Family structure was very strong among the Winnebago and the Sauk and Fox. The family group, including all the descendents of one person, formed a clan. Each clan was named for the spirit (manitou) who had visited the original ancestor. There were wolf clans, elk, bear, black bass, swan, sturgeon, bald eagle and even thunder clans.

Each clan put together a sacred pack or pouch that was believed to have special healing powers, and that contained animal’s teeth, claws, and feathers.  Twice a year, the clan members held a special ceremony honoring the powers of the pack.  The more elaborate ceremonies took place in the summers and involved feasting and dancing.  The Indians would sing, pray, and retell the story of the original visions and the sacred pack. This ceremony reminded the manitou of what it had promised the clan’s ancestor and what powers it had granted in the vision.

     Prayer, fasting and the spirit world were a very important part of everyday life for the Indians.  The Indians believed that each person, place, animal, and object had its own guardian spirit.  They would give thanks to the spirit of a cave for protection while they were inside it or to the spirit of the buffalo killed in a hunt.  The main spirits were Earthmaker, Sun, Moon, Morning Star, Disease-giver, Water-spirit, and Thunderbird, whose flapping wings made thunder and flashing eyes made lightening.
      When confronted by trouble or illness, the Sauk and Fox would get the attention of a spirit by blackening their faces with charcoal, fasting, and offering tobacco to the spirit to ask for advice or good luck through a vision or a dream.
 

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