This Jan. 30, 2009 photo shows statues depicting the various clans within the Winnebago tribe, overlooking a housing development north of Winnebago, Neb., which was built on land purchased by the tribe. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

To read more of Amie Rivers' article, please click here.

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska wasn't always in Nebraska. According to tribal officials, their ancestral lands are in Wisconsin and Illinois, and they were moved around in the 1800s to Northeast Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota before signing an 1865 treaty with the federal government for a reservation in northeastern Nebraska west of the Missouri River. But even then, some of that land was later illegally taken from them.

More than 50 years later, that remaining 1600 acres of improperly seized Winnebago land in Iowa is one step closer to being returned to the tribe, thanks to a bipartisan effort in Congress (and co-sponsored by both Iowa senators and all four Iowa members of Congress).