The photograph on this carte de visite was taken at Fort Snelling in 1865, the year the Winnebago Tribe brokered their historic treaty with the United States. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society

In 1865, less than 200 years ago, the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Tribe of Nebraska signed their last treaty with the United States government. Today, the tribe recognizes March 8 as Treaty Day, a time when the community gathers to honor the 1865 treaty.

In recognition of Treaty Day, The Winnebago’s tribally chartered institution of higher education, Little Priest Tribal College (LPTC), partnered with Gayla Whitewater of Hisgexjį Horak to host an educational event. Hisgexjį Horak is an organization founded by Ho-Chunk women to share their people’s historical, cultural, environmental, and social justice knowledge as a form of healing from intergenerational trauma. The Hisgexjį Horak team is well known within the Winnebago community for sharing histor­ical and culturally relevant videos about the Ho-Chunk people in a digital format and through social media.

The Treaty Day event at Little Priest brought together LPTC staff, faculty, and students to learn about and explore the treaty’s history, formation, and impact today. A complex and often painful history, many of the Ho-Chunk people were forcibly removed from their traditional homelands in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa. During the session, Whitewater provided an overview of each treaty the Ho-Chunk brokered and how it ultimately led to the establishment of Treaty Day. While some of the treaties signed were made to create peaceful relationships between the Ho-Chunk, neighboring tribes, and the U.S. govern­ment, other treaties resulted in land cessions, ultimately removing and leading the Ho-Chunk to present-day Nebraska.

Studying the Ho-Chunk treaties draws out many emotions, including sorrow due to the suffering of our ancestors and what they went through. Yet, there is also resilience for surviving through what they did, and strength for carrying on their legacies. As Whitewater noted, “Treaty Day is not a celebration of colonization. It is a time to acknowledge the sacrifices our ancestors made so that the Ho-Chunk people would still be here today.”

Whitewater’s presentation concluded with meaningful ways everyone can honor Treaty Day. We can learn about the treaties our ancestors signed, research which leaders tribal members descend from, teach younger generations about Ho-Chunk history, visit the land and acknowledge our ancestors, and partici­pate in tribal governance and community.