Follow-up on Indian Ceremonial

The Ceremonial was fantastic! The explanations were appropriate and helpful without being intrusive, the dancers were great and the audience appreciative. This was billed as a one-time event, but I know for a fact that the organizers are hoping it may develop into something more.

We saw lots of people we know, meaning it was in many ways a local crowd. But the family sitting behind us was from out of town and had only heard about it when they arrived at their hotel. The mother, however, had been to the old Ceremonial as a child and took great delight in explaining what was going on to her children.

I can only say, "Pinagigi!" That is the only thing I know in Hocąk: Thank you. 

Ho-Chunk, by the way, is what the people of the nation call themselves. It means People of the Big Voice. Europeans called them Winnebagos, because that is what many of their Native neighbors called them. That name means smelly water. You can see why the Ho-chunk did not care for it. The name was not an insult, though. They got that name because many of them lived around Lake Winnebago, which was called smelly water from the strong fish odor of the lake in the summer. In Nebraska, they still call themselves Winnebagos.