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Description
A thousand years ago, the shores of Green Bay were at the crossroads of two very different cultures. To the south, the powerful Mississippian culture had reached its northernmost extent, stretching all the way from Florida to Wisconsin along North America's most powerful river. The Mississippians brought with them maize, the crop that had transformed societies across the continent ever since it started marching north from Mexico. With heavy maize cultivation came other cultural trappings, such as the establishment of large, urban settlements, where the people lived year-round and built giant earthen mounds for public rituals as part of a highly stratified society. Aztalan, which is about halfway between today's Madison and Milwaukee, was the greatest of these new settlements built in Wisconsin. The core Mississippian sites in Wisconsin were small in number, but their influence spread widely throughout the region.

To the north of Green Bay, however, the Late Woodlands people had long lived a lifestyle of mixed horticulture and hunting and gathering, moving seasonally between semi-permanent settlements and winter hunting grounds. They relied heavily on the wild rice that grew on the shores of Lake Michigan to survive and had cultural connections throughout the Great Lakes. They too built mounds, but as burial grounds for their dead, where ancestors were venerated for countless generations. In the area around Green Bay, the interaction between Mississippian and Late Woodlands cultures led to the creation of a new group of cultures called the Oneota. Local communities in northeastern Wisconsin varied widely in how they adapted to the powerful new presence in the south. Some groups enthusiastically adopted the ceramic styles, agriculture, and permanent towns of the Mississippians, while others were more selective about how much they let the Mississippians affect their lifestyles. Some communities were drawn into tribute relationships with sites like Aztalan, while others remained more aloof.

When describing sweeping archaeological changes in history, it is easy to forget that all cultural interactions boil down to people talking and exchanging ideas. In this illustration we find two women at the crux of the Oneota phenomenon. The woman on the left has travelled north and the woman on the right as travelled south, both leaving their usual villages for the winter hunting seasons. While gathering winter berries in her birchbark basket, the woman from the north has come across a very excited southerner. Wearing an exotic buffalo robe and a deerskin pouch with Mississippian sun and wind designs, she regales her new acquaintance with the stories of giant mound plazas and fields of corn larger than any she had ever seen. Her husband wanted to return to the usual winter hunting grounds, but she is hoping that next year she can convince him to join the people of Aztalan on their summer hunt west for the buffalo to procure more beautiful buffalo robes. The northerner is not altogether impressed, however; she has noticed the clearing of forest for corn fields and the ensuing disappearance of animals her family traditionally hunts. Her own deerskin and moose hair pouch displays a more traditional Thunderbird design, and her ears are absent of any southern earrings. Together, they represent the varied attitudes of Late Woodland people to the introduction of Mississippian influence in Wisconsin.

The analogues between the Oneota and Late Woodlands to modern-day nations are not exact, but for this illustration, I have followed the theory that the Oneota are the ancestors of today's Ho-Chunk. Green Bay is the site of the Ho-Chunk creation story. They call it Te-rok, "Within Lake", and it is where they believe Earthmaker and the Thunderbirds set the first humans down on land. The Menominee, on the other hand, who may be more aligned with the Late Woodlands people who did not adopt a Mississippian lifestyle on a large scale, call Green Bay Pūcīhkit, a less flattering name that means "bay that smells like something rotting". Their creation story is set further north at the mouth of the Menominee River. The Ho-Chunk and the Menominee have a long, intertwined history of partnership in Wisconsin. Although the Ho-Chunk speak a Siouan language and the Menominee speak an Algonquin one, they share many cultural features such as the beautiful porcupine quillwork both women are wearing in the illustration, and they have both called the land currently known as Wisconsin home for many thousands of years.

This picture is a personal one because I grew up in a town just outside Green Bay. Door County, my favourite place in Wisconsin, is visible across the bay. I moved away five years ago, but in the past two years I have been spending a lot of time educating myself about the history of the native peoples of the region. Growing up, I was most exposed to the Oneida Nation, whose reservation is near Green Bay today, but they were moved there after European incursion into their traditional territory in New York. I once attended a Menominee pow-wow, but that was the extent of my exposure to their culture at the time. It has been quite the journey educating myself about the Menominee and the Ho-Chunk, who I knew very little about despite living in the Ho-Chunk's sacred birthplace - in fact, while I'd been reading about the Menominee for awhile, it wasn't until I started researching this illustration that I found out the Ho-Chunk believe they were created on the shores of Green Bay.

I chose to do a winter scene because this is the twelfth illustration in the Women of 1000 AD series, meaning I now have enough for a complete 2019 calendar, and this one will be December! My sister norree requested a cardinal and birch trees, so here they are! I also have her to thank for helping me with some finishing touches on the snow, and my friend SachiiA for some tree advice. My inclusion of the white-tailed deer was inspired by the work of the late Menominee artist James F. Frechette Jr. , or Nātamowekow (He Helps People). His sculpture representing the White-Tailed Deer clan of the Menominee Nation focusses on how important it was for the community to help prepare for the hunt, including the gathering of berries for food and medicine such as the northern woman is doing in my illustration. You can read here some of his thoughts about how the deer was seen as a brother who had to be respected with careful preparations.

I used a lot of different references for this illustration, notably the art of Bob Ross and the opening sequence of Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. I would also highly recommend the book Native North American Art on Oxford University Press, which helped give me a lot of context for my representation of traditional Woodland and Mississippian art styles. Thanks also to my friend Christine for finding a very helpful article about the Oneota in Green Bay! I'm really proud of how this picture turned out - it took a long time, especially with all those birch trees, but it helped me get through a time when I was quite ill, so this picture will always hold a special place in my heart!

You can learn more about the cultures involved here on my website: womenof1000ad.weebly.com/oneot…

Others in the Series
Sei Shōnagon
Oni Oluwo
Princess Olith
Coniupuyara
Sitt al-Mulk and Taqarrub
The Mother of Pueblo Bonito
Gudridr Thorbjarnardottir and Thorbjorgr Litlvolva
The Weaver of Xuenkal
Niguma
Guni
Bonna
Empress Chengtian
The Pilgrim of Pariti
Queen Gurandukht
Mwana Mkisi
Raingarde
Ama
Sahiqat
Jigonsaseh

Description
A thousand years ago, the shores of Green Bay were at the crossroads of two very different cultures. To the south, the powerful Mississippian culture had reached its northernmost extent, stretching all the way from Florida to Wisconsin along North America's most powerful river. The Mississippians brought with them maize, the crop that had transformed societies across the continent ever since it started marching north from Mexico. With heavy maize cultivation came other cultural trappings, such as the establishment of large, urban settlements, where the people lived year-round and built giant earthen mounds for public rituals as part of a highly stratified society. Aztalan, which is about halfway between today's Madison and Milwaukee, was the greatest of these new settlements built in Wisconsin. The core Mississippian sites in Wisconsin were small in number, but their influence spread widely throughout the region.

To the north of Green Bay, however, the Late Woodlands people had long lived a lifestyle of mixed horticulture and hunting and gathering, moving seasonally between semi-permanent settlements and winter hunting grounds. They relied heavily on the wild rice that grew on the shores of Lake Michigan to survive and had cultural connections throughout the Great Lakes. They too built mounds, but as burial grounds for their dead, where ancestors were venerated for countless generations. In the area around Green Bay, the interaction between Mississippian and Late Woodlands cultures led to the creation of a new group of cultures called the Oneota. Local communities in northeastern Wisconsin varied widely in how they adapted to the powerful new presence in the south. Some groups enthusiastically adopted the ceramic styles, agriculture, and permanent towns of the Mississippians, while others were more selective about how much they let the Mississippians affect their lifestyles. Some communities were drawn into tribute relationships with sites like Aztalan, while others remained more aloof.

When describing sweeping archaeological changes in history, it is easy to forget that all cultural interactions boil down to people talking and exchanging ideas. In this illustration we find two women at the crux of the Oneota phenomenon. The woman on the left has travelled north and the woman on the right as travelled south, both leaving their usual villages for the winter hunting seasons. While gathering winter berries in her birchbark basket, the woman from the north has come across a very excited southerner. Wearing an exotic buffalo robe and a deerskin pouch with Mississippian sun and wind designs, she regales her new acquaintance with the stories of giant mound plazas and fields of corn larger than any she had ever seen. Her husband wanted to return to the usual winter hunting grounds, but she is hoping that next year she can convince him to join the people of Aztalan on their summer hunt west for the buffalo to procure more beautiful buffalo robes. The northerner is not altogether impressed, however; she has noticed the clearing of forest for corn fields and the ensuing disappearance of animals her family traditionally hunts. Her own deerskin and moose hair pouch displays a more traditional Thunderbird design, and her ears are absent of any southern earrings. Together, they represent the varied attitudes of Late Woodland people to the introduction of Mississippian influence in Wisconsin.

The analogues between the Oneota and Late Woodlands to modern-day nations are not exact, but for this illustration, I have followed the theory that the Oneota are the ancestors of today's Ho-Chunk. Green Bay is the site of the Ho-Chunk creation story. They call it Te-rok, "Within Lake", and it is where they believe Earthmaker and the Thunderbirds set the first humans down on land. The Menominee, on the other hand, who may be more aligned with the Late Woodlands people who did not adopt a Mississippian lifestyle on a large scale, call Green Bay Pūcīhkit, a less flattering name that means "bay that smells like something rotting". Their creation story is set further north at the mouth of the Menominee River. The Ho-Chunk and the Menominee have a long, intertwined history of partnership in Wisconsin. Although the Ho-Chunk speak a Siouan language and the Menominee speak an Algonquin one, they share many cultural features such as the beautiful porcupine quillwork both women are wearing in the illustration, and they have both called the land currently known as Wisconsin home for many thousands of years.

This picture is a personal one because I grew up in a town just outside Green Bay. Door County, my favourite place in Wisconsin, is visible across the bay. I moved away five years ago, but in the past two years I have been spending a lot of time educating myself about the history of the native peoples of the region. Growing up, I was most exposed to the Oneida Nation, whose reservation is near Green Bay today, but they were moved there after European incursion into their traditional territory in New York. I once attended a Menominee pow-wow, but that was the extent of my exposure to their culture at the time. It has been quite the journey educating myself about the Menominee and the Ho-Chunk, who I knew very little about despite living in the Ho-Chunk's sacred birthplace - in fact, while I'd been reading about the Menominee for awhile, it wasn't until I started researching this illustration that I found out the Ho-Chunk believe they were created on the shores of Green Bay.

I chose to do a winter scene because this is the twelfth illustration in the Women of 1000 AD series, meaning I now have enough for a complete 2019 calendar, and this one will be December! My sister norree requested a cardinal and birch trees, so here they are! I also have her to thank for helping me with some finishing touches on the snow, and my friend SachiiA for some tree advice. My inclusion of the white-tailed deer was inspired by the work of the late Menominee artist James F. Frechette Jr. , or Nātamowekow (He Helps People). His sculpture representing the White-Tailed Deer clan of the Menominee Nation focusses on how important it was for the community to help prepare for the hunt, including the gathering of berries for food and medicine such as the northern woman is doing in my illustration. You can read here some of his thoughts about how the deer was seen as a brother who had to be respected with careful preparations.

I used a lot of different references for this illustration, notably the art of Bob Ross and the opening sequence of Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. I would also highly recommend the book Native North American Art on Oxford University Press, which helped give me a lot of context for my representation of traditional Woodland and Mississippian art styles. Thanks also to my friend Christine for finding a very helpful article about the Oneota in Green Bay! I'm really proud of how this picture turned out - it took a long time, especially with all those birch trees, but it helped me get through a time when I was quite ill, so this picture will always hold a special place in my heart!

You can learn more about the cultures involved here on my website: womenof1000ad.weebly.com/oneot…

Others in the Series
Sei Shōnagon
Oni Oluwo
Princess Olith
Coniupuyara
Sitt al-Mulk and Taqarrub
The Mother of Pueblo Bonito
Gudridr Thorbjarnardottir and Thorbjorgr Litlvolva
The Weaver of Xuenkal
Niguma
Guni
Bonna
Empress Chengtian
The Pilgrim of Pariti
Queen Gurandukht
Mwana Mkisi
Raingarde
Ama
Sahiqat
Jigonsaseh