Program examines ‘Four Lakes’ cultural landscape

An upcoming presentation will examine the parallel developments of the state and university with consideration of the complex outcomes for the American Indian peoples and Indian nations of the Great Lakes.

“Continuing Conversations: Four Lakes Cultural Landscape” will be held from 12:30-2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 14, in Memorial Union (check Today in the Union for room location). Presenters include Aaron Bird Bear, student services coordinator for American Indian student academic services, and Daniel Einstein, program manager of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve for Facilities Planning and Management.

The presentation will showcase sites of existing and former indigenous landmarks created between 800 B.C. and 1200 A.D. The presentation will also provide an overview of American Indian history and legislation, leading to a greater awareness of modern indigenous nations and peoples.

Continuously inhabited since ice sheets receded 12,000 years ago, DeJope (“Four Lakes” in the Ho-Chunk language) has been Ho-Chunk homeland for 2,000 years. The shores of Lake Mendota are now home to UW–Madison. The campus and the city of Madison exist in what was once the epicenter of the effigy mound building cultures of the upper Midwest.

Of the approximately 20,000 mounds created prior to European arrival, close to 4,000 remain, with 45 archaeological site indices on current or former campus property. The mounds are now interpreted as “’cosmological maps’ that model ancient belief systems and social relations.”

UW-Madison currently enrolls more than 300 self-identified American Indian and Alaskan Native peoples representing more than 50 American Indian and Alaskan Native Nations, including Ho-Chunk students.

Free registration is encouraged.