Sabrina Childers
Andy Tigert
Intro to Diversity Studies
January 13, 2016
The Oneida Nation My great grandfather, who we call “Grandpa Indian,” was fifty percent Oneida. In turn, my grandmother is a quarter and she is the last generation of the family to receive benefits from the tribe. My mother being an eighth, and I a sixteenth, means that we do not possess enough Oneida blood to be eligible for the benefits but I still consider it to be a big part of my ancestry because it is all I really know about it, even if it does not make up a lot of my heritage.
The Wisconsin Oneida Indian Tribe consists of 16,567 members as of today. It falls within the Brown and Outagamie counties. Seeing that their reservation is in northeastern Wisconsin today …show more content…
This was fought about for almost a decade until it was decided that the Oneida could only have 65,400 acres, which as I stated earlier is the current non-taxed acreage of the reservation today. Though there were land treaty issues, Oneida member still migrated to Green Bay hoping to escape the white men taking their land. As whites came into the area, Henry Dodge wanted Oneida lands and offered the tribe to move west of the Mississippi River. The tribe declined and stayed put where they continues to farm and raise their animals. They had built houses, churches, and schools. They also served in the Civil War as …show more content…
Food like cornbread, rice, and seasonal fruit are common foods when eating traditional native cuisine. My grandmother talks about how the natives like to eat with the seasons. Meaning eat fish during fishing season, berries when they are growing and ripening throughout summer, rice and nuts in winter, and so on. Natives believe in harmony, especially with mother-nature. So I would not necessarily say there are maybe traditional foods, but traditional times to eat certain foods. They practiced planting corn, squash, and beans close together. The tribe knows this planting practice as “The Three Sisters.” They plant these three foods near each other because beans grew up onto the corn stalks and it all covers the squash underneath it adequately. The Three Sisters were said to protect the Oneida people as well as the food. Traditional wear was animal skins, leather, hides, and moccasins. Men hunted and women gathered and crafted. Weaving and pottery also needed to be done to hold these foods that were hunted and gathered, materials that were made and traded, and for their