History: Ho-Chunk — Multilingualism and Education in Wisconsin

Ho-Chunk

Name and Terminology

“Ho-Chunk is pronounced exactly like it looks, "ho-chunk." Sometimes it is spelled "Ho-chunk," "Ho Chunk," "Hochunk," or "Hocak" instead. The reason for all the different spellings is that the Ho-Chunk language was originally unwritten. The name comes from the tribe's own name for themselves, Hocąk, which means "big voice."'

“This nation calls itself Hochungra, which means “People of the Big Voice.””

“Hochunk is the people's own name for themselves. Winnebago is what their Algonquian neighbors called them. Literally, "Winnebago" means "smelly water.""

Source: http://www.bigorrin.org/hochunk_kids.htm

https://www.baraboopubliclibrary.org/files/local/wardvol1/05%20Ho-Chunk%20and%20Winnebgo%20Explained%20-%20About%20Section%20AA.pdf

Language

There are 70-100 native speakers of Ho-Chunk.

Language Revitalization Efforts

“The Ho-Chunk in western Wisconsin are developing an immersion day care like Corn’s, and Ho-Chunk is taught in five public school districts, along with informal instruction in several branch offices and online courses.”

“[The Indian Community School] is also in discussion with the Ho-Chunk to add daily instruction in that language, too.”

“Adrienne Thunder, the head of the Ho-Chunk language department, is in a UW-Madison doctoral program in educational leadership and policy analysis, with the goal of using what she learns to help start a Ho-Chunk tribal college.”

Madison East offers Ho-Chunk through its facilitated language program.

“The Hoocak Academy was created to provide language materials, resources and instructional learning to the community. The resources created will help assist the everyday learner in his or her language journey. Some of the resources created are as follows; the website, fun interactive videos via YouTube, pictures with recordings via Facebook and a fun interactive online learning program. The Hoocak Academy also provides great materials for classes available in our Learning Center here on our website.”

Image credit: https://www.hoocak.org/hoocak-academy/

Learn Words and Phrases!

Hainipi or aho — Hello

Wa’iniginap — Thank you

H0-Chunk Language Resources

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyRyUG98YoAr1gDTg6BdUvsm-oTiBLyFZ

History

Unless otherwise cited, information comes from Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal Patty Loew (2001)

ho-chunk-origins — Origins

“The oral traditions of the tribe, particularly the Thunderbird clan, state that the Ho-Chunk originated at the Red Banks on Green Bay.”
“There are a number of theories regarding the origins of the ancestors of the Ho-Chunk. One early theory suggests that they migrated into the Midwest from the eastern seaboard. According to this theory, they migrated west along the Ohio River, and the branch that became the Ho-Chunk moved north into Wisconsin between AD 800 and 1200. Other scholars have hypothesized that the tribe migrated from the lower Mississippi River valley and arrived in Wisconsin during the 1500s, shortly before contact with the French. Some have also asserted that the ancestors of the Ho-Chunk built the large, earthen effigy mounds which were common in various parts of Wisconsin, but there is no conclusive evidence for this yet.”
Image Source: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS4377

ho-chunk-early-years — Early Years

“In contrast to their Wisconsin neighbors the Menominee and Potawatomi, the Ho-Chunk relied more on agricultural products for subsistence.”
“The Ho-Chunk first made contact with Europeans in 1634 when they met the French explorer Jean Nicolet. At that time, they were living in the Green Bay region and Fox River valley along with their Algonkian-speaking neighbors the Menominee. French traders with whom they made contact described them as powerful and skilled warriors who frequently made war with other tribes. In the years after Nicolet's visit, refugees from Algonkian-speaking tribes in southern Michigan fled to Wisconsin to escape the onslaught of the League of the Iroquois who fought with tribes as far away as Minnesota to monopolize rich Midwestern beaver lands. The refugee Indians and the Ho-Chunk both suffered from starvation, disease, and intertribal warfare. During this period, the tribe declined from about 4,000 or 5,000 tribal members to about 600 or 700 as a result of introduced European diseases and warfare.”
“Following this period, the Ho-Chunk intermarried with members of other tribes to help recover their population losses. As a result, they became more like the Algonkian neighbors they married, borrowing a number of customs and traditions. With their pursuit of the fur trade, they also reorganized their ways of life to depend more on valuable fur species. […] Instead of the large villages they had previously had, they created smaller settlements (as many as 40 of them) dispersed over a wider area, switching to domed wigwams from their earlier rectangular house forms.”
“Like other Wisconsin tribes, they engaged in the fur trade with French and later British traders. […] the Ho-Chunk, like other Wisconsin tribes, retained a strong attachment to the British. The Ho-Chunk fought against the United States during the American Revolution.”
Image Source: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS4377

Nineteenth Century and On

The Ho-Chunk resisted repeated attempts by the US government to remove them from their lands.

“In 1875, the Ho-Chunk built a schoolhouse at Black River Falls with Christian missionaries of the Evangelical and Reform Church as teachers. Later, the missionaries expanded it into a boarding school and in 1921 transferred it to a new and larger building at Neillsville. Lutheran missionaries established a school at Wittenberg in 1884 that ministered to the Ho-Chunk, Oneida, Stockbridge-Munsee, and Menominee.” Though the Ho-Chunk boarding schools had a better reputation than others, the children were still stripped of their culture and forbade from speaking their language.

“Religious differences created problems for the Ho-Chunk for many years, disrupting tribal unity.”

“Beginning in 1913, many Ho-Chunk began to settle at the Wisconsin Dells and developed performance programs and crafts sales to appeal to tourists. This became so profitable for many Ho-Chunk that they moved to the Dells to sell crafts and perform for tourists and alternated this work with seasonal farm labor. Unfortunately, what was a good adaptation for the family economy seldom allowed children to go far in school, which made them poorly suited to moving out of seasonal unskilled labor and into better paying jobs later in life.”

Their constitution was created in 1963. “In November 1994, the tribe adopted "Ho-Chunk" as their official name.”

Image Source: https://ho-chunknation.com/