3/15/2021
North America's Oldest POWWOWBy Tim Trudell
The oldest powwow in North America calls the Winnebago reservation home. What started as a homecoming celebration for Chief Little Priest and 75 other tribal members from their duty as scouts with the US military has grown into one of the country’s most-popular powwows, celebrating 155 years in 2021. The Ho Chunk, the traditional name for the Winnebago (a name used by the Potawatomi), was a tribe without a home in the 1860s when General Alfred Sully proposed arranging land for his tribe if Little Priest and some of the tribe’s warriors would serve as scouts in the United States’ war against the Lakota (Sioux). With people starving, Little Priest made a difficult decision. With the promise of a permanent home, he and some of the warriors would join forces with the government that removed the tribe from its homeland in Wisconsin and northeast Iowa and relocated members to different areas in Minnesota and South Dakota. Read the entire story in the latest edition of Living Here magazine. Order yours today! 888-673-1081 |