Description
The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hocak, Hooc?gra, or Winnebago, are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Today, Ho-Chunk people are enrolled in two federally recognized tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. The Ho-Chunk was the dominant tribe in its territory in the 16th century, with a population estimated at several thousand. Ethnologists have speculated that, like some other Siouan peoples, the Ho-Chunk may have originated along the East Coast and migrated west in pre-colonial times. Nicolas Perrot wrote that the names given to them by neighboring Algonquian peoples may have referred to their origin near an ocean.
Language
They are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois.
Culture
Before Europeans ventured into Ho-Chunk territory, the Ho-Chunk were known to hunt, farm, and gather food from local sources, including nuts, berries, roots, and edible leaves. They knew what the forest and river's edge had to give and both genders had a role in making best use of resources. With the changing seasons, Ho-Chunk families moved to find food. For example, many families returned to Black River Falls, Wisconsin, to pick berries in the summer. Ho-Chunk women were responsible for growing, gathering, and processing food for their families, including the cultivation of varieties of corn and squash, in order to have different types through the growing season; and gathering a wide variety of roots, nuts, and berries, as well as sap from maple trees. In addition, women learned to recognize and use a wide range of roots and leaves for medicinal and herbal purposes.