Effigy mound

An effigy mound is a raised pile of earth built in the shape of a stylized animal, symbol, human, or other figure and generally containing one or more human burials. Effigy mounds were primarily built during the Late Woodland Period (350-1300 CE (current era)). Conical and linear mounds, the predecessors of effigy mounds may date from as far back as 700 BCE (before the current era). They remain places First Peoples frequent to visit and speak with ancestors, to put down tobacco and to give thanks. These sites are primarily visited by Hochungra (pl. of Hochunk) people whose ancestors likely built the great majority of them, though they are also visited by people from other original indigenous nations such as Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Kikapu, Oneida, Menominii who reside in Wisconsin and surrounding areas. There also remains the possibility that a greater diversity of First Peoples such as ancestors of those named nations may have contributed to building some percentage of the mounds. That is to say that ancestral Hochunk likely popularized the form and other groups may have adopted the practice of building effigy mounds from having observed the Hochunk ancestors methods and aesthetics surrounding their construction.