Search

Our virtual resources provide teachers and students with the opportunity to enrich their perspectives on many of the traditions, material culture, and belief systems of various North American Indian tribes.

Video Resources

Compare & Contrast Tour 

In this series of five videos, we’ll discuss the resources Native Americans used to survive in their environments.

Amisq

Amisqu

A tribe is an Indian group which possesses certain qualities and characteristics that make it a unique cultural, social, and political entity.

The nature of what constitutes an Indian tribe and the very nature of tribes have changed considerably over the course of centuries, but certain characteristics have remained.

The Ho-Chunk are a Siouan-speaking people whose presence in present-day Wisconsin was known to the French at Quebec as early as 1616.

According to oral tradition, they originated at Red Banks, generally assumed to be a site on the Door Peninsula on Green Bay, where they were located at the time of French contact in the 17th century. Their language is related to the Chiwere branch of Siouan that includes the Ioway, Oto, and Missouria, who acknowledge having broken off from the Ho-Chunk and moved west.

Ojibwe Culture

The Ojibwe speak a language of the Algonkian language family and constitute the largest Indian group north of Mexico. Their extensive pre-contact territory in Canada was mainly north of Lakes Superior and Huron. During historic times, they spread west and south and, today, numerous Ojibwe bands stretch from present-day Ontario in eastern Canada all the way into Montana.

The Role of Oral Tradition

Oral tradition is important in all societies, despite the reliance of some cultures on written records and accounts. These traditions account for the ways things are and often the way they should be, and assist people in educating the young and teaching important lessons about the past and about life. Because many oral traditions are highly structured and are told faithfully without alteration, they can be as reliable as other non-oral ways of recording and passing on experiences.