The story of a band of Potawatomi people establishing a village on a 300-foot quartzite bluff sounds like the stuff of legend.
But it is part of Wisconsin history. The village of Tah-qua-kik, or Skunk Hill, was established in 1905 on the top and south side of Powers Bluff, in central Wisconsin’s Wood County.
Author Robert Birmingham tells the story of this small but mighty outpost in Skunk Hill: A Native Ceremonial Community in Wisconsin, published recently by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
Skunk Hill was a settlement sequestered by choice, away from the aggressively “civilizing” reservations and boarding schools of the 19th and early 20th centuries. At a time when Native culture was being assimilated and violently suppressed, this pocket of resistance provided a safe haven for members of many tribes to practice traditional religious rituals forbidden on reservations.
The Tah-qua-kik settlement drew people from as far away as Kansas, and the people who lived there were essentially squatting, since the last remaining shred of Potawatomi territory extended from Illinois only into the southeast corner of Wisconsin. Skunk Hill’s peak population was about 80, with more than a dozen structures spanning 40 acres. Today, two cemeteries and dance circles are all that remain, and Tah-qua-kik is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The life span of the village was short — roughly 25 years — but Native American traditions were preserved long enough to be shared and handed down to other generations. Birmingham focuses on the community’s Drum Dance, a days-long celebration of the powers of the Great Spirit that attracted visitors from other parts of Wisconsin and beyond.
Birmingham, who worked as Wisconsin state archaeologist from 1989 to 2004, tells this story well, and he has gathered information from Potawatomi elders and their descendants. In previous books, he explored pre-history’s mound builders and the mysterious Aztalan settlement near Lake Mills. The book is heavily illustrated with historic black-and-white photos displaying village life, dress and dwellings. It also includes a few modern images, including an excellent group photo taken in 2000 of Skunk Hill descendants gathered on the bluff.
Skunk Hill is endlessly intriguing, but it is more of a reference book than a narrative; it would benefit from actual stories and quotations from family members. Still, this slender volume helps uncover some of our state’s hidden history and fosters appreciation for the first Wisconsinites.
