HE, PING, Ph.D
ABSTRACT
The Wisconsin Winnebago Nation established a GIS Division in 1991, through a cooperative effort with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Its goals were to use modern mapping technologies to preserve Winnebago historical sites, to support their land management and economic development. At the beginning, the program encountered difficulties in training, lab development and public awareness. After a series of applications in different areas of management, especially, in cultural preservation, the program generated support from a broad base in the Nation. The program has been playing an increasingly important role in decision making for the Winnebago government. The integration of technology with cultural concerns on an early stage of setting up, involving the Winnebago people in training and using existing sources to develop various applications were keys to the progress of the Winnebago GIS program.
INTRODUCTION
The Wisconsin Winnebago Nation is a unique Indian Nation whose
lands are scattered in more than 14 counties in southern and
central Wisconsin and whose population is distributed in the long
corridor area from Chicago to Twin Cities of Minneapolis & St.Paul.
To preserve its rich historical heritage, promote economic
development and efficient land management, the Wisconsin Winnebago
Business Committee (WWBC), the governing body of the Winnebago
Nation, established a GIS Division in 1991, through a cooperative
effort with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since its
establishment, many applications have been developed utilizing this
modern technology to support the governmental decision making. The
GIS Division has being played an active role in the Nation's
historical preservation, land management, economic development, and
other areas.
BACKGROUND
The Wisconsin Winnebago people have tradition to preserve
Native American culture and heritage. The ancestors of today's
Winnebago people once occupied a huge territory in Wisconsin. There
are thousands of mounds and burial sites left in the region, as
part of the Winnebago's historical heritage. Due to poor records
and documents, the locations of most sites are unknown to local
units of government. Many sites have been damaged or destroyed by
increasing land development. In addition, the Nation's land
holdings are currently scattered in 14 counties. Lack of
information such as current title, land cover, land use and
accessibility, etc. made it difficult for land development and
management. In summer 1991, the Winnebago Nation sent three
students to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to accept training
in surveying, photogrammetry and digital database development,
intending to use modern mapping technology to attack some of
problems it faced. Five months later, the Nation established a GIS
Division in its Economic Development Department. It was one of the
earliest GIS programs among Indian Nations.
As with implementing GIS technology in other agencies, the
program encountered many difficulties in the beginning. Shortly
after the program was established, the Nation experienced a severe
financial crisis, and the budget for GIS program was only partially
materialized. Very limited hardware and software were available to
support continuous training and application development. Proposals
were sent out to the Environmental Systems Research Institute
(Esri) and a few hardware companies to seek support from outside.
Esri responded very positively and the Division received a donation
of 5-copies of pc-ArcInfo for training purpose. A digitizer was
also received from Summagraphics. The GIS lab was very grateful for
this support, especially in such a time of need.
Another difficulty the program faced was GIS awareness. At the
time we started, only limited people had experience in computer,
and most people in the Nation have never heard of GIS. To educate
members in the Nation and promote the program, a short training
course to introduce GIS technology was conducted soon after the
Division was established. The majority of the class were Winnebago
members. This course generated influence far exceeding the limits
of the classroom. Those people who attended the course became best
supporters to the program. Some of them became GIS trainees in the
program later. The Division also held demonstration in the Nation's
general council meeting and other occasions to promote the program
and technology.
The Division also received support by the Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) through its regional office in Minneapolis and
Geographic Data Service Center in Lakewood, Colorado. The staff was
sent to attend GIS training courses offered by BIA. A computer-link
between the BIA's service center and the Winnebago GIS lab was
established. Thus, existing digital data in BIA were transferred to
the GIS lab and integrated with other data developed in house.
APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
At the same time that staff training and lab development was
underway, application development were started. The capacity of GIS
was gradually recognized through different applications. The
applications ranged from land and historical site mapping to GIS
support in health management. Through these application projects ,
the staff's technical capability was enhanced and the lab
facilities were expanded. More importantly, due to involvement of
many other departments of the Nation in various projects, the
program was greatly promoted and the technology and information
were disseminated. The Division was playing an active role in many
aspects of Nation's management. Several key applications during the
three-year period are described in the following sections.
Land and Population Mapping
Due to the large geographic span of the Nation's land and
population, a set of land and population maps for the 14 counties
where the Nation owns lands was developed to serve an overall land
and human service management plan. The base layers included major
roads, minor roads, hydrography and minor civil township from 1990
TIGER data, supplied by the Applied Population Lab of the
University of Wisconsin-Madison in ArcInfo format. The land data
were downloaded from BIA's computer and updated in the Winnebago
GIS lab. The population data were taken from the Nation's
enrollment database, aggregated in minor civil township, and
integrated to TIGER data as an additional attribute.
All layers were projected into the Wisconsin UTM coordinate
system. ArcView was utilized to create the maps, which was found to
be very efficient and easy to use. These maps (one of them shown in
Figure 1) are being used by the WWBC members and other departments
as base information for land management and development, housing
and public works, as well as health management. The Division was
requested to update these maps once a year to reflect rapid changes
of land holdings and population.
GIS Modeling of Burial Mounds
In 1992, GIS Division received a grant from the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin to survey and map burial sites in
Rock County and to develop a GIS model for mound locations. As
results of the project, a total of 20 extant mounds were identified
and mapped. The data were in both hardcopy and digital format.
Mound location data in Dane County were utilized for developing a
GIS model, because it had the most complete mound data set and
other environmental data were also readily available in digital
formats. ArcInfo was utilized for analyzing spatial relationships
of mound sites and other natural and cultural variables. Key
geographic variables included in the analysis were historical
vegetation (1830), soils, topography and hydrography. Correlation
between vegetation and soil data proved very useful for predicting
mound site locations. It was found that the distribution of marsh
and certain types of oak cover were significant factors related to
mounds. Specific soil associations to characterize mound locations
were also found. Distance to streams and aspects of mounds were
also considered in the model. Maps to indicate the area with high
probabilities of mound sites were generated. This research project
contributed to a better understanding of meaning and functions of
these mounds as cultural landmarks in the lives of ancient Native
Americans and was appreciated greatly by the elders in the Nation.
Eagle Mounds Preservation
Another area GIS was involved in historical preservation was
to promote land purchase for significant historical sites. In early
1992, a group of 64 effigy mounds, mostly eagles, was found in
Moscoda, Wisconsin. They were part of legends for the Winnebago
people once lived in this area. Although many mounds of this mound
group have been plowed, a few remaining mounds on the Wisconsin
River bank and detailed survey notes taken by T.H. Lewis, a
surveyor in 1886, provided a rare opportunity to restore this
cultural phenomena. The GIS Division recommended that the Nation
acquire lands for protecting remaining mounds and restoring the
Winnebago culture on the site. The Division provided the site
developmental plan including mound restoration, buffalo range and
cultural park development, etc. The proposed project generated
large public attention. The Wisconsin State Journal reported this
project in detail on its front page. Through many people's supports
and efforts, the site and the surrounding farm, a total of 642
acres of land, were acquired by the Nation. It was the largest land
acquisition activity in the Nation's history. It reserved a place
where the Eagles can speak to all from generation to generation.
Colorful maps overlaying mounds and topographic features on the
site produced by GIS staff were very helpful in our solicitation
for support and the final decision making by the Nation's
government (a portion of Eagle mound site is shown in Figure 2).
Application in Health Management
Due to scattered population distribution, health service is
always a difficult task for the Winnebago Nation, even though there
are five Winnebago clinics in different counties of Wisconsin.
Also, geographic characteristics of particular diseases among the
Winnebago people were of concern in the Nation's Health Department.
After introducing the GIS technology to the Health Department and
subsequent discussions, a joint proposal to integrate the Nation's
clinic database with GIS data and utilize GIS to analyze geographic
distribution of diabetes patients was finalized. The project was
funded by the Indian Health Services, a federal program, in 1993.
In this project, a prototype procedure to extract patient data from
the clinic database and integrate them to GIS data was developed.
Diabetic patient data were extracted as samples and overlaid with
geographic data such as transportation, hydrography, Winnebago land
boundaries, etc. Geographic distribution patterns of the patients
were mapped. Ratio of patients over total population for each minor
civil township was also calculated and displayed. Higher ratio
areas were identified and maps were provided to health
professionals for further investigation. This project provided an
example of data integration and sharing among different departments
and demonstrated the capability of GIS technology in analyzing
patterns and trends.
Housing Management Database Development
The Winnebago Nation currently manages five housing sites in
four counties for its people in Wisconsin. These houses were built
through federal government programs more than 10 years ago. The
Nation's Housing Department was under pressure to respond to
increasing requests from residents for house maintenance and
management. Also, as the Nation's economy expands, business
entities and more houses were planned to be developed on these
sites and surround lands. The GIS Division was developing large
scale housing site databases to support these activities. The base
layers were houses, roads, vegetation, property boundary, contours,
etc. The secondary information included utility, fire hydrants,
fence lines, light poles, power lines, underground pipe lines, etc.
Family sizes, income levels, rentals and other housing management
data, provided by the Housing Department, were also incorporated
into databases. Aerial photographs were scanned and existing
hardcopy maps were digitized. GPS equipment was utilized to help
capture ground features. These databases provided abundant
information to support the Nation's housing management and business
development.
CONCLUSION
The Wisconsin Winnebago GIS Division started from training and
lab development to utilize the technology to support many important
management decisions in the Nation. During three years of GIS
implementation, the Division was very active in developing
different applications, and promoting data dissemination among
different departments in the Nation. The program generated broad
support and many departments approached the Division to seek
solutions for more efficient management from GIS.
The technology has also brought changes in the administrative
structure. The land management and historical preservation, the two
key activities GIS initially supported, have been greatly promoted.
The Nation established a land office and a historical preservation
office. GIS Division continued to support their functions and was
also involved with other nationwide management activities.
Integration of the technology with cultural concerns, involving the
Winnebago members in training and utilizing existing sources to
develop applications in early stage were keys to the progress of
the Winnebago GIS program. Continuous development of the Winnebago
GIS program lies on integration of GIS databases with existing databases
in different departments to provide GIS services
to daily management activities for the Nation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Many individuals have contributed to the Winnebago GIS program
development. Especially I want to thank Chairman JoAnn Jones and
other WWBC members of the Winnebago Nation for their strong
commitment, Dr. James Scherz of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
for his initial training, promotion and continuous support and Mr.
Jack Dangermond, the president of Esri, Inc, for his strong
support. Many thanks should also be given to Professors Steven
Hackenberger of University of Wisconsin Centers and Robert Salzer
of Beloit College, Mr. Jerry Sullivan and Math Henizel of
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mr. Carl Hardzinski of BIA at
Minneapolis, Mr. Andrew Bieber of Esri, Inc., late Ms. Jan Beaver,
an independent artist, as well as Mr. Larry Johns, Mr. Fabian
Carrimon, Mr. Rich Brown, Ms. Susan Coffey, Mr. Joe Hanson of the
Winnebago GIS Division.