NATIVE AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY SITES:
Artifacts from agricultural villages of the
Oneota culture of prehistoric Native Americans have been found in the
Long Coulee area north of the Village of Holmen and along the bluff base south of the
village. Investigations by the State Historical Society during the construction of Highway
53 found extremely rare remnants of seven longhouses, each of which included several
burials. The cloverleaf at the intersection of Highways 53 and 35 in Holmen was altered to
encircle a burial site without disturbing it. Other sites are located throughout the
Holmen area. A group of 15 or more
wigwams constituted the first American Indian village on Brice Prairie. Powwows were held
on the banks of the Black River, then called Yellow Banks. An Indian camp called White Oak
Spring left five Indian mounds that remain
today. Buried there are Yank Swan, one of the last chiefs of the Winnebago tribe, and his
wife, who died at the age of 108, the oldest person buried there.