December 1, 2024
In the process of furthering my research about the Winnebago Reservation, I had the opportunity to listen to a keynote speaker at Briar Cliff University talk about improvements made within the Winnebago Reservation. The keynote speaker was Terri Lee Medina. Terri is a part of the Winnebago Tribe, through her mom’s family. Her Native American name is White Quill Feather, and she is a descendant of the Thunder Clan, which is the highest amongst all clan rankings. She works for Ho-Chunk Incorporation, which has a building called Ho-Chunk Centre that is located in Sioux City, Iowa. Due to the government intervening, multiple forced moves, loss of wealth, substance use, domestic violence, etc., the Winnebago Tribe community was disrupted. After World War Two, an individual brought forward ideas to help improve the Winnebago Reservation economically. However, productive work to make these improvements had not taken off until the 1970’s, when the Winnebago Reservation decided to take control and push for a governance structure that would be effective (Ho-Chunk Inc., n.d.).
Because of this, the Winnebago Tribal Council was able to help policies and institutions to take care of any issues socially or economically that had affected the Winnebago Reservation community for several decades. Around 1968, the Tribal Council were determined to make several improvements to the reservation. Because of this, they worked to start-up businesses and also began a program that was for credit and purchasing land. Tribal music and the Hocak language were brought back to the community. They also worked to address health concerns and alcoholism. One of the most important things that was focused on was standing up to other governments such as the county, state and federal governments. This tribal council had also strived to help those within the community to have stability by creating businesses and helping community members get a job. This helped them not only financially, but also so they would not have to rely on the state or federal government to provide help (Ho-Chunk Inc., n.d.). According to Terri Lee Medina, because people decided to be serious and take charge, the Ho-Chunk Incorporation has helped make many improvements over the last 20 years amongst the Winnebago Reservation and Siouxland area. I had not known much about where the Winnebago Reservation is economically or how any issues were being handled prior to this keynote. This is something beneficial to my research, knowing how past events have specifically impacted the Winnebago Tribe and to know what has been done and what is currently being addressed within the community. This is a part of the history I did not know about of the Winnebago Reservation, and I am glad to see that there are people who have taken charge of making sure a difference is made for the well-being of the community.