The Winnebago first arrived
in northwest Kentucky around 500 BC and by 500 AD they had entered the area
that is now Wisconsin. In the 1620's the Winnebago fought an inter-tribal war
with the Potawatomis'. After this war, small pox and measles epidemics reduced
the population of the Tribe from about 25,000 people to only about 150 people.
The Winnebago signed their first treaty with the United States in 1816
and signed boundary and cession treaties in the 1820's and 1830's. These
treaties resulted in the loss of most of the tribal land. The Tribe was moved
from what is now northeast Iowa, to Minnesota to South Dakota, and finally to
their current location in Nebraska where the Winnebago Indian Reservation was
established by treaties of 1965 and 1874. Following this displacement to the
treeless plains of South Dakota, a nocturnal gravitation occurred during which
many of the dispossessed Winnebago, under cover of darkness, traveled down the
Missouri River to rejoin remnants of their tribe in Nebraska. The General
Allotment Act of 1887 resulted in the loss of about two thirds of the
Reservation by 1913. Both population and economic opportunities were lost
through the 1960s.
In 1975, the Tribe
was awarded $4.6 million by the Indian Claims Commission for the land it had
lost in the 1837 land cession treaty with the federal government. The tribal
council decided to use much of the award to develop three programs: land
acquisition, credit and a wake and burial program.
The tribe is
federally recognized and organized under the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. The
1936 constitution and bylaws were amended in 1968. The Tribal Council is
composed of a chairperson, vice chairperson, secretary, treasurer, and five
other members. All officers are elected to a one-year term, while the remaining
council members are appointed (Tiller, 1996). In 1986, the Tribe reestablished
is sovereignty in the area of its legal system.
