Indigenous Communities

Indigenous Communities. . , Based on archaeological evidence, the first known inhabitants of Wisconsin were the Paleo-Indians and Archaic cultures. They lived as hunters and gatherers between 10,000 and 3000 years ago. They were followed by the Woodland culture which continued until about 1,000 years ago. The Woodland culture was the first to make pottery, build earthen burial mounds, adopt the bow-and-arrow as a weapon and raise beans, squash and corn. The St. Croix River was used as a trade route from Lake Superior to the Mississippi and further south; unearthed copper from the Lake Superior basin and red pipestone from northern Wisconsin have been found in caves and campsites along the rivers. Tribes likely also traded food and medicine plants thus introducing new plant species., The first recorded inhabitants of the St. Croix River Valley (including St. Croix County) were the Dakota, (one of three groups that were part of the Sioux Nation). The Late Woodland culture existed from about year 500 until the arrival of Europeans around 1650. Archaeologists refer to the earlier inhabitants as the Oneota, the ancestors of the Dakota. The Dakota are also known as the Mdewakanton Soiux, for approximately two to three thousand years their territory included the St. Croix and Mississippi river valleys across northern Minnesota and Wisconsin., In the mid 1600's, a second tribe, the Ojibwe (Chippewa), began moving into the Great Lakes region and eventually the St. Croix Valley. The original homeland of the Ojibwe was near the Atlantic Ocean. Encroachment of other Native Americans pushed the Ojibwe west into the Great Lakes region., Source: Wisconsin Historical Society, [Sidebar:] , Burial Mounds , More burial mounds were built in Wisconsin than any other state in the U.S. Most were built between 2,700 and 700 years ago by the probable ancestors of the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Dakota, and Menominee. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, there are as few as 4,000 mounds that remain today. In 1985, Wisconsin passed legislation to protect mounds and other burial sites., [Captions:] , Birkmose Park south of here, in Hudson, Wisconsin, contains five burial mounds over looking the Saint Croix River. , Photo Courtesy of St. Croix County Historical Society Photo Collection, Hudson, WI, Map of the land cessations made by Indigenous Communities during the interval between the formal establishment of the United States and 1894. , Photo Courtesy of USGenWeb Archives, United States Digital Map Library, Sugar Maple , State Tree.