Emma Big Bear Winnebago History Day Saturday

Terry Landsgard of West Union will provide a presentation on the Native American handcrafted items created by Cliff Kulish of Prairie du Chien, Wis., during the 17th annual Emma Big Bear Winnebago History Day Saturday, July 1, at the Marquette Community Center. (Mike Van Sickle photo)

By By Mike Van Sickle

Terry Landsgard of West Union will provide a presentation on the Native American handcrafted items created by Cliff Kulish of Prairie du Chien, Wis., during the 17th annual Emma Big Bear Winnebago History Day Saturday, July 1, at the Marquette Community Center. (Mike Van Sickle photo)

The 17th annual Emma Big Bear Winnebago History Day will be held Saturday, July 1, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Marquette Community Center. Presented by the Emma Big Bear Foundation, the historic presentations and exhibits are free to the public.

Those in attendance can learn about Big Bear’s family life and traditional tribal living in northeast Iowa. Additional information will be provided about the Elgin Historical Society of Tribes of the Turkey River Project, sub-agency Native American schools, local Winnebago villages and chiefs, traditional demonstrations by Indigenous artists.

Speaker presentations will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the exhibit hall. Historic peservation experts will share important facts, personal stories and tales about Big Bear and her Winnebago family. Big Bear and Winnebago baskets, jewelry, photos, artifacts and similar items will be on display in the exhibit hall. 

University of Iowa Office of the State Archeologist will be on hand to identify artifacts brought in by visitors to the event. A limit of two artifacts per individual is requested. The archaeologist will provide cataloging and care tips. In addition, they will confidentially record where artifacts have been discovered for the Iowa site file.

Big Bear came from a long line of Decorah family chiefs of the Winnebago Nation.  She made her home mostly in the McGregor-Marquette area, where she traded in Iowa and across the Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.  

To make a living, Big Bear sold her handmade wares and traded with other Winnebago women on the banks of the Mississippi River.  Iowa, Wisconsin and the effigy mounds areas dotted along the river were Big Bear’s most beloved places to live and work.  She always returned and never lived very far away from the homes of her ancestors in the Upper Mississippi River Valley.

Formed under the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque corporate structure and guided under its county affiliate, Clayton County Foundation for the Future, the Emma big Bear Foundation is a nonprofit corporation whose mission it is to educate the public and preserve hand-made baskets and jewelry, artifacts, photos, paintings, traditions, history and stories of Big Bear and her Winnebago Ho-Chunk people.

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