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When the first European explorers came to North America, they hoped to find vast amounts of gold and silver.

This was not an unrealistic expectation, for when Hernando Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico in 1518 and 1519, he found incredible quantities of precious metals, as did Francisco Pizarro when he conquered the Inca Empire in 1534. A French explorer, Jacques Cartier, explored the St.

Early Ancestors

Originally, the Native people who made up the Brothertown Tribe and the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe came from the greater New England area. In the 1770s, the first Brothertown settlement in western New York drew members from the Narragansett tribe in Rhode Island; the Pequot, Mohegan, and Niantic tribes in southeastern Connecticut; the Tunxis and Wangunk tribes in north-central Connecticut; and the Montauk tribe on Long Island.

For the most complete bibliography of Aztalan and related Mississippian material please refer to Robert A. Birmingham and Lynne G. Goldstein's book Aztalan: Mysteries of an Ancient Indian Town. Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Madison Wisconsin, 2006.

The ribbonwork items in the Milwaukee Public Museum number over 140 pieces.

The items pictured here represent additional examples from the collection.

From the James Howard Collection:

Colonial Origins

Lacandon Indian burning incense, Chiapas, Mexico


Lacandon Indian, Chiapas, Mexico

In Woodland Indian rituals, ceremonies, and religious observances, tobacco is the unifying thread of communication between humans and the spiritual powers.

The manidog (spirits) are said to be extremely fond of tobacco and that the only way they could get it was from the Indians, either by smoke from a pipe or by offerings of dry tobacco. According to tradition, the Indians received tobacco as a gift from Wenebojo who had taken it from a mountain giant and then given the seed to his brothers.

Story of Manabush

There once was an old woman called Nokomis (Grandmother) who had an unmarried daughter. The daughter gave birth to twin boys and during the birth, one of the boys died and so did the mother. Nokomis wrapped the surviving boy in soft grass and laid him on the ground at one side of her wigwam and placed a wooden bowl over him to protect him. She buried her daughter and the other grandchild a ways from her wigwam.