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Leadership and Government

In general, political organization was relatively flexible among the Woodland Indians.

The duties of the chief were purely civil, although he had the power to intercede in the event that a war leader wanted to engage in a war that the chief felt was unnecessary. His major role was one of maintaining peace and order in the community, making decisions, and determining a course of action with regard to the welfare of the tribe. During the treaty-making period with Whites, he represented the tribe and signed the treaties.

Trinidad Collection

Trinidad, one of the islands forming the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the southern Caribbean, has been ruled by several previous European powers, the last being Great Britain. On this small island, people from the various cultures of Asia, Europe, Africa, and native groups live and interact. This rare collection is from the East Indian peoples on the island and was collected by Milwaukee Public Museum Curator of Anthropology Dr. Arthur Niehoff in 1957. The East Indians were brought to the island by the British as indentured servants. The collection, one of only a few in the United States, is important since it shows the cultural exchange and influence that has occurred between the East Indians and the other groups inhabiting the island.

Item Image
trinidad collection
Catalog Number
N/A
Accession Number
17802 and 17803
118

Food

The food quest of the Woodland Indians was based primarily on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild crops.

They practiced some agriculture, but it was definitely of secondary importance and consisted mostly of the Indian staples -- corn, beans, and squash. Wresting a living from the forest and prairie demanded a great deal of time and effort. It necessitated considerable mobility, with outlying camps and special purpose gathering and processing stations.

Dresden Doll WWII Jacket

This rare WWII jacket was a donation to the Milwaukee Public Museum from its original owner, Staff Sergeant Byron Taylor Jr. A native Milwaukeean, Sergeant Taylor flew 39 missions over Germany with the Air Force. During WWII, many airmen would decorate their flying jackets, making them both distinctive and unique. In Taylor's division, all the men had the "Dresden Doll" on the back of their jackets, but each woman had a different face: The feminized caricature of the man who wore the jacket!

Item Image
jacket
Catalog Number
N33784
Accession Number
27207
22

Kroehnke's Celestial Globe

The Celestial Globe (H57842/29193) was donated to the Milwaukee Public Museum in 1903 along with its companion terrestrial globe (H59492) and a manual of cosmic and terrestrial observations (H57843). The globe was developed by Johann Oelrich Kroehnke (1810-1897), an immigrant to New Holstein, Wisconsin in 1847. Kroehnke was a merchant, farmer, and community leader, and was intensely interested in intellectual pursuits and education, often at the expense of his personal fortune. The globes were developed, hand-painted, and built in Germany in the late 1830s by Kroehnke and brought to Wisconsin where they were used to educate his family and others in his community. Geographic data was updated between 1890-1892 to coincide with American populations and New World geography found in the 1890 United States Census.

Item Image
globe
Catalog Number
H57842
Accession Number
29193
130