Ho-Chunk Garden

In collaboration with the Ho-Chunk Nation, in 2026 Riverside International Friendship Gardens completed a Ho-Chunk Garden in the Riverside International Friendship Gardens at Riverside Park. The garden is west of the Cameroon Garden and has unrestricted views of the La Crosse, Black, and Mississippi Rivers.

To reflect the Ho-Chunk culture, the garden features native plants, including Shrubby St. John’s Wort, Wild Bergamot, Sweet Grass, Bradbury’s Monarda, Rattlesnake Master, Golden Alexander, Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle, Plains Oval Sedge, Anise Hyssop, Purple Conelower, Wild Nodding Onion, Little Bluestem, Prairie Pussytoes, Orange Conflower, Prairie Dropseed, Switchgrass, Culver’s Root, Aromatic Aster, Wild Columbine, Blue Stemmed Goldenrod, Showy Goldenrod, Hairy Beardtongue, June grass, Arctic Fire Dogwood, Cream Wild Indigo, Sage, and Lanceleaf Coreopsis.

Many of these plants were valued by the Ho-Chunk for their healing properties.

Quaking aspens, cedar, and dogwood trees (trees that had historically been used to create trail markers) have been planted to create a beautiful living screen between the gardens.

The centerpiece of the garden is a bronze sculpture depicting Betsy Thunder. Betsy Thunder was a native healer who in the 1860’s used her healing skills to help both native peoples and the newly arriving settlers. This sculpture symbolizes community, friendship, and healing.

The garden also features sculptures of native trail marker trees. The Ho-Chunk, as well as other native peoples, would shape young trees in a particular way to indicate a direction or other information, and when the trees matured, the “map” could be used for many years.

The garden includes flagstone benches made from local stone, each of which bears the insignia of one of the Ho-Chunk clans.

Landscape design and concept planning were donated by Coulee Region Ecoscapes, and consulting and construction documents were donated by River Architects.

Ho-Chunk Garden

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