During the “Great Suppression,” as some have begun to call the period from the 1890s through the 1930s, the U.S. government implemented policies to forcibly assimilate Native Americans into mainstream American society. These included suppressing native languages and religions. Many customs were lost during those years. English became the first and even the only language for many natives—and yet, some American Indians persisted.
As Wisconsin’s state archaeologist, Robert A. Birmingham, discovered, a Potawatomi band established Skunk Hill (Tah-qua-kik), a remote village in Wood County where they were determined to preserve their traditions. The community focused on the Drum Dance, a pan-Indian spiritual revival that swept across much of the west in wake of a visionary, Tail Feather Woman. The residents of Skunk Hill led materially lean existence but a cultural life so vibrant that Native Americans from other states came to visit. When the worst of the cultural suppression ended after Franklin D. Roosevelt offered the tribes their own “New Deal,” the Skunk Hill community dissolved. Descendants of its members continue to gather at the site.
