Iola’s Native American Heritage

Iola’s Native American Heritage. . Side 1, Native peoples have occupied Central Wisconsin since the final glaciers retreated 14,000 years ago. Evidence of the hunting weapons dating to 13,000 years ago and 9,000-year-old ritual stone tool caches found locally confirm long habitation and deep connections to the land. Extensive surface waters, glacially-transported stone for tools, abundant plant communities along with modern and now extinct large game animals such as mammoth, mastodon, bison, stag moose, and giant beaver have offered a rich environment locally since humans arrived. , Native Peoples adapted as the climate changed, utilizing fish, and smaller modern game such as woodland caribou, deer and elk, along with an increased use of harvested plants, seeds and nuts. Evidence of their presence including copper and stone tools, ceramics, village and camp sites and ritually important earthworks such as geometric and effigy burial mounds span well over 10,000 years. , Long-distance trade routes accessed this area and exotic objects such as ocean shell, southern-sourced chert blades, and western obsidian arrived over local waterways, with many routes still in use at European arrival. , (Continued on other side) , Side 2 , (Continued from other side) , In the post-contact period Native populations occupied the area seasonally, returning for ceremonial purposes and to bury and honor the dead within traditional lands. , As early as the 17th century, inter-tribal conflict, Euro-American settlement, forced land cessions, and resulting military actions displaced many Wisconsin tribes. Among the historic Native Tribes continuing to call Waupaca County home are the Oneida, Stockbridge, Sauk, Ho-Chunk, Menominee and Ojibwe. From late prehistoric time, Iola and Waupaca County were considered traditional Menominee territory, although Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe peoples also resided here. Waupaca translates in Menominee as “Wapahkoh” or “Place of Tomorrow Seen Clearing” and the Chain of Lakes area is known as “Sisepikamiw” or “Sprawling Water, Like an Animal Basking in the Sun.” These names speak to both ancient and modern ties to place. , A tongue of land in upper Lake Iola is known locally as “Indian Point,” a name likely derived from the fact that in the late 19th and early 20th century Native Americans were still commonly camped near the mill pond each spring. The lore attributing the town and village names to a Native Princess Iola is almost certainly a 19th century fabrication.