First People  |  The Archaic Age  |  The Historical Era

The Woodland People

  (2500 B.P.-400 B.P.) 

            For hundreds of  generations, the first people lived a hunting and gathering way of life; however, they also were learning new ways to adapt to their environment.   Around two thousand years ago,  the Woodland People began to practice the science of agriculture;  they  planted, cultivated and harvested corn, squash, and beans in small gardens near their villages.   In Outagamie County and throughout Wisconsin, they discovered how to harvest the beds of wild rice that grew near the banks of the Fox River and along the shores of Lake Winnebago.   When harvesting it, they sprinkled some of the wild oats  back into the water to ensure that rice would grow again there the following year. 

            These farming skills allowed the Woodland People to settle in one village for longer periods of time.  Soon they learned how to make ceramic pottery from the clay that they dug from river bottoms  near their villages. This allowed them to store surplus food for the long winter months when game was scarce. Archaeologists have found the remains of some of this ancient pottery in many places throughout Wisconsin.  Some of the artifacts suggest that they made large pots that were often a foot or more in height.  Pottery this large would have been difficult to carry from one camp to another without breaking it.  This indicates that the Woodland People were staying in one place  much longer than they had before. 

        More food meant not only that they could stay in one place longer, but also that they could live in much larger villages, as well.   Plenty of food meant that  sometimes as many as several hundred or more individuals could live comfortably in one place.   This led to knew challenges.  It became important for the people to organize and govern themselves in ways they had not before.  The role of chiefs became very important to the tribes.  Chiefs were called upon to settle disagreements and to offer advice to the people.  Whether or not that advice was heeded depended upon the amount of respect that leader had earned. 

            Another important new tool used by the Woodland People was the  bow and arrow.  Before its invention,  they  had thrown spears by hand or used atlatl, a spear-throwing device,  to kill game.   Using this method, a hunter needed to get very close to the prey to hunt effectively.    Arrows shot from a bow traveled a far greater distance with increased accuracy, making it much easier to provide meat and skins for their families.  Bows were made with the flexible wood of the hickory and ash trees.  Strings were made from animal sinews or the twisted fiber of  plants such as the nettle, or stinging weed.   Armed with bows and arrows, the Woodland people became great hunters and warriors capable of providing for their people and defending them from enemies. 

          The Woodland People buried their dead by making large hills of earth called mounds. The mounds were usually three to five feet in height and sometimes over a hundred feet in length.  Archaeologists call some of them effigy mounds because they were shaped like animals or spirits sacred to the first people.  Mounds have been discovered that were shaped like panthers, turtles, bears, eagles, and other types of creatures.  During the 19^th century, before much of the land of Wisconsin became fields for growing crops, Increase Lapham, one of the first scientists of the state,  discovered and recorded where these mysteriously shaped mounds were located.  He found a number of them near the Fox River and along the shores of Lake Winnebago.    There were effigy mounds within the present day limits of the city of Menasha.  If you wish to see an effigy mound today, you can go to  High Cliff State Park in nearby Calumet County where several have been preserved. 

The Historical Era