Fiscal Note
No fiscal impact.
Title
Affirming and Proclaiming Friday, November 26, 2021 as Ho-Chunk Day
Body
WHEREAS, the Ho-Chunk people are descendants of the effigy mound builders, ca AD 700-1100, and are the Aboriginal inhabitants of the Madison region, known to the Ho-Chunk as “Te Jop eja” (The Four Lakes); and,
WHEREAS, they always lived on this land, which was theirs only for safe keeping, and to take from it only as needed; and,
WHEREAS, oral tradition and historic documents describe the Ho-Chunk as a large and populous tribe of 10,000 that occupied more than 10 million acres of land in much of Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois; and,
WHEREAS, the heart of the effigy mound region is around the present-day City of Madison, in the Four Lakes Mound District which covers the four principal lakes of Mendota, Monona, Waubesa, and Kegonsa, wherein notable buildings were built and erected through the digging up and destroying of effigy mounds; and,
WHEREAS, in 1829, according to a census there were 598 Ho-Chunk people living around the lakes; and,
WHEREAS, on December 2, 1829, President John Quincy Adams, presented the Ho-Chunk with the first treaty for ceding vast amounts of mineral-rich land wanted by the white settlement; and,
WHEREAS, beginning in 1849, the federal government began a series of attempts of forcible removals - the Ho-Chunk were rounded up and put into boxcars to move them from their Wisconsin territory to Iowa, then Minnesota, and still later to South Dakota, and finally Nebraska - leading to mistrust and conflict with a dominant government society; and,
WHEREAS, the Ho-Chunk returned on foot to Wisconsin to live as refugees on their former homelands, and in 1875, those in Wisconsin were allowed to settle on lands that were not wanted and are the only tribe in Wisconsin for whom no reservation was ever formally established; and,
WHEREAS, in 1887, with the General Allotment Act, the shift changed from isolation to assimilation and acculturation; along with the establishment of day and boarding schools to educate Indian children either by mission or federal schools - believing that education would quickly resolve the “Indian Problem,” the Indian child was forced either to forget language and culture and become a white Anglo, or to repudiate the advantages of Anglo culture in order to remain Indian; and,
WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States enacted the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934, as amended, 25 U.S.C. §461 et seq. (“IRA”); and,
WHEREAS, the Ho-Chunk Nation is a federally-recognized Indian Tribe organized under Section 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934; and,
WHEREAS, on November 1, 1994, the Secretary of the Interior approved a new Constitution for the Ho-Chunk Nation, formerly known as the Wisconsin Winnebago Tribe; and,
WHEREAS, the Ho-Chunk Nation is a federally-recognized Indian tribe possessing inherent sovereign powers by virtue of self-government and democracy; and,
WHEREAS, Ho-Chunk representatives have demonstrated collaboration and relationship-building by developing and maintaining contacts with city officials and nurturing positive relationships with the public and private sectors; and,
WHEREAS, the Ho-Chunk people demonstrate their way of life, goodwill, and social responsibility to their homeland and all its residents in welcoming people to their homeland for centuries.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City of Madison recognizes the historical trauma and how it still reverberates today, so that healing can take place and progress can be made.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Madison do hereby affirm and proclaim Friday, November 26, 2021 as Ho-Chunk Day.