Other stories in "American Indians"

• Pike on the prowl
  For better or worse, America's first emissary on the Upper Mississippi set history into motion.
• Place of the Long Rapids
  Across Rainy River, the long-dead mean much to modern-day Ojibwe.
• Remembering Black Hawk
  Near Galena, a fort interprets a Sauk leader who has gripped imaginations for 175 years.
• Powwow primer
  For all who attend, the annual gathering has many layers of meaning.
• Written in stone
  The petroglyphs at Jeffers tell an ancient story.
• Pipestone homage
  For centuries, its quarries have been a sacred spot.
• Dancing on the Yellow Medicine
  In history-filled river valley, a wacipi celebrates Dakota culture.

Heritage travel: Dakota and Ojibwe

Despite centuries of disruption, their cultures survive.

In the 17th century, when Europeans began to flee religious and economic oppression, the New World was not an untouched wilderness.

In the wooded forests beyond Lake Superior, the Dakota and Ojibwe tapped maple trees for sugar, harvested wild rice and hunted the abundant game. Many of them cultivated crops and lived in villages, like the Europeans. They were careful stewards of the land, reseeding rice beds and maintaining healthy soil through controlled burns, just as state agencies do today.

For the Dakota and Ojibwe, this already was the land of the free.

In daily life, they were deeply spiritual, perceiving the divine wherever they looked — in a thunderbolt from the sky, the swoop of an eagle, the twisted branches of an old cedar tree. They raised children in extended family clans, imparting moral and ethical values with subtly nuanced stories and teaching by example. Leaders were appointed by group consensus, not to exert long-term control but to deal with specific challenges as they arose.

It wasn't the European way, but the French generally respected it when they arrived. Offering firearms, metal implements and woven blankets in return for furs, the French made life easier for the people but also started a dangerous dependence on trade goods.

By the time the furs ran out, the French were gone, replaced by hard-nosed Yankees who wanted something more than furs. The Dakota and Ojibwe had little to trade but land, and eventually, the Yankees got nearly all of it. (See "How the Indians lost their land," at right.)

Without land, they had no means of sustaining themselves or their culture. The tribes were set adrift in a sea of foreigners.

Assimilation vs. tradition

Unlike the newly arrived Germans, Norwegians and Swedes, who set up ethnic enclaves where they could carry on their traditions, the Indians were expected to fade away into the general population.

Government agents urged them to cut their hair, wear suits and live in single-family houses. Missionaries urged them to swap their Creator for a different one, worshiping not in the natural world but inside a building.

Starting in the 1870s, Dakota and Ojibwe children were forced to attend boarding schools, where they were punished for speaking their own language. By the time the schools finally closed, some as late as the 1960s, the language and stories — nearly were lost.

In the 1950s, the U.S. government stepped up the assimilation process, targeting relatively successful bands, such as the Menominee in Wisconsin, for termination. On the reservation, government officials gave young people bus money to relocate to faraway cities.

Ironically, white tourists helped preserve many of the old traditions. The Indian Allotment Act of 1887 fragmented reservations, and much of the land taken from the Indians was sold to white people for lake cabins and resorts.

When the vacationers arrived in the summer, Indian families set up roadside stands to sell them sweetgrass baskets, beaded moccasins and other traditional handicrafts. To entertain them, tribal members put on their regalia and performed in weekly powwows and dance ceremonials.

It was part of a hand-to-mouth existence for many until the advent of Indian gaming in the 1980s. Still, their right to continue a traditional lifestyle continues to be challenged, although in 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed their right to hunt, fish and gather according to the Treaty of 1837, under which the Dakota and Ojibwe lost most of their land east of the Mississippi.

"People are still stunned that the treaty held up," says Charlotte Hockings of the Lac du Flambeau community in northern Wisconsin, site of violent protests against spear-fishing in the 1980s.

Hockings and her husband, Nick, a Lac du Flambeau member, run a re-created Ojibwe village called Waswagoning, which means "lake where they spear fish by torchlight."

It's one of many places around the region where people can find out more about the cultures of the Dakota and Ojibwe, who in Wisconsin are joined by the Potawatomi and Menominee; the Ho-Chunk, who once were called Winnebago; and two tribes from the east, the Stockbridge Mohicans and the Oneida, once part of the League of Iroquois.

Today, only 1 percent of the population of Minnesota and Wisconsin call themselves Indians, and many non-Indians know little about them. Some people, says Hockings, still think Indians are savages. Others, who think fraud ended with the treaties long ago, think Indians should get on with their lives.

Well, they're trying.

Culture survives

And they're happy to share their culture at such places as Waswagoning, where the Hockingses guide visitors through a typical year in the life of an Ojibwe band.

There's a maple-sugaring site, with a birchbark kettle hanging over a fire. There's a summer wigwam and a field for lacrosse, where boys learned battle skills, and doubleball, which taught girls the dexterity needed for harvesting wild rice.

In the forest, there's an arrow-maker's lodge, filled with the utensils used before white traders introduced metal.

For many of the visitors, who came from 50 countries last year, it's a revelation.

"They expect us to be running around in leather and feathers," Charlotte Hockings says. "When they get here, they say, 'Where are the Indians?' and Nick is standing right there. But they're so happy when they leave. They see the culture, they see the language, they see the ricing sticks and the birchbark canoe. We explain how to make fire and use the bow drill — people are just mesmerized."

In Minnesota, the Four Seasons room at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum also shows sugaring, fishing and ricing camps, and guides tell about Ojibwe innovations, from early wildlife conservation to the first disposable diapers.

Videos show powwow dancers; a computer translates English words into the soft, cushioned syllables of Ojibwe; and Ojibwe elders tell stories and teach classes in beading, weaving and other traditional crafts.

Nearby, Mille Lacs-Kathio State Park holds traces of a palisaded village, one of 19 prehistoric sites built by the ancestors of the Mdewakanton Dakota, the "people who live by the water of the Great Spirit." Once, the Dakota lived on the shores of Mille Lacs; according to Ojibwe oral tradition, they were forced out between 1745 and 1750.

Not far away, at the North West Co. Fur Post in Pine City, Minn., and Forts Folle Avoine near Danbury, Wis., interpreters tell of the Ojibwe who worked in the fur trade. Ojibwe life also is represented at Grand Portage National Monument and in Thunder Bay, Ontario, at Old Fort William. In August, both re-created fur posts hold traditional powwows.

In Canada, the first nations guard their heritage at such sites as Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre, an Ojibwe village on the Rainy River where visitors can hear traditional stories, take classes and stay in tepees. Throughout Ontario, tours take tourists to remote aboriginal villages or send them into Quetico Provincial Park by canoe with a Cree guide.

In southwestern Minnesota, members of prairie tribes still quarry sacred stone at Pipestone National Monument.

Nearby, at Jeffers Petroglyphs, their ancestors left an ancient story on a 1,000-foot-long outcropping of hard red quartzite that once was a place for prayer. In the interpretive center, members of prairie tribes often come to tell stories, dance and present programs about their culture.

And every weekend there's a powwow somewhere, giving non-Indians a unique portal into the Indian world.

But since there is no one "Indian" world, it's hard to grasp everything.

In the end, there is perhaps only one thing we really need to know. In Lakota, Mitakuye oyasin. In Ojibwe, Gakina awiya gidinawendimin.

In English, that means we are all related.

Ojibwe or Chippewa, Dakota or Sioux?

Wisconsin and Minnesota have two main tribes. The Ojibwe live in the north woods, and the Dakota live in small communities along the Minnesota and Mississippi river valleys. Nationally, they're the third- and fourth-largest Indian nations.

Sometimes, tribal names cause confusion. The Ojibwe's name was shortened into Chippewa by French traders, and Chippewa still is the legal name of many bands, especially in Wisconsin. The name Anishinabe, or "the original people," has spiritual meaning and is what one Ojibwe calls another. The term Ojibwe is used most often when referring to tribal culture and tradition.

The term Dakota — also Lakota and Nakota, on the prairies farther west — is the tribe's own word for "allies." But historically, they have been known as the Sioux, which is derived from the Ojibwe word nadowesioux or "little snakes." Although the name Sioux was meant to be derogatory, it has become associated with courage and bravery over the years, and many Dakota, especially elders, still bear it proudly.

Many non-Indians think they should use the term "native American" when referring to the indigenous people of the United States, but many tribal members prefer "Indian" if an umbrella term must be used. In Canada, the umbrella term is "aboriginal," and communities are called "first nations."

But since people in both countries consider themselves members of separate nations rather than a common race, it is best to use tribal affiliations, such as Dakota or Ojibwe, whenever possible.

How the Indians lost their land

When French fur traders arrived in the Upper Midwest in the 17th century, the land belonged to the Ojibwe, the Dakota and many other tribes — except they did not believe land could be owned by individuals or transferred by a piece of paper.

This fundamental difference in perception colored agreements between Indians and Europeans for the next two centuries. In the beginning, when land was plentiful, the newcomers took the high road: The 1787 Northwest Ordinance stated, "The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward Indians; their land and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed... ."

But when the Europeans needed land, they took it. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act shoved Indians west of the Mississippi River and out of Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. In 1854, the Indian Appropriations Act gave Congress authority to establish Indian reservations. In 1862, the Homestead Act unleashed a stampede of settlers, who swarmed to Indian lands and increased pressure for treaties.

By 1887, even the land Indians held on reservations seemed like too much, and the Indian Allotment Act eliminated the rights of Indians to hold tribal land in common. Their reservations were taken away and exchanged for allotments of 160 acres per head of household, 80 acres for a single person. Many Indians, unable to make a living, eventually sold their land to white people. The reservation land that was left over — 90 million acres — also was sold.

Between 1829 and 1833, the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) and Potawatomi ceded their land in southern Wisconsin. At the same time, the Menominee were ceding eastern Wisconsin. In 1837, the Santee Dakota gave up their land in western Wisconsin. The same year, the Dakota and Ojibwe lost most of their land east of the Mississippi. In 1851, the Dakota, under duress, signed away most of southern Minnesota.

Each chief also had to sign a "trader's paper," whose inflated demands and kickbacks nearly equaled the amounts the Dakota were to receive under the treaty.

This plundering was no secret at the time. As Episcopal bishop Henry Whipple, a friend of the Dakota, later noted, "The treaty is usually conceived and executed in fraud. The ostensible parties to the treaty are the government of the United States and the Indians; the real parties are the Indian agents, the traders and politicians."

By 1854, the Ojibwe had been forced to cede most of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, including their sacred homeland on Madeline Island. In Minnesota, the Dakota were confined to a 10-mile-wide strip south of the Minnesota River by 1858. After the War of 1862, they lost even that and were banished from the state.

Some Indians refused to go. Forcibly removed in 1840, Ho-Chunk leader Yellow Thunder came back in 1849 and bought 40 acres in the Wisconsin Dells, the Ho-Chunk homeland. It served as a haven for the Ho-Chunk until 1875, when amendments to the Homestead Act allowed them to file claims and resettle in the area.

The Dakota started drifting back to Minnesota in the 1880s, and eventually the U.S. government purchased small reservations for them at Prairie Island, near Red Wing; at Shakopee, just west of the Twin Cities; and at the Upper and Lower Sioux Agencies along the Minnesota River.

The Minnesota Ojibwe have much larger reservations: White Earth, in the northwest, the largest; Red Lake, north of Bemidji; Leech Lake, around Walker; Bois Forte, south of International Falls; Grand Portage, at the far tip of the North Shore; Fond du Lac, west of Duluth; and Mille Lacs.

In northern Wisconsin, the Red Cliff, Bad River, Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau and Mole Lake bands of Ojibwe have reservations, and the St. Croix have scattered parcels. In southern Wisconsin, the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans, Potawatomi, Oneida and Menominee have reservations, and the Ho-Chunk have scattered settlements.

The Menominee, who had built a self-sustaining timber operation on their reservation, were targeted for termination under new federal policy in 1953 and lost their reservation in 1961. In 1973, after extensive litigation, their tribal status and land were restored.

Most of the reservations were turned into checkerboards when owners of allotted land were forced to sell. Today, whenever possible, tribes buy the land back from white owners.

Trip Tips: Learning about the Dakota and Ojibwe

Go to a powwow or wacipi: This is when band members gather to greet old friends, replenish their sense of cultural identity and show off achievements. Traditional powwows are more like family reunions; at competition powwows, cash prizes are awarded. At both kinds, the dancing and drumming celebrate each man and woman’s artistry, spirituality and connection to ancestors and community.

The centerpiece is the Grand Entry; most are 1 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and 7 p.m. Saturdays, but call in advance to find out for sure. Guests may want to bring tobacco to honor favorite dancers, drummers, or elders with whom they wish to talk. Never enter the circle unless invited, and don’t take photos when the announcer forbids them. Refer to outfits or regalia, not “costumes.” Guests should stand during the Grand Entry and honor songs.

One of the first things visitors will notice is the many ways in which veterans are honored. Despite their history with the U.S. government, Indians take great pride in serving their country, and their young people have a long record of valiant service.

For a listing of Upper Midwest powwows and wacipi, See Powwow primer .

Visit heritage villages: At Waswagoning in Lac du Flambeau, Wis., guides show visitors around a re-created Ojibwe village as it would have been before European contact. It’s open Tuesday-Saturday from June 11 to Sept. 3, 715-588-2615, 715-588-3560, www.waswagoning.com

Just west of International Falls and over the border, on the Rainy River near Emo, Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre is a Canadian National Historical Site. Visitors can stay in a tepee, take handiwork classes, hear elders tell stories and take a boat trip to see pictographs. The visitors center includes an aquarium, exhibits and a restaurant that serves Ojibwe food. 1-807-483-1163, www.kaynahchiwahnung.com.

Study the culture: In Lac du Flambeau, the George W. Brown Jr. Museum and Cultural Center includes a four-seasons diorama, a rare 18^th-century dugout canoe and a 7-foot, 195-pound sturgeon speared in nearby Pokegama Lake. It offers Ojibwe culture programs and craft classes year-round. 1-715-588-3333, www.lacduflambeauchamber.com.

On the west shore of Mille Lacs in central Minnesota, Mille Lacs Indian Museum includes engaging exhibits on Ojibwe culture and history, and there’s a Trading Post next door. Weekend handicrafts workshops and special events, such as storytelling in Ojibwe, are held year-round. 1-320-532-3632, www.mnhs.org.

In the shores of Lake Vermilion in northeast Minnesota, near Tower, the Bois Forte Heritage Center includes exhibits on the history of the Ojibwe band. 1-218-753-6017, www.fortunebay.com.

Near Green Bay, the Oneida Nation Museum, one of the nation’s oldest Indian museums, includes a traditional Iroquois longhouse and exhibits, including one on Oneida warriors, who had seven commissioned officers in the Revolutionary War and have served in every U.S. military conflict since. A gift shop sells contemporary Oneida and Iroquois arts. 1-920-869-2768, www.oneidanation.org.

In southwest Minnesota, the Jeffers Petroglyphs bear the story of an ancient people. Guides lead visitors along trails to see carvings of serpents, buffalo and stick figures, and the interpretive center holds programs on both ancient and modern Indian traditions. It’s open Fridays-Sundays in May and September, daily except Tuesday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. 1-507-628-5591, www.mnhs.org.

Farther west, rangers at Pipestone National Monument join visitors on the Circle Trail to talk about the cultural traditions surrounding the pipestone quarries, still used by members of Plains tribes. In the Upper Midwest Indian Cultural Center, pipemakers and other artisans give demonstrations. It’s open daily. 1-507-825-5464, www.nps.gov/pipe.

Revisit the fur trade: On the shores of the Yellow River, near the St. Croix Ojibwe band headquarters in Hertel, Wis., Forts Folle Avoine Historical Park re-creates a fur post and Woodland Indian Village on the site of an 1802-1804 post. Visitors can talk with interpreters on guided tours, Wednesday-Sunday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Special events include the Great Folle Avoine Fur Trade Rendezvous, July 22-24. 1-715-866-8890, www.theforts.org.

On the Snake River near Pine City, Minn., the re-created 1804 North West Co. Fur Post includes an Ojibwe encampment, and interpreters portray the Ojibwe and metis who worked in the fur trade. Special events include Fall Gathering, Sept. 17-18. 320-629-6356, www.mnhs.org.

At the northeast tip of Minnesota, Grand Portage National Monument re-creates a fur depot at the site of the Kitchi Onigaming, the long portage around the Pigeon River first marked by Indian travelers. It was the nerve center of the Great Lakes fur trade until 1803, when it was packed up and moved across the border to Thunder Bay. Costumed interpreters lead walking tours that include an Ojibwe encampment. It’s open daily from May 28 through Oct. 10. 1-218-387-2788, www.nps.gov/grpo.

In Thunder Bay, Fort William Historical Park takes up where Grand Portage left off. It’s a virtual Disneyland of the fur trade, with 42 buildings, including an Ojibwe encampment, and costumed interpreters who act the parts of real 1814 characters very convincingly. A full slate of demonstrations and dramas is held daily in July and August, and the Great Rendezvous is June 30-July 4. 1-807-473-2344, www.fwhp.ca.

Take a tour: In Thunder Bay, Northern Ontario Native Tourism Association offers guided, customized packages through Moccasin Trail Tours. Examples of trips include the six-day Welcome to Our Homeland, which includes visits to Fort William, a sea-plane flight to Peawanuck First Nation and polar-bear and beluga-whale watching along Hudson Bay; the seven-day Paddling Quetico With a Cree Guide; and a seven-day trip to Lake of the Woods and Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung. All include extensive contact with members of aboriginal communities. Call 1-866-844-0497, www.moccasintrailtours.com.

Two self-guided tours allow people to learn more about two of the saddest episodes in U.S. history. On the rolling byways of southwest Wisconsin, a series of roadside markers recount the last leg of Sauk leader Black Hawk’s flight from federal troops in 1832, which ended in the slaughter of his band, including many women, children and old men, on the Mississippi River. For a guide, call Viroqua Partners at 1-608-637-2575, www.visitvernoncounty.com.

In the Minnesota River Valley, many sites mark the events of the War of 1862, when the Dakota rose against settlers, killing at least 360. For a guide and map to the Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway, call 1-800-473-3404, www.mnrivervalley.com.

On the way, don’t miss the Treaty Site History Center in St. Peter, on the site where the Dakota gave up 24 million acres in 1851. It contains fascinating exhibits on the characters of the era and shows copies of the “trader’s papers’’ that claimed virtually all the money the Dakota received under 1851 and 1858 treaties. It’s open Tuesday-Sunday from April through October. 1-507-934-2160, http://tourism.st-peter.mn.us/sections/treaty.php.

Learn more: Wisconsin puts out a very good guide called Native Wisconsin, available free by calling 1-800-432-8747, www.travelwisconsin.com, www.natow.org.

“Wisconsin Indians,” by Nancy Oestreich Lurie, Wisconsin Historical Society Press, is a succinct summary of the convoluted history of Indians in that state, where official policies often played out first.

“Ojibwe Waasa Omaabodaa, We Look in All Directions,’’ by Thomas Peacock and Marlene Wisuri, Afton Historical Society Press, is a beautifully illustrated book that includes a personal approach from author Peacock, a member of the Fond du Lac band of Ojibwe.

“American Indians: Answers to Today’s Questions,’’ by Jack Utter, University of Oklahoma Press, will be enlightening to anyone curious about Indians and their complex history.

Last updated on August 12, 2008