Winnebago Tribe

To get started in American Indian Research



Various Spellings: Winnebago, Winebago, Winnebaygo, Wennebago

Ancestrial Homeland: near the Door Penisula, near Green Bay on

Lake Michigan- East Wisconsin and South of Green Bay

Clans: Thunderbird, Eagle, Pigeon, Hawk, Wolf, Bear, Water Spirit, Elk, Deer, Buffalo, Fish,and Snake

Tribal Leaders:Red Bird, White Cloud,

Tribal Headquarters
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska P.O. Box 687 Winnebago, NE 68071 Phone: 1.402.878.2272 Fax: 1.402.878.2963


 * Winnebago Indian Official Website

Brief Timeline

 * 1634: French Jesuit priest, Jean Nicolet
 * 1689-1763: French and Indian War fought with the French
 * 1775-83: Revolutionary War - fought with the British
 * 1809-11: Tecumseh's Rebellion fought against the British
 * 1827: Uprising lead to forced removal west of the Mississippi
 * 1832: Black Hawk War
 * 1832: ceded land in Wisconsin for land in Iowa.
 * 1836: smallpox epidemic killed many
 * 1840-1863: forced relocation: 700 tribal members died; after the Black Hawk War forced to relocate west of the Mississippi,
 * 1840: Iowa
 * 1846: Minnesota
 * 1848: to Long Prairie Reservation,
 * 1857: Blue Earth River Reservation
 * 1862: Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota
 * and on to Nebraska
 * 1865: settle on Omaha Reservation,Nebraska
 * December 1873 - January 1874: removal of 1,000 Winnebago Indians from Wisconsin to Nebraska.
 * 1934: became federally recognized under the Indian Reorganization Act.

Additional References to the History of the Tribe
Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Winnebago tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods. Additional details are given in John Swanton's The Indian Tribes of North America and in David Bushnell's Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi.

Reservations
A reservation is a tract of land set aside for occupation and use use by American Indians.

From the mid-1800s, the official policy of the United States government toward the American Indian was to confine each tribe to a specific parcel of land called a reservation. Agencies were established on or near each reservation. A government representative, usually called an agent (or superintendent) was assigned to each agency. Their duties included maintaining the peace, making payments to the Native Americans based on the stipulations of the treaties with each tribe, and providing a means of communication between the native population and the federal government.

Sometimes, a single agency had jurisdiction over more than one reservation. And sometimes, if the tribal population and land area required it, an agency may have included sub-agencies.

The boundaries of reservations, over time, have changed. Usually, that means the reservations have been reduced in size. Sometimes, especially during the later policy of "termination," the official status of reservations was ended altogether.

The following list of reservations has been compiled from the National Atlas of the United States of America, the Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America , and other sources. There are no current federally-recognized reservations in Illinois.

Long Prairie Reservation

Blue Earth River Reservation

Crow Creek Reservation

Omaha Reservation

Agency
Agencies and subagencies were created as administrative offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its predecessors. Their purpose was (and is) to manage Indian affairs with the tribes, to enforce policies, and to assist in maintaining the peace. The names and location of these agencies may have changed, but their purpose remained basically the same. Many of the records of genealogical value were created by these offices.

The following list of agencies that have operated or now exist in Illinois has been compiled from Hill's Office of Indian Affairs..., Hill's Guide to Records in the National Archives Relating to American Indians , and others. I

Records
Correspondence and Census

Census
Grand Rapids - 1916-17, 1919-25 

Great Lakes - 1936-40

Tomah - 1911-1916, 1927-1936

Treaties

 * 1816 June 3, at St. Louis
 * 1825 August 19, at Prairie du Chien with the Sioux, Etc.,
 * 1827 August 11, at Butte des Morts, with the Chippewa
 * 1828 August 25, at Green Bay
 * 1829 August 1, at Prairie du Chien
 * 1832 September 15,
 * 1837 November 1, at Washington
 * 1846 October 13, at Washington
 * 1855 February 27, at Washington
 * 1859 April 15, at Washington
 * 1865 March 8, at Washington

Agencies
The Winnebago Indians were under the jurisdiction of the Prairie du Chien Agency 1824-42, Winnebago Agency 1826-76, Nebraska Agency 1876-80, Turkey River Subagency 1842-46, Green Bay Agency and Great Nemaha Agency.

Superintendencies
The Winnebago Indians were under the jurisdiction of the following superintendencies: Michigan Superintendency, St. Louis Superintendency, Wisconsin Superintendency, Iowa Superintendency, Minnesota Superintendency, Northern Superintendency, and Dakota Superintendency.

Important Web Sites

 * Constitution and By-Laws of the Winnebag Tribe Winnebago Reservation in the State of Nebraska. Approved April 3, 1936.
 * Winnebago Indian Official Website
 * Winnebago Reservation Wikipedia