Return to Bison Ranch

Wisconsin Academy Review
Fall 2000, Volume 46, Number 4

The aboriginal territory of the Ho-Chunk people, formerly known as the Wisconsin Winnebago Tribe, once covered several million acres and extended throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.  Long before the arrival of European Americans, the Ho-Chunk people inhabited Sauk Prairie, the fourteen hundred acres situated between the Baraboo Bluffs and the Wisconsin River.  Ho-Chunk villages on Sauk Prairie were surrounded by a variety of wildlife, including elk, bison, moose, lynx, bear, and wolves.  As European immigrants moved west, Ho-Chunks were forcibly removed through treaties with the United States government, and the habitat for the abundant wildlife became farmland.

A major portion of Sauk Prairie was turned into the Badger Army Ammunition Plant in 1942, creating an industrial center where once prairie grasses had swayed in the wind.  After almost twenty-five years of inactivity, the federal government has now declared Badger Army Ammunition Plant "surplus."   Negotiations are underway with the state of Wisconsin, the Ho-Chunk Nation, local communities, and conservation groups for the transfer of the land for non-industrial uses and to remediate the existing environmental contamination.

The Ho-Chunk Nation is working cooperatively with federal, state and local officials and groups to acquire a portion of the land comprising the Badger Army Ammunition Plant with the intent of reintroducing bison and restoring prairie grasses - plans compatible with those of many local groups and neighboring property owners.

The Ho-Chunk Nation is committed to protecting and enhancing natural resources on the Nation's lands.  Several years ago, the Nation acquired a 639-acre farm comprised of ancestral land along the Wisconsin River near Muscoda in Richland County, the site of the remnants of an important mound group.  After the farm was purchased, the Nation investigated several uses for the property.  The high rate of diabetes and heart disease among Tribal members led to research on the health benefits of a natural diet, one more closely resembling the diet of Ho-Chunk ancestors.

The desire to substitute buffalo meat for beef led to the Nation's involvement with the InterTribal Bison Cooperative, a nonprofit venture whose goal is to help Indian tribes establish their own bison herds.  Today, the Ho-Chunk Nation's Muscoda Bison Ranch and Farm is home to eighty-three bison,* and bison meat is served regularly at traditional feasts as well as at the Nation's elder meal sites in Black River Falls, Tomah, Wisconsin Dells, Nekoosa, and Wittenberg.

Shortly after the Muscoda property was acquired, the Ho-Chunk Nation joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Circle of Flight Program, enabling the Nation to operate resource management programs, including the restoration of approximately one hundred acres of the Muscoda land to natural prairie.  In addition, the Nation works to provide quality forage for grazing by the Tribe's bison and to improve the native habitat.

The Nation's demand for bison meat has outgrown the capacity of the Muscoda land.  Given recent trends in the health consciousness of consumers, the Nation is also considering selling this healthier source of protein to the general public as a means of economic diversification.  In order to maintain a healthy breeding environment without overgrazing the land (recommended at a minimum of four acres of land per animal), the Nation would like to acquire another large contiguous parcel of land that will allow for herd expansion.

Though the Nation does not intend to place bison there, a model program for the Ho-Chunk Nation's cooperation with government and private groups is currently underway at the former La Farge Dam site in Vernon County, Wisconsin.  The Kickapoo Valley Reserve, covering approximately 8,500 acres, is a nature reserve jointly owned and managed by the state of Wisconsin through the Kickapoo Reserve Management Board and the Ho-Chunk Nation.

Being a good neighbor is an important part of the Ho-Chunk Nation's philosophy - a commitment to working cooperatively with our neighbors for the greater good that stems from traditional teachings of honor and respect for all the creatures of Mother Earth.  Every part of the earth is sacred to the Ho-Chunk people - from the smallest humming insect to the great bald eagle, from the little babbling brook to the mighty Mississippi, from the sandy shore to the majestic bluff, we are all brothers and sisters.   And such, it is our inherent duty to protect the environment - clean air, clean groundwater, and healthy ecological systems.

Every venture the Ho-Chunk Nation undertakes has one primary objective - to improve the lives of our people.  After decades of physical and spiritual impoverishment, the Ho-Chunk Nation now has an opportunity to be a good neighbor while at the same time promoting the physical health of our people, preserving a significant part of our history, revitalizing our cultural heritage, renewing our spirit, and restoring the ecology of part our ancestral home in Sauk Prairie.  The Ho-Chunk Nation looks forward to the day when we can say with certainty and pride:  "The bison will return to Sauk Prairie."

*The current herd count as of March, 2001 is 125.