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.

Author: Grant Arndt
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 06/01/2016
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.48lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.94d
ISBN13: 9780803233522
ISBN10: 0803233523
BISAC Categories:
- History | Indigenous Peoples in the Americas
- History | United States | State & Local | Midwest(IA,IL,IN,KS,MI,MN,MO
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | Native American Studies

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