behind. >> Republican Andy Manske
is also running. In other news, the Ho-Chunk nation
will receive 165 acres of their ancestral homelands
in a land transfer. The effort was funded by the
Dane County Conservation Fund in collaboration with
the county's Land and Water Department. Here and now,
reporter Erika Ayisi went to the site to hear how the
Ho-Chunk will use the property. This report is in
collaboration with Icty, formerly Indian Country,
today. >> Every plant is a
resource, right? They say everything our Mother Earth
gives us. He goes like, that is a form of medicine.
You just have to find out what it is so you can smell
that. historic preservation
officer for the Ho-Chunk nation, says plants can
soothe sores on the body. >> It allows you to heal a
little bit better. So it's a different form of
medicine. 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 says the land
acquisition is an opportunity for the public
to learn. >> So the milkweed itself,
we call it Marquette. You just during this time of
year, these heads over here, while they're really young,
you pick that and it doesn't hurt the plant at
all. Once you gain the knowledge and use of it
there, that's something that we tend to pass on
from generation to generation. The plants.
>> So nearly $6.5 million 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
conservation easement in partnership with
Groundswell Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental
organization, to permanently prohibit
development, preserve public access and protect
the land's cultural significance.
>> Ho-Chunk nation will own and manage the land,
steward the land in perpetuity.
>> Quackenbush says. The Ho-Chunk are the land's
original caretakers. >> We're the only tribe
that has the ability to speak confidently about the.
We were the first and original people from this
region right here. >> When you say ancestral
territories, we're Ho-Chunk always here.
>> We have beautiful stories that talks about
how we adapted through time from living in a place of
refuge and moving back into these first places as that
glacier began to recede. >> He says. Their oral
history talks about their cultural and environmental
adaptation. As Ho-Chunk people moved through the
region for thousands of years.
>> That place of refuge that we referred to,
today's society calls Driftless Area.
>> He says. Their indigenous language
mentions red banks of the past that are still evident
in Wisconsin today. >> We say Moogasuc in our
language. It places you exactly where that location
is. These red banks that are associated with this
ancestral place of origin. >> According to Quackenbush,
the Ho-Chunk nation will be solely responsible for
costs including property taxes and maintenance of
the land. With insight from the conservancy that
includes six archeological sites and 22 ancient burial
mounds. >> There's a mound system
that rises right straight through it that's nothing
more than a large mortuary site. It's like walking
across a burial system. For modern people out there,
there's some respect that needs to be instilled in
that. >> According to
archeologists, there's at 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.
>> By captions in time in the 1800s, primarily where
a lot of land was ceded because there was forced
removals. >> Jon Greendeer, president
of the Ho-Chunk nation, says 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. >> Ho-Chunk became an
official nation in 1963, and today has about 8000
enrolled members. Greendeer says the land acquisition
is about regaining their cultural footprint on their
ancestral homelands. >> For the Ho-Chunk nation,
we never really believed in land ownership. We believed
that the land was there for us to use as we need it.
>> Considering that there's a conservation easement
between Dane County and Groundswell Conservancy,
who is on the title in this project.
>> The Ho-Chunk nation is going to be entitled to the
project, and it's going to be a part of anything going
forward. If there's any decisions to be made in
terms of development in that area.
>> As to the property, Groundswell Conservancy
says the group, along with Dane County, will do annual
visits to the location. >> To make sure that the
conservation values are being upheld in conjunction
with the Ho-Chunk nation. >> And support Quackenbush
in meeting the tribe's goals to preserve the site.
>> What we want is the protection and enhancement
of the environmental resources.
for the public to sit and engage and learn.
>> This property is a beautiful educational
opportunity unfolding before our eyes.
>> In Madison. I'm Eric >> In Madison. I'm Eric