Indigenous Peoples’ Day Display, Virtually.

Yesterday was Indigenous Peoples’ Day of course and many of us know of the importance of Devil’s Lake to local indigenous culture and we may even know a bit about the effigy mounds within the park. What we often don’t think about is the Ho-Chunk community that until the mid-1800s lived where the city of Baraboo is today.

A New Display

Yesterday (Oct. 12th) a new educational display was dedicated along the eastern loop of Baraboo’s Riverwalk, which is also in part, a section of the Ice Age Trail. The two new interpretive panels located near the site of the original Ho-Chunk community (Just east of Circus World.), offer a “quick” overview of Native American history in Sauk County. The display was put together by “One Sauk Naturally” in combination with Sauk County, The Ho-Chunk Nation, The Sauk County Historical Society, and Circus World. We invite you to stop and check it out next time your walking or biking this section of the Riverwalk (Just over 1 mile north of Devil’s Lake State Park)

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A History Walk

As well as the dedication ceremony for the new displays, a series of 12 interpretive signs were placed along the Riverwalk to offer more insight into the history of our native community and their long struggle to remain on their ancestral land here in Sauk County.

Because this display was only up for part of one, very rainy Monday, we went out to photograph the series once the skies had cleared so that everyone had a chance to check it out. We’re missing one, and I’ll share that story below. I would encourage the county and city to work to make this series of interpretive signs a permanent part of this section of the Riverwalk.

The Series

Click an image to enlarge and read.

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I hope you took the time to read each of the signs above. There’s so much history stuffed into each one. It’s often easy for some of us to get detached, and it’s important to remember as Chloris Lowe of the Ho-Chunk Nation is quoted when speaking of effigy mounds, “The descendants of this culture are not a lost people but rather living, thriving American Indian cultures that today reside in what is now called the midwest. ” This is the history of our friends and neighbors.

Getting The Photos…

So, with those thoughts in the background, it was around 4 pm when we were able to start our tour around the Riverwalk. We stopped at maybe 3 or 4 signs before we heard someone at the sign behind us say something to the effect of “Oh, don’t take them down already.” I looked back and saw a pickup truck with folks taking the sign we had last read. We were not going to be able to read the rest. The truck drove ahead of us and took the next one. (Missing in the series above) While they were doing that, we walked to the following sign, then as we crossed the road and the truck caught up again, the passenger shouted something like, “You’ll have to hurry!!” I thought, “This isn’t like free ice cream.” It’s important history, people worked hard to create this display and share the content, it’s been raining most of the day, it’s only 4:30, the sun is out and families are once again hitting the trail. So, when the driver got out of the truck, I explained my perspective and disappointment to him. After a moment, he decided to leave them up a while longer. Thank You! As we returned to our car, we watched 3 more families just starting their walk…