Fave 5: Reporter Anna Hansen's top five stories of 2022

Portage’s Historic Indian Agency House has partnered with the Ho-Chunk Nation Museum and Cultural Center of Wisconsin to shed light on history going back over 190 years.

The Landscape of Families exhibit opens on May 14 with song and dance performances by the Wisconsin Dells Singers and Dance Troupe of the Ho-Chunk Nation, informational presentations, and traditional Ho-Chunk foods prepared by Wild Bearies, a nonprofit focused on Indigenous food preparation. It will remain open for visitors through Oct. 15.

The exhibit centers around Wisconsin’s cultural landscape in 1832 and how “dramatically” conditions in the state changed following the forced expulsions of Indigenous people, according to Adam Novey, Director of the Indian Agency House.

In November of 1832, more than 400 Ho-Chunk family representatives gathered at Fort Winnebago to be recorded in a census, preparing to receive an annual payment for their land, which Novey said was purchased through “pressure” by the U.S. government.

Just a year after the census was taken, 75% of the Ho-Chunk families recorded had been driven from their homes.

“I don’t know that many people are aware of how many times Ho-Chunk were actually removed from the state of Wisconsin,” said Ho-Chunk Nation Museum Director Josie Lee. “A lot of this is brand new information for people.”

The cultural landscape of Wisconsin as a whole underwent drastic changes in the 1830s, according to the Indian Agency House, specifically relating to the forced expulsion of the Ho-Chunk and other tribal nations.

While the exhibit will chronicle those changes, Lee said it’s her hope people will also gain a better understanding of the way contemporary Indigenous people live in the state.

“Most people, when they think of American Indians in general, tend to think of them in that historic nature and not how we exist and live today,” she said. “It helps give background to why we exist as a sovereign nation within the state of Wisconsin today.”

Indian Agency House representatives added that the setting of the exhibit on the very site of the 1832 census, and the opportunity for people to see the recorded names with their own eyes will make the exhibit all the more impactful.

The Historic Indian Agency House, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was built in 1832 for John Kinzie, who was the federal government’s Indian Agent to the Ho-Chunk Nation.

“Each name on the register represents a family who was at that very moment on the cusp of losing all that was familiar and known,” Novey said. “(The 1832 census is) basically the last intact picture of the tribe prior to the start of forced expulsion from their homes.”

Novey added that the interactive aspect of the exhibit is vital to visitors’ understanding.

“It’s not just dates in a history book, it’s names, it’s people,” he said.

A website will accompany the exhibit, adding to the contemporary aspect.

Prior to the expulsions, Ho-Chunk people had lived in the area for “time immemorial,” said Lee. It’s her hope, she said, that people recognize not only the history of the Ho-Chunk Nation’s presence in the state, but their continued residence.

“I want people to be able to recognize family names and families who are still living here today,” she said. “I really hope that there is some dialogue that can come out of it to help people better understand the past but also what it means to live here today.”

The exhibit has been a year in the making, filled with historic research and editing among other things. Now that it’s coming to fruition, Lee describes the feeling as “a little nerve-wracking and honestly really exciting.”

It’s her hope, she added, that the impact of the exhibit extends beyond its opening day.

“I really hope that there is some dialogue that can come out of it to help people better understand the past but also what it means to live here today,” said Lee. “I also hope it becomes a valuable resource.”

The Landscape of Families exhibit will open on May 14 at 1 p.m. More information on the exhibit is available on the Historic Indian Agency House website, agencyhouse.org

For Columbia County’s libraries, budget fluctuation seems to be an ongoing saga. Many, however, have expressed concerns as the county’s Board of Supervisors is currently looking to cut their financial support of the institutions down to 70%, the legal minimum in a funding formula that’s been in use since the 1990’s.

The money each library receives is calculated based on circulation numbers, quantifying materials they check out to visitors, according to Theresa Valencia, Columbia County Board Supervisor for District 26.

In total, the county is home to 10 libraries: Cambria, Columbus, Lodi, Pardeeville, Portage, Poynette, Randolph, Rio, Wisconsin Dells, and Wyocena. Between them, they shared a collective 351,048 in-house circulations and 74,762 digital circulations in 2021 alone, despite operating on what Valencia calls “a shoestring” budget. This year, the deficit they face adds up to a total of $24,964.

“I don’t think the minimum amount, or even 73% to me is acceptable,” said Valencia. “Many of the counties around us support their libraries at a much higher rate.”

Many library directors throughout the county have echoed Valencia’s sentiments: The bare minimum isn’t enough, the formula incapable of quantifying the true value of all the libraries bring to their communities.

Take Alex LeClair, for instance, of the Lodi Public Library.

LeClair’s official title for the past three-and-a-half years has been library director. However, for the past three years, he’s also undertaken the role of janitor, one of many cost-cutting measures he’s had to put forth.

He pointed to options like reducing hours or letting employees go, but with only nine total staff members, himself being the only full time staff, he says it’s hard for him to determine where there might be additional room for cuts.

“There’s just not a lot for us to cut,” he said. “We have to buy toilet paper.”

Over the past few years, LeClair says he and other librarians have noticed fluctuation in their portions of the county budget, including last year, when he says he was successfully able to combat a drop in funding with an amendment. This year, LeClair says the county budget cuts are measuring at a deficit of $4,265 for Lodi’s library.

“We fought and advocated to increase it in little small increments,” he said. “Now we’re just fighting to keep it where it is this year, to try to maintain that into next year.”

The Lodi Public Library gets its funding through three different sources: Lodi’s property taxes, the county, and donations, grants and gifts. LeClair says he wants to utilize the county and tax dollars for operational costs, setting the donations and other gifts aside for things like special projects and improvements.

“I don’t want to use donations for operational money because that just, I feel like, sets up a house of cards that’s gonna come down,” he said. “We need to have the city and county support our operational costs so that people who donate can help us sort of push the library forward and develop in fun and interesting ways.”

Portage Public Library Director Debbie Bird echoed LeClair’s sentiments. Bird says grants and donations “do not sustain library services, they can only enhance it.”

Each of these cuts, Bird says, will have to be made up by taxpayers in each municipality. Beyond financial tolls, she added that library funds being cut stretches beyond the bookshelves, into other entities.

“Defunding libraries bleeds over into negative results for other services: not-for-profits, social organizations, schools and private businesses, as well as municipal government,” she said.

“All the libraries in Columbia County serve not only the needs of residents, but partner with other service organizations to offer fundamental resources and support in the search for jobs, housing, food, and care, to name a few.”

While the Portage Public Library’s budget remained steady in 2021 and 2022, circulation numbers, Bird added, have been on the rise, with over 10,000 additional circulations this year compared to last, adding up to 78,223 in-house circulations.

Beyond the circulation numbers and operational costs, there is also, said Bird, a non-quantifiable value provided to communities through library services. Library services like summer learning programs, tax form assistance, copy and fax services, and free summer lunches for children are just a few of the vital operations that could suffer with further cuts.

“Each library has a story to tell and each library works to make the best decisions that they can to enable their communities to thrive and improve and sustain themselves,” she said. “We share our resources with families, children, adults, and seniors. We provide a respite for those who are looking to get out of the cold or the heat. We look to provide life-long learning.”

As the board’s Nov. 15 budget meeting draws near, Valencia says she’s hoping she and her fellow supervisors can tap into other resources, focusing on generating income in ways that don’t involve cuts to services like the libraries.

“We should be really looking at how to increase how much money we have coming into the county instead of how we are going to cut more and more services,” said Valencia. “I really think we need to be creative on getting more funds into the county.”

At first glance, the thousands of pages littering H.R. Harmer Fine Stamp Auctions in Manhattan are little more than faded ink and old adhesive. However, a closer examination between the lines of each envelope and ink blot reveals a unique look into pre-statehood Wisconsin.

Green Bay resident Bill Robinson began collecting stamps in the 1950’s, adding to his collection what he considered the most unique or rare pieces of postage. He later turned his hobby into a career, assuming a role as a stamp auctioneer.

Seventy years on, Robinson’s family is handing the old correspondences off to an auction house in New York, where H.R. Harmer President and CEO Charles Epting has deemed the collection “the most important offering of Wisconsin postal history of all time.”

Robinson’s collection, says Epting, offers a comprehensive look at pivotal moments in Wisconsin history spanning the 1820’s to the 1970’s.

Within the letters, fur traders and missionaries wrote home from “the western frontier,” telling their loved ones of land for purchase and skirmishes with local Native American tribes in New Glarus and Green Bay. Steamboat passengers on Lake Michigan documented their time on the water, the landscape surrounding the shores.

These, said Epting, showcase not only the beginning of the state of Wisconsin, but the birth of the modern U.S. postal service, created out of necessity by settlers who “made it up as they went along.”

“The mail followed the early settlers,” he said “They needed a way to stay connected to the eastern seaboard.”

The births of current day metropolises like Madison and Milwaukee are also cataloged in Robinson’s curated correspondences, along with offers for land development, building space, jobs. Travelers arriving with little to nothing used these letters to send for their loved ones back home, populating the state.

“The settlers came and brought the mail with them and then the mail in turn brought more people to Wisconsin,” said Epting.

Conversely, the postage also showcases what could have been: Cities and towns that no longer exist, fallen victims to the rapid development of the 1830’s and 40’s. Bustling communities scattered to the winds of change in the years leading up to statehood.

One such letter was sent from the City of Four Lakes, a manufactured community that at one time rivaled Madison in a bid for state capital. The city’s post office was shut down in the mid-1840’s, so this piece of mail is a particularly rare find.

“You see places that don’t exist on maps,” said Epting. “For a lot of these places, the mail originating from them is the only record we have. There’s no buildings left.”

In this way, Epting says stamp collecting transcends the boundaries of a mere free time activity, as well as “outdated” ideas of what it entails.

“This hobby is a lot more than people just sitting there and pasting stamps into their stamp album and trying to collect one of each,” said Epting. “You’re dealing with pieces of American history.”

He added that collections like Robinson’s stand to change people’s perceptions of the postal service industry as a whole.

“On the one hand the postal service is kind of the poster child for government bureaucracy and red tape and inefficiency maybe,” he said. “But when you read these individual letters you’re not just focused on the way that it was transported, you’re getting a peek into an individual’s life, it’s sort of this great macro and micro story that’s being told.”

Many such stories are held within the contents of Robinson’s collection, appealing to a “cross-pollination” of interests. Between the military history of Fort Winnebago, the steamboat mail from Lake Michigan, the Native American history pertaining to relations with early Wisconsin settlers, and general life in the 19th century, Epting says a variety of people have expressed interest in the letters.

Also relevant is the completeness of many of the letters, something Epting says makes them extra valuable. Many collectors in decades past had destroyed old envelopes in pursuit of rare stamps. Robinson, however, kept his intact.

“A lot of stamps are indistinguishable from one another. If you are trying to find a rare stamp one copy is as good as the next,” he said.

“When you have the letter, when you have the envelope, it really helps to tell the entire story.”

The many chapters of the story that is Wisconsin will be available for auction in different segments on Oct. 26 and 27 through H.R. Harmer Fine Stamp Auctions in Manhattan, 630 5th Ave Suite 2607, New York, NY 10111.

A group of Portage parents and educators are planning a farewell celebration for a local school set to close at the end of this school year.

In its 82 years of operation, Rusch Elementary has served many purposes under many different names. Currently, the school serves kindergarten through fifth grade. But due to the building’s retirement, this year’s Rusch students will be its last.

The Portage School District has decided to stop using the building as a school because costly problems, including asbestos and aging mechanical equipment, could run up to $18 million to fix — a cost the district simply can’t justify. Current Rusch students and staff will be redistributed throughout the district ahead of the 2022-23 school year.

With the pending closure of Rusch, a group gathered Thursday in Room 106 of the school to continue planning a May 18 celebration ceremony open to the public to say farewell to the Portage elementary school. Among those gathered around the table peering at basement artifacts were three of the school’s principals.

Robin Kvalo opened the elementary school in 1998, as a way to alleviate overcrowding at John Muir and Woodridge elementary schools.

Repurposing the school, which had been a middle school since the 1960s, required a year of building repairs and a summer of grant writing, the latter accomplished by Kvalo and some members of the teaching staff.

“Our days never ended at 3:30,” Kvalo recalled.

During her 13-year tenure as principal, she recalled late nights, deep relationships, and school carnival dunk tanks.

“My heart has always been here,” said Kvalo. “That’s what makes it difficult to see it close.”

Kvalo added that while the building was a second home, the people in it made it a family.

“One of the reasons Rusch worked is that we trusted one another,” she said. “We encouraged taking chances, we encouraged failure.”

When Nikki Schoenborn arrived at the school for the principal position following Kvalo’s departure, she said it was that trust that greeted her at the door.

“I knew when I came in there were big shoes to fill,” said Schoenborn.

Schoenborn filled those shoes with Friday morning dance parties and photo booth poses with students, as well as the occasional intruding bat or squirrel in the 82-year-old building.

“I loved every minute of working here,” she said. “No matter what your role was, you always had a shoulder to lean on.”

In her eight years as principal, Schoenborn said she strived to ensure each child felt that same sense of security.

“I don’t think there was a kid who walked through these doors, whether they had a good day or a not so great day, that didn’t ever feel like they had a place or were loved.”

Among her top achievements at the school was winning a state award for closing the achievement gap.

“I do not think the staff here got enough credit and recognition,” said Schoenborn. “They were always about the kids and always about working together as a family.”

Over the final few operating years of the school, Angie Gulrud has been the principal, carrying on the same values of trust to a new generation of students.

“What’s special for me is, like, this is where I started,” said Gulrud. “The kids and the staff in this school and the parents, they’re amazing.”

Among those parents is Elizabeth Hanson. Hanson teaches social studies at Portage High School, and both of her daughters attended Rusch. As an educator, Hanson said she prioritized her daughters’ education, and as a parent, she felt that the staff at Rusch had the same priorities.

“We actively chose Rusch for our daughters,” said Hanson. “It’s been hands down the best decision we’ve ever made.”

Despite the pending closure of the school, the current kindergarten portion, which is a newer addition to the building, will remain open for the local Boys and Girls Club’s use.

“That’s going to be a great location for the Boys and Girls Club activities,” said Gulrud.