Early history Paleo-Indians, the earliest ancestors of Native Americans, arrived in what is now Wisconsin during or after the retreat of the last continental glacier, about 12,000 years ago. They built effigy mounds, of which at least 20 remain in the Madison area alone. When the first European explorers reached the Wisconsin region in the 1600s, several Native American groups were living there. These included the Ojibwa, Menominee, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Sauk, Fox, Illinois, Miami, Mascouten, Huron, Ottawa, and Santee Sioux. Only four of these groups remain—the Ojibwa, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, and Potawatomi—plus four others who migrated from the East in the 1820s—the Stockbridge and Munsee bands of Mohicans, the Brotherton, and the Oneida. Early settlement In 1634 French explorer Jean Nicolet was most likely the first European to enter what would become the state of Wisconsin. The area remained under French control until 1763, when it was acquired by the British. It...
