Gov. Tommy Thompson and leaders of the Ho-Chunk Nation are to sign an agreement Thursday in the Kickapoo Valley that returns 1,200 acres to the tribe.
The land, in southwest Wisconsin, will more than double the tribe’s trust land holdings and clear a major hurdle for another 7,400 acres acquired from a failed federal dam project to be returned to the state and managed locally as the Kickapoo Valley Reserve, officials said.
“This is a big deal for Wisconsin, for the Ho-Chunk tribe and for the country in general,” said state Rep. DuWayne Johnsrud (R-Eastman), who represents the area. “It’s a precedent-setting kind of thing, like the heads of state meeting together.
In the 1960s, the federal government purchased more than 8,500 acres for damming the Kickapoo River to control flooding and create a lake. Work on the dam was never completed.
In the 1800s, the Ho-Chunk, then known as Winnebago Indians, were evicted from their Wisconsin homeland, including the Kickapoo Valley.
The Ho-Chunk Nation will now acquire about 840 acres just south of Wildcat Mountain State Park and another 360 acres in the southern part of the reserve, near a rock formation known as Black Hawk Rock.
