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One of the food staples particularly enjoyed by the Ojibwe and Menominee was wild rice. 

Wild rice is not a true rice, but rather a cereal grass -- Zizania aquatica -- which grows in shallow lakes and streams. It ripens in late summer, usually from the middle of August to early September. Native people in the Great Lakes boiled rice and ate it with corn, beans, or squash. Meat, a small amount of grease, or maple sugar was often added for seasoning. As a treat, it was occasionally parched like popcorn.

Pregnancy, Birth, and Infancy

The Great Lakes tribes observed specific taboos during pregnancy which extended to both parents. Both expectant parents, but particularly the mother, were warned not to look at deformed animals or people for fear it might harm the child. Eating or looking at turtles or rabbits could cause the baby to develop the jerky motion of a turtle or rabbit-like fits.

When was Aztalan first discovered?

Aztalan was first discovered by Europeans in the fall of 1835 by early Wisconsin Territory settler Timothy Johnson of Watertown. Upon hearing stories of the site, Judge Nathaniel Hyer, a Milwaukee settler, visited. His description, the first at-length published account of Aztalan, appeared in the Milwaukee Advertiser, Volume One, Number 29 on Saturday, February 25th, 1837. In this account, Judge Hyer also produced the first rudimentary map of the site.

Plains ledger art was adopted as a means of historical representation for the Indian peoples of the Great Plains during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Although the Plains Indians had no written language in which to record their history, they did have a long tradition of preserving oral histories pictorially. For centuries, Plains Indian men kept historical records of their tribes, first with petroglyphs and pictographs on rock walls, and then painted on buffalo hides.

Cosmic Curiosities

“The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”
- Maya Angelou, American Author & Poet

Diving Into Deep Space

Cosmic Curiosities

“I'll toss my coins in the fountain
Look for clovers in grassy lawns
Search for shooting stars in the night
Cross my fingers and dream on.”
 - Tracy Chapman, American Singer

Popular Perseids  

Cosmic Curiosities

"How can I hope to be friends
with the hard, white stars
whose flaring and hissing are not speech
 but a pure radiance?”
 - Mary Oliver, American Poet

Ho-Chunk Culture

The Ho-Chunk -- formerly called the Winnebago -- are members of a Siouan-speaking tribe who were established in Wisconsin at the time of French contact in the 1630s. The oral traditions of the tribe, particularly the Thunderbird clan, state that the Ho-Chunk originated at the Red Banks on Green Bay.