50 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [bth. ann. 37 



3. Omaha, Ponca, Osage, Kansa, Quapaw. 



4. Dakota, Assiniboin.' 



The linguistic grouping seems to bear out this theory with the 

 exception of the Mandan, who are far more closely related to the 

 Winnebago and their kindred than to the Hidatsa. It seems like- 

 wise strange that the Hidatsa and Crow, on the one hand, and the 

 Dakota and Assiniboin, on the other, belonging to the first and fourth 

 ■'migrations," should nevertheless speak dialects that are closely 

 related. One might have expected that Dakota would be more like 

 Omaha and its group. 



The Winnebago themselves have no traditions telling of their 

 migrations from the east. The majority of the people questioned 

 asserted that the tribe had originated at Green Bay. This is, how- 

 ever, merely the origin myth of the Thunderbird clan, which appa- 

 rently has displaced other origin accoimts. While, in a few instances, 

 other places were mentioned, the localities to which they referred 

 were all in Wisconsin. There may be some significance in the origin 

 legends of some of the clans which claim that they came from over 

 the sea (the lake), but it is utterly impossible to determine whether 

 we are here dealing with a myth pure and simple or with a vague 

 memory of some historical happening. 



Tlie Wumebago have, however, some recollection of their separa- 

 tion from their kindred Siouan tribes. The accounts collected are 

 short and fragmentary, but this may be due largely to the fact that 

 no systematic attempt was made by the author to obtain detailed 

 information on this point. The following fragmentary accounts 

 will give some idea of the value of these recollections. 



a. In the early days the Winnebago often went out hunting after 

 they had finished hoeing their corn and other crops. During one of 

 these travels they killed an elk and every lodge received a piece of the 

 animal except one lodge in which a man, his wife, and six daughters 

 with their husbands lived. Thinking that they were disliked by the 

 rest of the tribe, these remained behind the next day when the others 

 continued their journey. They have never been heard from since. 

 It is said that the Quapaws do not know where they come from and we 

 think that they may be descended from this family. 



h. When the Winnebago lived on Lake Michigan the tribe was so 

 large that each clan had its own chief and a general chief presided 

 over the whole tribe. After a while it became so hard to obtain food 

 that a band of Winnebago went south. They never retm-ned. These 

 are now in the Southwest. Some of them are the Missouri and some 

 the Iowa. Band after band kept moving away until only one was 

 left — -the present Winnebago. 



• The Mandans, Papers o( the Peabody Museum. Vol. in, no. 4, pp. 97-98, Cambridge, 1906. 



