Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition by Grant Arndt (review)
Rent from DeepDyve- Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition by Grant Arndt
Grant Arndt, Ann M. Axtmann, Ho-Chunk, powwows, Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Settler Colonial Studies, dance, twentieth century, World War II
Every year thousands of Native American powwows take place throughout North America. Hosted by Indian tribes or intertribal communities, these events may include socializing; concession stands with food, artwork, and crafts; rituals and ceremonies, as well as dance, music, and athletic competitions and exhibitions. Whether tribal, intertribal, urban, rural, local, national, or international, each powwow is distinct and powerful. For example, the Mawiomi powwow in Caribou, Maine, organized by the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, is like a family picnic; at the Thunderbird Grand Mid-Summer Pow Wow of Queens, New York, indigenous peoples from all over Latin America attend; and in Montana, the Annual Crow Fair hosted by the Apsáa-looke Nation draws scores of Indians and non-Indians from the U.S. and beyond and includes dance and music contests with hefty dollar awards.
Furthermore, powwows permeate society at large: in music; feature films, documentaries, and television dramas; literature; photojournalism; and on the Internet. Given the popularity and diversity of powwow, each study of this remarkable performance form offers its own unique contribution to the ever expanding body of powwow scholarship.1
Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition by Grant Arndt focuses on the history of a specific powwow, that of the Ho-Chunk Nation in west-central Wisconsin. When white settlers arrived in that region in the nineteenth century, the Ho-Chunk people were forced to deal with devastating wars, removal, and financial hardship. Arndt’s analysis begins with the first Ho-Chunk powwow outside Black River Falls at the turn of the twentieth century and culminates at the Ho-Chunk Memorial Day Powwow in 2006. [End Page 288]
The volume addresses how colonialization transformed the everyday life and cultural practices of the Ho-Chunk. An introduction, six chapters, and conclusion build one upon another to trace the trajectory of “traditional” and “commercialized” Ho-Chunk powwows (14). Ethnographic in nature, this detailed and well-documented text makes a substantial and significant contribution to Native American history; the ever-increasing scholarship on the Ho-Chunk Nation; ethnic and colonial studies; and anthropology. In the introduction and Chapter 1, the author introduces his primary concern: how “warrior ceremonialism” and “a culture industry that produced Indian imagery for consumption by American audiences” influenced the evolution of present day powwows (21).
Chapter 2 examines the role of money in early Ho-Chunk/settler relations. Gift giving—“of songs, dance traditions, ceremonial practices, and drums”—was key to understanding the initial Ho-Chunk powwow in 1902 (53). With the influence of settler culture, Ho-Chunks began charging admission to their events. Arndt concurs with others that these more commercial performances served as “dynamic vehicles for Native agency,” and a means “to fund, at least in part, indigenous survival and recovery from the devastation of the previous century” (55). Also in this chapter is an explanation of how the Ho-Chunk powwow emerged from the Grass or Omaha Dance of the Helushka and Drum Dance societies. Arndt’s excellent analysis of the Drum religion confirms how the Drum underscores the sacred and spiritual beginnings of powwow and powwow practice today.
The theme of money and commercialization continues in Chapter 3. With the advent of the railroad, non-Indians organized tourist productions. These powwow-like, almost anthropological performances or ceremonials depicted life in the West and flourished in the Midwest as well as the Southwest. Meanwhile, the Ho-Chunk tribal powwow continued during the 1920s and 1930s, but eventually disappeared.
In Chapter 4 Arndt looks at powwow in the 1940s and 1950s as a cultural performance based in warrior societies, non-Indian commercial influences, and the honoring of veterans as they returned from World War II. By proposing the apotheosis of the veteran as the driving force in the Ho-Chunk powwow’s resurgence, he adds that “[t]he image of the American Indian veteran as...
