Wittenberg, WI

Wittenberg is a Shawano County village with a complicated history that deserves to stay visible. In 1886, the Norwegian Evangelical Church of America established the Wittenberg Indian School on land in Winnebago traditional territory. It was a residential school for Native American children, part of the broader effort to remove children from their families and assimilate them into white American society. The National Archives still holds the school's records, and that history belongs in the village's present-day map alongside the streets, churches, and businesses.

Wittenberg's current economy includes Nueske's Applewood Smoked Meats, a third-generation family business that remains in the village and employs local workers. The Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District serves the wider area, with its main campus on a wooded site with streams. The village sits within the Town of Wittenberg, in central Wisconsin between Shawano and the larger Fox Valley network. Wittenberg is a place where the civic story has two duties: keep the Indian School's record clear, and keep track of the businesses, school, and roads that make the community a living place now.