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.

[4] 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.

[7] The legislature currently consists of:[8] The Ho-Chunk Nation is considered a "non-reservation" tribe, as members historically had to acquire individual homesteads in order to regain title to ancestral territory.

The tribe oversees and maintains parcels of land placed in Trust as Indian Trust Land as designated by the federal government, Secretary of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), spread over Adams, Clark, Crawford, Dane, Eau Claire, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Marathon, Monroe, Rock, Sauk, Shawano, Vernon, and Wood counties, Wisconsin.

[13] The United States Census Bureau reports demographics for Ho-Chunk Nation trust lands, but the bureau implemented new privacy protections in 2020 including random variations that may make the reported census figures inaccurate for tribal trust land areas.

[14] According to the census of 2020, the total population living on Ho-Chunk Nation Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land was 1,577.

[18] Dugout canoes found near many small lakes and rivers in the Madison area are prompting new anthropological research projects.

[20] Ho-Chunk women were responsible for growing, gathering and processing food for their families, including agricultural products and a wide variety of roots, nuts and berries, as well as sap from maple trees.

In addition, women learned to recognize and use a wide range of roots and leaves for medicinal and herbal purposes.

To become men, boys would go through a rite of passage at puberty, fasting for a period, in hopes of acquiring a guardian spirit.

[24] Oral history suggests some of the tribe may have been forcibly relocated up to 13 times by the US federal government to steal land through forced treaty cession, losses estimated at 30 million acres in Wisconsin alone.

Its five colors (red, white, green, blue, and black) all represent animals of particular clans and have corresponding meanings in the tribe's oral history.