BACKGROUND

Everywhere you go in Teejop, mounds stand or once stood. These magnificent structures take many forms, including geometric shapes such as lines and cones, and the effigies of animals and spirits. These were mainly built between 900 and 1300 years ago, as resting places for the bodies of the honored dead, and they remained largely undisturbed until the American settlement of the region. Ho-Chunk villages and camps flourished beside them, and Ho-Chunk people explained to early settlers that they were part of their patrimony. Many represent creatures that are part of the Ho-Chunk clan system. 

Since the 1830s the great majority of Teejop’s mounds have been destroyed by farming or construction, everywhere from the ground of the capitol and university to private homes and fields. The ones that remain are priceless and irreplaceable testaments to their builders, the people interred within them, and the generations upon generations who have cared for them. Today, we are the ones who must sustain that legacy.

QUESTIONS

What are mounds? 

Where are the mounds?

How does your family/culture care for the dead? 

How do different peoples care for the dead? 

What are the different ways Indigneous peoples care for the dead? 

What are our responsibilities to the dead? 

Do the dead have rights?

How is Teejop unique?

What happened to the mounds here?

How do Ho-Chunk people care for the mounds?