UMOnHOn
STATISTICS
Compiled from various
published and oral sources, including
tribal, school, religious,
county, state, and federal resources.
richard chilton
Parental Culture:
Includes Kansa (Kaw), Osage, Oto, Ponca and Quapaw.
Land:
Ancestral:
Up to 14 million acres in what is now the eastern third of Nebraska,
southeastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota
and the western two thirds of Iowa.
Original Acreage of
Reservation: a remaining 330,000 ancestral acres, Federally designated
by Treaty between United States Government and the various clans
of the sovereign Umonhon Nation, March 1854.
Hu'tunga Sale:
Reservation reduced to 220,000 acres by 1865 Treaty with
the U.S., imposed upon both Nations. This sale formed a 110,000 acre
Hu'tunga[Winnebago] Reservation
on lands they did not wish to assume, preferring instead their ancestral
lands: Green Bay Wisconsin.
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It being understood that the object
of the government in purchasing the land herein described is for the purpose
of locating the Winnebago tribe thereon, now, therefore, should their location
there prove detrimental to the peace, quiet, and harmony of the whites as
well as the two tribes of Indians, then the Omahas shall have the privilege
of repurchasing the land herein ceded upon the same terms they now sell.
-- 1865 Treaty, Article 5 |
Land Held By Tribe:
a maximum 31,000 acres held either in Trust by the U.S. Government in the
name of the Tribe (approximately 28,000 acres), or through individual allotments
(approximately 2,000 acres) or held privately by tribal members.
Reservation Land Held
by Non-Umonhon: approximately 189,000
acres.
Population
of Umonhon Tribe:
Pre-wa'xe
[non Indigenous] Contact: as documented through both Western
and oral tradition:
| Strips of agricultural farms in valleys
such as where Macy, Walthill and Rosalie are situated, stewarded by as few
as one, and as many of several extended families, probably clan based, cultivating
acreage to sustain and support in perpetuity upwards of 50,000 or more.
-- Oral Tradition |
Population Decimated:
three smallpox epidemics; 1800-1 worst decline; 1802-4 down
to less than 2,000; 1828.
Population when Reservation Formed: approximately 4,200.
Current:
6,200 enrolled tribal members.
Off Reservation:
approximately 2,200 in Sioux City and surrounding communities
(Iowa); the greater Omaha and Lincoln (Nebraska) metropolitan areas; Los
Angeles and Oakland (California); Seattle (Washington); Oklahoma; Arizona
and New Mexico; District of Columbia.
On Reservation:
4,000, predominantly in the communities and rural areas of
Macy and Walthill, smaller areas in and around Rosalie and Pender.
Economic:
Ancestral, Pre-Contact:
Communal, based on family relationship with clan, and the Hu'thuga
[tribal circle]. Hunting te
[bison] and other game, agricultural (wahaba
[corn], waton [squash]
and other foods), foraging; trade in hand-made goods, cultural
relationships.
Present Day, Cash/Wage/Labor, Average
Income: $6,500-$8,300. One third less
before casino.
Unemployment rate
before casino: 80% including younger adults, 90% in mid teens,
consistently highest negative statistics in virtually ALL categories (both
1990 Census and Nebraska figures), even after casino.
Unemployment rate
after casino: 60% adult, 73% youth.
Direct Employment by Casino: one third rise in community employment, this reduced
by 20% long-term with increased saturation of gaming market.
Indirect Employment:
another one fifth rise, but rate has become more volatile with “saturation.”
Age & Health:
| Most literature on the health problems
of Native American people demonstrates that the genesis of the problems are
found in the area of psychological dysfunction. . . . Beginning in
the late 1800s, the U.S. Government implemented policies whose effect was
the systematic destruction of the Native American family system . . . .
Once the idea of family is eradicated from the thinking and lifeworld of an
individual, cultural reproduction cannot occur . . . .many times the task
in working with families involves education as to what the concept of family
actually is.
-- Duran and Duran, Native American Postcolonial Psychology, 1995 |
Current Medium
Age of Tribal Members: 19.4 years.
Life Expectancy:
approximately 54 years.
Diabetes:
20% of all age groups; according to more recent data published in the literature;
however, approaching one third clinically diagnosed “at risk," but speculated
to be up to two thirds of the local population.
| The Omaha people believe in the oneness
of life, the interconnectedness of all of life and respect for every living
thing. Traditionally, the people went to one person, a medicine man
for healing. Many people continue this practice today. The medicine
man never treats only one aspect of the person's condition. He treats
the whole person and has a deep understanding of the interconnectedness
of the mind, body and spirit. For this reason, it is difficult for many of
our population to comprehend the dominant culture's practice of going to
a particular person for one type of problem and another for something else.
The over-specialization that has resulted in fragmented knowledge and services
to the people has not yet occurred here. It should be avoided if we
are to provide services in a way that is congruent with the values and ways
of the people. Within this program, services must be provided holistically
in order that the client may feel trust and confidence in the provider
as well as for the provider to have more complete understanding of the individual.
-- Pauline Tyndall, 1984 |
Compulsive Behaviors
& Addictions: All behaviors “3.84%” officially up from
less than one percent 20 years ago – e.g. the Gambling Addiction rate in
1997. Local statistics agree but professional speculation suggests four
times this “norm.”
Alcohol:
Virtually 100% of families affected by chronic alcoholism within various
generations, fairly evenly split between directly in some way and indirectly.
FAS:
believed at 2%
FAE: at
3%. Professional speculation for FAS alone, however, may be statistically
higher.
Other Abuse:
increasing rate of child, domestic, family abuse -- all of which were rare,
even to the end of World War II:
Religion:
Estimated 8-9% Catholic, 4% New Reform, 3-4%
Mormon, less than 2% Methodist, less than 1% Jehovah’s Witness, B’hai, etc.,
60+% Native American Church, 20% various Traditionals.
School:
Boarding School:
20%
Walthill Public:
93% Native enrollment, 85+% Umonhon
Umonhon
Nation Public at Macy:
100% Native enrollment, 95+% Umonhon
Winnebago Public:
2% Umonhan;
St. Augustine, Catholic Day School at Winnebago: 3-5% Umonhon ;
Other:
tribal members are also enrolled at Lyons-Decatur NE, Bancroft-Rosalie NE,
Omaha NE, Lincoln NE, Sioux City IA and Onawa IA.
College: Nebraska
Indian Community College: Over 100 students, two campus sites
(Macy, Santee -- Macy being the largest). Average
student: Female 31, single parent with two children.
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