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The Ho-Chunk  |  The Menominee   |  The Oneida Nation of Wisconsin

  The Archaic Age  |  The Woodland People  |  The Historical Era 

Paleo-Indians 

(12,000-10,000 B.P.)

            The geological record reveals that the final glacier of the last Ice Age entered Wisconsin around 23,000 years ago.   It consisted of five different lobes that covered roughly half of the state:  the Superior lobe, the Chippewa Lobe, the Wisconsin Valley Lobe, the Green Bay Lobe, and the Lake Michigan Lobe.   The Green Bay lobe, which was the largest of the five, covered most of the eastern half of the state, including Outagamie County. [1]

             Despite the cold climate that created these glaciers, scientists believe that the Paleo-Indians, ancestors of modern day Native Americans, came to North America by way of a land bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska about 14,000 years ago.   They were primarily hunters, who specialized in taking now extinct prehistoric big game such as wooly mammoth, mastodon, giant bison, musk oxen and caribou.   These master hunters lived a highly nomadic way of life, following their primary food source, the great herds of these animals which roamed across the North American landscape.   By 12,000 years ago, they had followed the herds into the fertile tundra left behind the still present but rapidly receding glacial lobes of Wisconsin.  

As the Green Bay lobe retreated northward, the tremendous force of its weight upon the land carved out the basin that would one day become Lake Winnebago and the Fox River Valley.   As the waters of the melting glacier receded into the prehistoric Great Lakes, the land of Outagamie County was a barren depository of glacial rock, clay and silt.    As the perma-frost released its iron grip upon the land, tundra vegetation from the southern part of the state began to grow upon the fertile soil.   These low growing plants are similar to what exists today in the artic regions of Northern Canada and Alaska.  They attracted the herds into the area, which in turn brought first Paleo-Indians into Outagamie County and the rest of the Fox River Valley.  

 Archaeologists estimate that by about 12,000 years ago, the ancestors of modern day Native Americans were living in the fertile zone on the edge of the receding glaciers.   They lived in small bands of closely related individuals who traveled great distances across the tundra pursuing the herds of prehistoric caribou and bison that made up their protein rich diet.    These bands were by necessity a closely related family bound by the ties of kinship that both defined their identity and helped to ensure their survival.   They camped in natural shelters such as caves and rock overhangs close by the great mammals that they hunted. 

 In Kenosha County, Wisconsin, 100 miles south of the Fox River valley, over 30 Paleo-Indian campsites have been uncovered.  The bones of butchered woolly mammoth, still showing the cut marks made by the ancient hunters using stone knives, have been well preserved in the silt and clay glacial soil of the region.   These stone artifacts can help to paint a picture of what life was like for these ancient first people.   The large fluted points found near the remains of the mammoths indicate that they Paleo-Indians killed their prey with long thrusting spears.  Specialized stone tools for rendering the carcasses have also been found.  They include knives for skinning and cutting, and scrapers for preparing the hides to be used for clothing and shelter.   Examples of these Stone Age implements also have been found at many other sites throughout the southern Great Lakes region.        

The Archaic Age