Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition
Ho-Chunk powwows are the oldest powwows in the Midwest and among the oldest in the nation, beginning in 1902 outside Black River Falls in west-central Wisconsin. Grant Arndt examines Wisconsin Ho-Chunk powwow traditions and the meanings of cultural performances and rituals in the wake of North American settler colonialism. As early as 1908 the Ho-Chunk people began to experiment with the commercial potential of the powwows by charging white spectators an admission fee. During the 1940s the Ho-Chunk people decided to de-commercialize their powwows and rededicate dancing culture to honor their soldiers and veterans. Powwows today exist within, on the one hand, a wider commercialization of and conflict between intertribal "dance contests" and, on the other, efforts to emphasize traditional powwow culture through a focus on community values such as veteran recognition, warrior songs, and gift exchange.

In Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition Arndt shows that over the past two centuries the dynamism of powwows within Ho-Chunk life has changed greatly, as have balances of tradition and modernity within community life. His book is a groundbreaking study of powwow culture that investigates how the Ho-Chunk people create cultural value through their public ceremonial performances, the significance that dance culture provides for the acquisition of power and recognition inside and outside their communities, and how the Ho-Chunk people generate concepts of the self and their society through dancing.

Grant Arndt is an associate professor of anthropology and American Indian studies at Iowa State University and coeditor of Native Chicago.
1122887948
Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition
Ho-Chunk powwows are the oldest powwows in the Midwest and among the oldest in the nation, beginning in 1902 outside Black River Falls in west-central Wisconsin. Grant Arndt examines Wisconsin Ho-Chunk powwow traditions and the meanings of cultural performances and rituals in the wake of North American settler colonialism. As early as 1908 the Ho-Chunk people began to experiment with the commercial potential of the powwows by charging white spectators an admission fee. During the 1940s the Ho-Chunk people decided to de-commercialize their powwows and rededicate dancing culture to honor their soldiers and veterans. Powwows today exist within, on the one hand, a wider commercialization of and conflict between intertribal "dance contests" and, on the other, efforts to emphasize traditional powwow culture through a focus on community values such as veteran recognition, warrior songs, and gift exchange.

In Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition Arndt shows that over the past two centuries the dynamism of powwows within Ho-Chunk life has changed greatly, as have balances of tradition and modernity within community life. His book is a groundbreaking study of powwow culture that investigates how the Ho-Chunk people create cultural value through their public ceremonial performances, the significance that dance culture provides for the acquisition of power and recognition inside and outside their communities, and how the Ho-Chunk people generate concepts of the self and their society through dancing.

Grant Arndt is an associate professor of anthropology and American Indian studies at Iowa State University and coeditor of Native Chicago.
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Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition

Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition

by Grant Arndt
Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition

Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition

by Grant Arndt

Hardcover

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Overview

Ho-Chunk powwows are the oldest powwows in the Midwest and among the oldest in the nation, beginning in 1902 outside Black River Falls in west-central Wisconsin. Grant Arndt examines Wisconsin Ho-Chunk powwow traditions and the meanings of cultural performances and rituals in the wake of North American settler colonialism. As early as 1908 the Ho-Chunk people began to experiment with the commercial potential of the powwows by charging white spectators an admission fee. During the 1940s the Ho-Chunk people decided to de-commercialize their powwows and rededicate dancing culture to honor their soldiers and veterans. Powwows today exist within, on the one hand, a wider commercialization of and conflict between intertribal "dance contests" and, on the other, efforts to emphasize traditional powwow culture through a focus on community values such as veteran recognition, warrior songs, and gift exchange.

In Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of Tradition Arndt shows that over the past two centuries the dynamism of powwows within Ho-Chunk life has changed greatly, as have balances of tradition and modernity within community life. His book is a groundbreaking study of powwow culture that investigates how the Ho-Chunk people create cultural value through their public ceremonial performances, the significance that dance culture provides for the acquisition of power and recognition inside and outside their communities, and how the Ho-Chunk people generate concepts of the self and their society through dancing.

Grant Arndt is an associate professor of anthropology and American Indian studies at Iowa State University and coeditor of Native Chicago.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780803233522
Publisher: Nebraska
Publication date: 06/01/2016
Pages: 352
Sales rank: 974,567
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author


Grant Arndt is an associate professor of anthropology and American Indian studies at Iowa State University and coeditor of Native Chicago.
 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Into the Arena

1. When Worlds Collide: Culture and Catastrophe in the Nineteenth Century

2. Gifts and Profits: On the Origins of the Powwow

3. "Time Works Changes, Even to the People of the Red Races": The Rise and Fall of the Commercial Powwow

4. Something More than Patriotism: War, Veterans, and the Return of the Powwow

5. Calling the People Together: Powwows in the Era of Nation-Rebuilding

6. Producing a Space for Culture: Powwows in the Early Twenty-First Century

Conclusion: Experimenting with the Expectations of Tradition

Notes

References

Index

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