Whew, lots of reading about GOM. I am trying to understand the conditions of Wisconsin in her day. Wisconsin was a lush, green fertile land with waterways and all kinds of animals, namely deer and beaver. The land was flush all manner of edible plants. It sounds like Eden to me.
At any rate, this is the land that GOM grew up in. It is hard to imagine such a place. Her only neighbors were the Fox, Iroquois, Sauk and the occasional Santee Dakota. Overall, they each respected the other's hunting areas, however they weren't perfect. My grandfather called small wars "scrimmages" small tests of strength that his people engaged in to show superiority. GOM's village was near Lake Winnebago and it was named Doty Island.
Archeologist and anthropologist state that Winnebago/HoChunk were perhaps remnants of a pre-history people called the Oneota. Actually history states that Wisconsin was first inhabited by the Paleo-Indians (of the mastodon-type people). There is an actual mastodon kill site in Wisconsin. Wisconsin was inhabited by several pre-history Indians, named after dig sites, time periods and what not: Plano people> Old Copper > Hopewell > woodland people > mound builders > Oneota (not necessarily in order). Amazing!
Needless to say, Wisconsin was always inhabited by a race of "Indian" people and it was no surprise when the first European travelers to this beautiful land along the vast waterways of Wisconsin found the Winnebago/HoChunk people living near Lake Winnebago as they had always lived as told through oral history. The first European traveler to the HoChunk... well that's is my next reading. Some say it was Nicolet, others Brule, still others insist it was the Vikings because these poor pre-historic Indians couldn't have mined, or could have possible molted ore or other metals to make knives or made clay to make pots. Oh boy! Better keep reading!
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