Native Americans in the county were mainly from Potawatomi and Menominee tribes who had a complex of some 28 villages and 15 camp sites.
Gary C. KleinSheboygan Press
SHEBOYGAN - Until white man arrived from Europe in the 1830s, Native Americans were the dominant humans in Sheboygan County.
Native Americans, according to The Wisconsin Archaeological Atlas, were mainly from Potawatomi and Menominee tribes who had a complex of some 28 villages and 15 camp sites in the county. There were also 158 Native American burial mounds with 18 mound groups.
According to "Historic Sheboygan County," by Gustave Buchen, the largest village was situated in the sand dune country on the shore of Lake Michigan in the southern half of the county.
Buchen further states it was really a series of villages forming practically one continuous line that stretched for a distance of 10 miles from the mouth of the Black River, called by the Native Americans Black Water Creek, in the town of Wilson nearly to the southern county line.
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The mouths of rivers, including the Sheboygan and Pigeon rivers, and in front of the wigwams, were important places for American Indian villages.
In recalling his encounter with Native people, David Giddings wrote: "It was on the 25th day of June 1835, between sundown and dark, that I first saw the Sheboygan River and its surroundings. I had come from Milwaukee on foot in company with a young man from Vermont."
Giddings added: "We came on the beach of the lake, and when we arrived in sight of the river the mouth or outlet was full of young (American) Indians swimming. At that time, there was a row of bark wigwams, some twelve or fifteen in number, extending from the mouth up to high ground or present level of the streets. In and around these houses was a multitude of squaws, children and dogs.
"The trail ran along in front of the wigwams, and as we passed, we were surrounded by their yelping curs (aggresive dogs) who seemed determined to prevent our passing, but the squaws finally quieted them and we got safely by," he said.
Sheboygan County's shoreline was a favored hunting ground for the American Indian population. In spring, tribes would arrive, springing up fishing villages with natives from far away as the Mississippi River area. According to the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center, fish was a popular diet staple in the native population. Fish were preserved by drying in the sun or over fires or pounded into powdered form. Fish were kept in bags made of cedar and basswood bark.
Many Native Americans also cultivated corn squash and other crops as other sources of food in small plots up to an acre in size.
American Indians used waterways as a means of transportation. Evidence of this is in the form of canoes. These canoes would be made of one of two materials.
One type of canoes used were the lightweight strong, speedy birch bark canoe. It was handled easily in shallow water of streams. They were about 15-20 feet in length and 3 to 5 feet wide at the center. Few birch bark canoes survived over time.
The second type is known as the dugout canoes. The dugout was made from one-half of a log, hollowed out by burning and scraping. Many were made from durable trees such as cedar. Many of these have survived because they could be submerged during the winter months as a means of storage. Recently, many have been found in Madison in Lake Mendota stored this way.
The Sheboygan County Historical Museum has a dugout canoe in its collection. That particular canoe was donated to the Henschel family by Old Solomon, a respected Potawatomi Indian, who was one of the last Native Americans to leave the county for relocation to Forest County. Old Solomon, who claimed to be a brother-in-law of Solomon Juneau, left in 1883 to go to the Menominee reservation in Keshena and died in 1889.
In August 1862, tensions rose over Native Americans when desperate Dakota Indians attacked white settlements along the Minnesota River. More than 500 white settlers lost their lives along with 150 Dakota warriors. The news of the event spread in what is known as the Great Indian Scare of 1862.
Many firmly held that American Indian aggression would arrive in Sheboygan County. Lone horsem*n were reported urging people to flee to the safety of towns from the rural areas.
According to information from the Plymouth Reporter in 1873, a solitary horseman rode rapidly into town. The report said the rider's eyes were wild and his face was pale with terror enthroned upon his whole person.
The horseman, in a dreadful whisper, announced that Manitowoc, Two Rivers, Chilton, Franklin, etc., had all been burned and ransacked and all inhabitants murdered by a band of bloodthirsty Indians. He added they were rapidly advancing.
The rider's report, though fearful, did not gain credence among the more reasonable. That didn't stop others from spreading the news, however.
It was thought best to congregate in town rather than be on the farm, so a rapid influx of people arrived in villages with needed items for survival. The fear was particularly intense because many men were serving in the Civil War at the time.
Through the "Scare" and U.S. government relocation programs, the Native American population increasingly diminished in numbers in the county.
By the time the 19th century came to a close, the centuries-long peaceful traditions of American Indians in Sheboygan County were gone.
Gary C. Klein can be reached at 920-453-5149 orgklein@gannett.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at@leicaman99.
