Rock Lake’s Stellar Pyramids: Legends of Wisconsin’S Sunken Site a Preliminary Study

Book excerpt: In 1988, a side-scan sonar reading of Rock Lake, Wisconsin's underwater structures was recorded by drivers, under the direction of University of Wisconsin Professor of Civil Engineering Dr. James Scherz. After viewing the image, the author worked with Sac and Fox Nation elders in Wisconsin and Stroud, Oklahoma, to obtain the translations of the Medewigan, or Medicine Lodge. Similar legends are described in Ashinaubig, Menominee, Ojibway, and Winnebago (Ho Chunk) traditions and in an 1890 Ojibway text. However, the oldest written record of the Sauk Tribe is found in an 1100 B.C. Chinese Imperial record that describes the Emperor's notation of similarity in the warriors' archery skills and red-plumed Mohawks, which recalled their own Red Phoenix creation legends.