Zien commends efforts to preserve, recognize Indian Farm site

Congratulations Taylor County Historical Society for sponsoring, ”A Walk Through the Big & Little Indian Farms“ on Thursday, September 23. Your guest speaker Cindi Stiles, a registered professional archaeologist, did a fine job in describing the Indian Farms.

But missing was how the Taylor County Community Education Center / TCCEC had Spearheaded the efforts to put the Indian farms on the State & National Registry of Historic Places. That movement was phenomenal.

Unmentioned, until public comment — was how the The Star News had played a key role in inspiring public support. Icons Bob Anderson and Don Woerpel were mentioned. Group discussions later gave credit to the Taylor County Board of Supervisors, Roger Emmerich County Clerk and the TCCEC Foundation Board.

During the mid-1980s the TCCEC coordinated dozens of tours. On one day of tours, over 120 people attended. An immense amount of feedback was received.

Personal testimony of spiritual phenomenon were recorded on surveys. People shared how the hair on the back of their necks arose, when they entered the 90 acre plus treeless field. Boxes full of surveys were collected - many with mysterious & super natural unique experiences.

In my very first visit there with TCCEC photographer Dean Kapsy, I climbed the gigantic white pine on the east Indian farm boundary overlooking the yellow river. The tree shook, the wind nearly blew me out of the tippy top. But there was no wind that day, not even a breeze. Dean was even more afraid than I was !

Experienced by TCCEC Psychology and Sociology classes had been wind from all directions in a campfire - perhaps logical is that a whirlwind dropped into the center of a campfire and stayed there for several seconds? Ya, you bet !

Each of us around the circle were peppered by Sparks. We put that fire out & got out of there pronto. Discussed had been the sights, sounds, smells & feelings of Indians generations there prior.

The chant, ”Sha-luck -a-lay -ya,“ was felt on this beautiful Indian summer late October day. Each of us detected that the spirits were sending us a message - but were they not pleased?

Recent pictures by Bill Boyea record fog like clouds arising from the adjacent swamp. Other pictures over the years by many others reveal human ghost like images.

A couple guys in the late 1970’s left a Perkinstown bar to stay overnight at the Indian farms. They ran for their lives because of what they described seeing, hearing & feeling, ”angry spirits at unrest!”

So much history. Now the theory is why no trees have grown on the 90 acre field - is because so many Indians walked there for centuries. Other theories are spiritual —including why the unique sage that grows there.

This was a very strategic crossroads of Wisconsin Indian trails by the Potawatomi, Ho Chunk and Ojibwe tribes.

On the south east corner is considered the most intact ancient dance ring in the state of Wisconsin. Worthy of study are the kitchen midden, the cabin locations, the small pox epidemic - why people continue to live there in 1908?

Sadly given the TCCEC was information about the atrocities committed. Confidentially we received the names addresses of local neighbors and ransacker‘s. Most are deceased, but some families still live locally.

Anything returned to the Indian Farms could be done so without penalty and be admirable indeed. No one else received such data - but now all deserves to be shared. What is legacy -what is legend ?

Indian skulls were collected and hoarded like souvenir rocks. Whole families would go there after church on Sunday afternoons to collect beads and seashells among the human bones.

The lumberjack bar to the west displayed Indian skulls, legs and arms behind the bar —like deer and fish mounts. The archaeologists who certified the Indian farms, wanted to know its exact location.

In the outdoor toilet locations, apparently pistols and other artifacts were found. Some of the stories shared were evil.

Across the road from the Indian Farm site, during three winters (frozen marshes allowed equipment), bore samples of a potentially rich deposit of copper, gold and silver has been documented. If mining is ever permitted, let’s make sure our Native American historical significance is prominently appreciated.

A WWI Veteran was murdered in his bed. The Indian Maiden’s skull was tied together with wire over his bed. At the death scene, the jaw was wired open — as if laughing at him. This unsolved mystery, was it relatives or spirits claiming poetic justice ?

When metal detectors became prominent, those ransacking the burial grounds found French colonial Silverware and a gold ring next to a skull (French Indian trapper?).

Legend became fact when a leg bone discovered, apparently from a described 7’2” Indian. A woman who lost her only child between the Big & Little Indian Farms, who stayed next to her child, until she too perished from starvation.

How bad Native American burial grounds were treated, was considered worthy of National Park Monument status by the National Park Service - in the early 1990s.

At the end of her presentation Cindi Stiles said, ”outreach is important to construct the whole Indian Farm story!” Each of us can help in some fashion.

Please relay any information, artifacts and constructive feedback to the Taylor County Historical Society. For each of the next three years, major grants are recently available to preserve the memory, integrity and influence upon our current culture by Native American and minority groups.

Another site that could be simultaneous with this effort is the, Chippewa /Sioux Indian April 1861 Battlefield site near Prairie Farm. This could be considered a National Battlefield Monument site —depicting major Chippewa /Sioux battles in both Wisconsin & Minnesota.

Both sites are worthy of proper recognition and true interpretation. We and future generations deserve to know.

— Dave Zien,Eau Claire. Zien is a former Wis. State Senator, campus administrator TCCEC/ North Central Tech College 1983-1989, Employment/ Win Counselor, Veterans Rep. and Manger, Wis. Job Service -Medford Office, 1980-1983.