Big Indian Farms is a remote clearing in the Chequamegon Forest west of Medford, Wisconsin where as many as 130 Potawatomi and others lived from around 1896 to 1908.

In this isolated spot they were able to practice and preserve their ancestors' culture better than if they had lived under the direct influence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on a reservation.

This treaty was part of a general effort to move natives west of the Mississippi, to secure the east for mining, logging and white settlers.

[6] Though a band of towns and farms ran along the Wisconsin Central Railway north and south of Medford, the rest of the county had large areas with only a smattering of settlers.

[8] On the reservation their Midewiwin religion was discouraged, and many of the children were taken to Indian boarding schools like the one at Lac du Flambeau, where they were prevented from speaking their native language or learning much of their parents' culture.

[9] These off-reservation Indians were called "stray bands" or "strolling Potawatomi," living in less-settled areas and moving on when pressure from settlers became uncomfortable.

[12] They located the village on a high grassy meadow where a logging company may have previously grazed its livestock, in an area where settlers were scarce.

[13] Most of the people at the Big Indian Farm clearing were Potawatomi, led by a respected elder named John Young (Nsowakwet).

[15] A half mile to the north a smaller group of Ojibwe lived under Paul Whitefish at a clearing called Little Indian Farm.

The Indian Agent in Kansas wrote in his report: ...a number of the tribe who wish to lead a more primitive life... went into the forests of Wisconsin, when a smallpox of a severe type broke out during January, February, and March.

He tells of the Indian women coming up to his folks' place and bartering "berries and other wild foods for milk, eggs, and perhaps a chicken.

But it hosted a little-known chapter in our history, in which marginalized Indians improvised ways to preserve their culture and survive, despite pressure from the surrounding Western society.