Influential Leadership
Chief Kahquados
Chief Simon Onanguisse Kahquados was the last hereditary descendant in a long line of Potawatomi chiefs, his family being one of the oldest known Potawatomi inhabitants of Wisconsin. An engaging speaker, Kahquados often served as an interpreter and provided a wealth of information to the Wisconsin Historical Society regarding traditional Potawatomi culture and history.
Kechewaishke
Kechewaishke (1759? – 1855), also known as Chief Buffalo, Peezhickee, and Le Boeuf, led the Lake Superior Ojibwe people of La Pointe, located on what is known today as Madeline Island. Kechewaishke guided his tribe …
OBJECT HISTORY: Potawatomi Beaded ‘Soldier Coat’
An elder spokesman for the Potawatomi Indians, Chief Simon Onanguisse Kahquados made a number of trips to Washington, D.C. in the early twentieth century in an effort to regain land that his people had lost through treaties with the United States government in the 1800s. Kahquados wore this coat on his last trip to Washington and also wore it on other important occasions, such as trips to the state capital in Madison where he often spent time researching and presenting information about his ancestry.
Treaties and Missionaries
Missionaries and Land Rights: The Story of Erik Morstad and the Potawatomi
Some histories are not as straightforward as others, especially when cultures collide. It may come as no surprise that stories about the interactions between Native Americans and white settlers are sometimes one-sided. We can partly …
OBJECT HISTORY: Ojibwe Presentation Pipe
This Ojibwe presentation pipe consists of two pieces: a pipe bowl and a pipe stem. It was most likely for spiritual ceremonies. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the pipe bowl is carved from heavy …
The Fur Trade Era
OBJECT HISTORY: Trade Blanket
This blanket, ordinary though it may seem, tells the story of an important meeting of cultures that occurred in Wisconsin between 1634 and 1763. Not long after the explorer Jean Nicolet first set foot in Wisconsin, French traders saw an opportunity to make money by sending beaver furs back to Europe for use in stylish…
OBJECT HISTORY: A Hudson’s Bay Company Point Blanket Coat
This wool coat was constructed from a ‘point blanket’ made by the Hudson’s Bay Company, likely during the early 1920s. A Wausau businessman wore it at one of the town’s early Winter Frolics, an annual winter sports festival that attracted tourists from as far as Chicago. The businessman belonged to a group of local business…
What is a Point Blanket Coat?
The practice of converting Hudson’s Bay Company blankets into coats began years before the company began mass-manufacturing point blanket coats in the twentieth century. During the fur trade, Native Americans hunters traded beaver pelts for …
Aztalan
OBJECT HISTORY: Aztalan Copper Maskettes
Found at the Aztalan archaeological site in southeastern Wisconsin, these small copper artifacts were most likely used as ornate jewelry.[1] Specifically, Mississipian people likely wore the mask-shaped copper designs as earrings. Although Native Americans seldom …
OBJECT HISTORY: Aztalan Fishing Weir
Fishing can take a lot of patience. A person could sit with their fishing pole for hours before they get a bite! Fishing weirs are time-saving technologies built in the water to trap fish. This fishing weir was created by the people who lived in the Early Mississippian settlement, Aztalan, sometime between the 10th and…
Lifestyle
OBJECT HISTORY: Cradleboard
Native Americans used cradleboards in North America to protect, carry, and entertain their babies. Cradleboards allowed women to keep babies close to their side. Women carried cradleboards on their backs. They also could rest them against a tree. The cradleboard protected babies from danger and kept them happy. Native tribes made cradleboards in many ways,…
When Lake Koshkonong was a Marsh
Maintaining practices like an annual visit to Lake Koshkanong to hunt and harvest food is an important way for indigenous knowledge and culture to be passed-on to the next generation.