border of water and woodland, housing a mixture of tribes migrating west.

Like many other tribes along the Great Lakes, the Potawatomi became both trading partners and military allies of the French. During the Territorial Era, Wisconsin lands changed hands many times. When the Fox Indians revolted against the White settlers in Wisconsin between 1712–1735, the Potawatomi joined the French in numerous battles. Warriors helped the French over more than two decades and helped bring an end to the Chickasaw Tribe. The Potawatomi warriors once again aided the French in a battle against the Illinois nation between 1752 and 1756. As a result, the tribe was driven out of northern Illinois.

During both the American Revolution and again in the War of 1812, the Potawatomi allied themselves with the British. At war’s end in 1814, the Americans emerged victorious, significantly changing the way of life. Over the next 20 years, the state was rapidly being settled by more and more European Immigrants. the tribe experienced great hardship, often unable to grow and hunt enough food. To survive, they had little choice but to relinquish their ancestral land in exchange for money.

A New Beginning for our First Nations

Today, The Citizen Potawatomi Nation is the federally-recognized government, representing over 38,000 tribal members and acting under a ratified Constitution. With the emergence of gaming and state-tribal compacts in the late 1980s and 1990s, Native Milwaukee began to experience new growth.
In 1991, the Forest County Potawatomi reclaimed land in the Menomonee Valley where they have since established highly lucrative local businesses. They secured rights to build a bingo hall and expanded it into the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino.

Over 7,000 Milwaukee County citizens identified as American Indian or Alaska Native on the 2010 census. This makes Milwaukee home to the largest concentration of First Peoples across the state. As it was once in the past, this again makes Milwaukee a Native gathering place by the water.

Hard history shed light on our difficult past. It teaches truth rather than whitewashing it. 

Sometimes, it is difficult to comprehend the inhumanity that defines it. And this, dear reader, is a genuine example of hard history.

First Nations. Send comments and feedback to MKERhineMaiden@gmail.com.

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Photos & illustrations are by the author unless otherwise noted.

References and Read More:

Adams, Barry. “Famed French Explorer Jean Nicolet Gets Historical Revision.” AP News. July 15, 2019. Accessed January 15, 2023.

“Ancient Religions and Mythology.” Encyclopedia Britannica (2022). Tikkanen, Amy (Editor). The Britannica Group, Chicago IL https://www.britannica.com/. Accessed November 1, 2022.

Citizen Potawatomi Nation. People of The Place of The Fire. 2023. https://www.potawatomi.org. Accessed January 14, 2023.

Ho-Chunk Nation (2023). https://ho-chunknation.com. Accessed February 14, 2023.

Making of Milwaukee (Parts 1, 2, 3). John Gurda. Milwaukee PBS, 2006.

Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin (2023). https://www.menominee-nsn.gov. 
Accessed January 14, 2023

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Encyclopedia of Milwaukee (2016). https://emke.uwm.edu. Accessed November 1, 2022.

Wisconsin First Nations. Ho-Chunk Nation 2023. https://wisconsinfirstnations.org/ho-chunk-nation/. Accessed January 14, 2023.

“Expedition of Marquette and Joliet, 1673.” Wisconsin Historical Society. 
Accessed December 28, 2022.