Ho-Chunk Tribal Nation

The Ho-Chunk Tribal Nation has selected SAFE Steps to provide Human Skills training, along with college & career readiness planning to their families in conjunction with a Grant program funded by the US government Education Committee. 

The Ho-Chunk — formerly called the Winnebago — are members of a Siouan-speaking tribe who were established in Wisconsin at the time of French contact in the 1630s. The oral traditions of the tribe, particularly the Thunderbird clan, state that the Ho-Chunk originated at the Red Banks on Green Bay. Other tribal traditions relate how tribes such as the Quapaw, Missouri, Iowa, Oto, Omaha, and Ponca were once part of the Ho-Chunk, but these other tribes continued to move farther west while the Ho-Chunk stayed in Wisconsin. The Ho-Chunk call themselves Ho-chungra, which means “people of the parent speech,” or “people of the Big Voice.” Historical and linguistic evidence supports these oral traditions, particularly for the Missouri, Iowa, and Oto tribes.

Besides the Human Skills training, the college & career readiness planning, the program also contains financial fitness training, and cultural tradition & language education. The program is slated to run for five (5) years and SAFE Steps is proud to be a part of it.