Oneota
1,000 to 350 years ago
Before Europeans arrived in Wisconsin, the Oneota people built large farming settlements here. The Oneota may have evolved from the local Woodland people or they may have been a new people moving into our area from the south. Among their distinct artifacts is pottery made with crushed shell from local mollusks. They were very successful in this region.
The Oneota established Wisconsin's first large farming communities along rivers and lakes including Lakes Winnebago, Butte des Morts, Winneconne and Poygan. They had many distinct artifacts like shell tempered pottery, shell artifacts, disc pipes and scapula bone hoes. The Oneota eventually spread throughout much of the Midwest and are ancestral to the Ho-Chunk and Menominee as well as other tribes.
