Winnebago Reservation
The Winnebago Reservation of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is located in Thurston County, Nebraska, United States. The tribal council offices are located in the town of Winnebago. The villages of Emerson, south of First Street, as well as Thurston, are also located on the reservation. The reservation occupies northern Thurston County, Nebraska, as well as southeastern Dixon County and Woodbury County, Iowa, and a small plot of off-reservation land of southern Craig Township in Burt County, Nebraska. The other federally recognized Winnebago tribe is the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. Early history The Winnebago Reservation is on land that originally belonged to the Omaha nation. On February 21, 1863, Congress passed legislation removing the Winnebago (also known as Ho-Chunk) people from a reservation in Blue Earth County, Minnesota to Crow Creek, South Dakota. This location lacked essential resources, leading to a famine that sent many Winnebago people to seek refuge on the Omaha Reservation further down the Missouri River. In order to establish a separate Winnebago reservation, the Omaha nation ceded the northern portion of their own reservation to the United States on March 6, 1865, and the United States granted this area to the Winnebago tribe in exchange for