llwork, on war bundles, and on woven bags still used by the tribe today. The Winnebago speak a Siouan dialect called Chiwere (Sultzman). With the exception of the Dakota Sioux who were originally located at the western edge of Lake Superior, the Winnebago were the only Siouan speaking tribe of the Great Lakes. Their language is nearly identical to that of the Iowa, Oto, and Missouri. These tribes acknowledge that they separated from the Winnebago not long before the tribe’s first contact with Europeans. Despite the fact that the Siouan language family is named after the Sioux tribes, Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota, the Winnebago are probably a more important branch of that particular language family. This is because it is closer in relation to the Dhegiha dialect of the Osage, Quapaw, Omaha, Kansa, and Ponca, many of whom refer to the Winnebago as grandfathers or elder brothers.Prior to contact, the Winnebago resembled the Algonquin in many ways. They fished using dugout canoes, and hunted buffalo from the prairies of southern Wisconsin. The Winnebago also gathered a form of wild rice from the nearby lakes during the fall. The tribe supplemented their hunting and gathering with horticultural crops. In fact, the Winnebago were one of the northernmost horticultural groups in North America. Despite the limited growing season at Red Banks, the Winnebago managed to grow three types of corn in addition to beans, squash, and tobacco. The tribal members used pottery for cooking and food storage, and copper implements created using resources from the south shore of Lake Superior. The Winnebago also resembled the Algonquin in that they were patrilineal with respect to descent and clan membership (Sultzman). This means that clan membership is determined through the father. Clan membership is important because the twelve Winnebago clans served both ceremonial and social functions. In Winnebago society, the clans were grouped into two maj...
