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Named for a rocky crossing (ford) on the Rock River, Rockford, Illinois is home to our alma mater and the seat of Illinois’ Winnebago County. The County was named for native settlers who lived near Wisconsin's Lake Winnebago. 

Because of its strong fishy odor, Algonquian Indians called the Lake and its residents "Winnebago," meaning Smelly Water; but the "Winnebago" called themselves "Ho-Chunk," meaning Big Voice, their original tribal name. Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) women, farmed corn, beans, and squash while the men fished and hunted deer, buffalo, and small game. They lived in rectangular houses with Birch bark shingles. Some of the "un-landed" Ho-Chunk were given homesteads  instead of being sent to reservations. Others, weakened by disease and tribal wars, intermarried with tribal enemies or moved near the Rock, Fox, Black, and Wisconsin Rivers.

The culture of the Great Lakes area, including Northern Illinois, is an amalgam of traditions of former slaves, French Canadian and European immigrants, and

"Indians" who were actually diverse clans and tribes of farmers, hunters, warriors, river people, and mound people connected by languages of, alliances with, and intermarriage into Sauk, Sioux, and Iroquis affiliates.

When West was a High School, the mascot was "Chief Wahoo," caricature of a "typical" Indian warrior; that was about all many of us knew if we thought about it at all. Actually, a few miles down the Rock River was the homeland of a "real" Warrior, Chief Black Hawk. Born around 1767, Ma-ca-tai-me-she-kia-kiak (Black Sparrow Hawk), his Thunder Clan affiliated with the Sauk Nation and Fox River tribes. They also occupied lands along the Rock River. By age 15 Black Hawk had earned the right to wear paint and feathers, and in defending his Rock River homelands, he became a trusted leader of large war parties and an ally of Tecumseh, leader of the Shawnee in Southern Illinois. Eventually defeated when betrayed by a rival tribe, Black Hawk was forced to move to Iowa. At about age 70 he died in what is now southern Iowa's Davis County. It's said he was buried in a sitting position in a grave near the Des Moines River. The Iowa museum housing his relics burned, and his grave was robbed, but his Illinois homeland honored him with a statute and park overlooking his beloved Rock River.

School mascots usually represent loyalty, dominance, pride, tenacity, power, courage, and skill. Those are also traits of soldiers, pioneers, and other leaders, who, like Chief Black Hawk, break trail, advocate, and fight for causes - much like the Indian soldiers and the pathfinder "Warrior" Classmates to your right. 

WARRIORS

LESSONS FROM "WAHOO" - THEN AND NOW

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