Ho-Chunk educator builds traditional ciiporoke structure
Outside Madison’s Wingra School on a sunny fall afternoon, Ho-Chunk artist and horticulturist Lightning New Rider was busy measuring canvas and preparing twine.
He was there to help the students refurbish the school’s ciiporoke, a Ho-Chunk structure made with bent tree saplings tied together to make a frame and often covered with natural materials like birch tree bark or woven mats — or, in this case, canvas.

