Government Ho-Chunk nation president Marlon WhiteEagle (right) and US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh (left) meet in 2021 The name Ho-Chunk comes from the word Hocaagra ( Ho meaning 'voice', cąk meaning 'sacred', ra being a definitive article) meaning 'People of the Sacred Voice'. The Ho-Chunk Nation have always called themselves Ho-Chunk. Historically, the surrounding Algonquin tribes referred to them by a term that evolved to Winnebago, which was later used as well as by the French and English.
The tribe separated when its members were forcibly relocated first to an eastern part of Iowa known as the Neutral Ground, then to Minnesota, South Dakota and later to the current reservation in Nebraska. The other federally recognized tribe of Ho-Chunk people is the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. The Ho-Chunk Nation ( Ho-Chunk language: Hoocąk) is a federally recognized tribe of the Ho-Chunk with traditional territory across five states in the United States: Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri. Other Ho-Chunk, Otoe, Iowa people, and Missouria
