This report is in partnership with ICT, formerly Indian Country Today.

Bill Quackenbush, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for Ho-Chunk Nation, said plants can soothe sores on the body.

“Every plant is a resource, right? They say everything our Mother Earth gifts us is a form of medicine, you just have to find out what it is,” said Quackenbush, speaking to Erica Ayisi for Here & Now and ICT News. “It allows you to heal it up better, a different form of medicine.”

The plants, trees, mounds and waterways in the Lower Mud Lake Natural Resource Area are a part of 165 acres of property returned to Ho-Chunk Nation from Dane County. Quackenbush said the land acquisition is an opportunity for the public to learn.

“Once you gain the knowledge and use of it — that’s something that we tend to pass on from generation to generation, the plants.”

Nearly $6.5 million dollars from the Dane County Conservation Fund was used to purchase a private property south of Babcock County Park including significant frontage along Yahara River, Lower Mud Lake and Lake Waubesa.

Dane County will place it in a co-hold conservation easement in partnership with Groundswell Conservancy, a non-profit environmental organization, to permanently prohibit development, preserve public access and protect the lands cultural significance.

“Ho-Chunk Nation will own and manage the land, steward the land in perpetuity,” said Tony Abate, Groundswell’s senior director of conservation.

Quackenbush said the Ho-Chunk are the land’s original caretakers.

“We’re the only tribe that has the ability to speak confidently about we were the first original people from this region right here,” said Quackenbush. “We have beautiful stories that talk about how we adapted through time from living in a place of refuge — what today’s society calls the Driftless Area — and moving back into these first places as that glacier began to recede.”

Quackenbush said their oral history talks about their cultural and environmental adaptation, as Ho-Chunk people moved through the region for thousands of years. He said their Indigenous language mentions ‘Red Banks’ of the past that are still evident in Wisconsin today.

“We say, ‘Móogašuc’ in our language. It places you exactly where that location is, these Red Banks that are associated with this ancestral place of origin,” said Quackenbush.

According to Quackenbush, the Ho-Chunk Nation would be solely responsible for costs, including property taxes and maintenance of the land — with insight from the conservancy. That includes six archaeological sites and 22 ancient burial mounds.

“That’s nothing more than a large mortuary site. It’s like walking across a burial system for modern people out there,” said Quackenbush. “There’s some respect that needs to be instilled in that.”

According to archeologists (PDF), there’s at least 118 previously recorded archeological sites in the Dunn Township part of Dane County. But the sites on the 165 acres donated to Ho-Chunk were lost in a series of treaties between the Ho-Chunk and the federal government during the 1800s, long before Wisconsin was an established state. This began an era of forced removals for Ho-Chunk, the original caretakers of this land and its waters.

Jon Greendeer, president of Ho-Chunk Nation, said the treaties forced the tribe to relocate across the Midwest, but they returned to Wisconsin. “We were able to not only survive in some of those regions, we were also able to thrive and repopulate,” Greendeer said..Ho-Chunk became an official nation in 1963, and today has about 8,000 enrolled members. Greendeer said the land acquisition is about regaining their cultural footprint on their traditional homelands.“For the Ho-Chunk Nation, we never really believed in land ownership,” Greendeer said. “We believe that the land was there for us to use as we needed.”

Under the terms of the conservation easement between Dane County and Groundswell Conservancy, Greendeer said Ho-Chunk Nation will be on the title to the project. “Ho-Chunk Nation is going to be a part of anything going forward if there’s any decisions to be made in terms of development in that area,” said Greendeer.

As to the property, Heidi Habeger, Groundswell Conservancy Executive Director, said the group along with Dane County will do annual visits to the location to make sure that conservation values are being upheld, in conjunction with the Ho-Chunk Nation.

Quackenbush said the tribe’s goals to preserve the site are to protect and enhance the environmental resources and to build a gazebo for the public to sit, engage and learn.

“This property is a beautiful educational opportunity unfolding before our eyes.”