Review of: Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal. Loew, Patty

Jung, Patrick J.

English

Dada/Surrealism

Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal

The Annals of Iowa

Iowa Research Online

The Annals of Iowa 
Volume 61 Number 4 (Fall 2002) pps. 432-434 
Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal 
Patrick J. Jung 
ISSN 0003-4827 
Copyright © 2002 State Historical Society of Iowa. This article is posted here for personal use, 
not for redistribution. 
Recommended Citation 
Jung, Patrick J. "Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal." The 
Annals of Iowa 61 (2002), 432-434. 
Available at: https://doi.org/10.17077/0003-4827.10630 
Hosted by Iowa Research Online 
432 THE ANNALS OF IOWA
tionist history. Finally, several authors examine contemporary society
in Minnesota. One surveys the history of the Dakota and Ojibwe land
that became Minnesota and discusses how the loss of that land and the
reservation system shaped current realities of American Indian life.
One essay describes the roots of Minnesota's reputation for social ser-
vices, and another contributes to this discussion by describing Minne-
sota's reputation for philanthropy. In the final essay, Guthrie Theater
director Joe Dowling describes the important role of theater in the
state, and explains how Minnesota came to be a regional center for the
theater arts.
These essays vary in their levels of research and formality, but
they complement each other in unexpected ways. The historical back-
ground lingers in your mind as you read about contemporary Ufe;
ideas about the deliberate construction of Minnesota's image inform
views of the state's philanthropic and religious life. Taken together,
these essays give readers a full, varied picture of this place—a picture
of it through time, and today.
The book's multidisciplinary approach would be of interest for
other places similarly overlooked by the national press, such as Iowa.
Few places evoke rural farm life more than Iowa. In the national
imagination, Iowa is trapped in time as a small-town, comfield-fUled
place of old-fashioned values and simple people. As in Minnesota,
however, the realities of Iowa life defy that image. While vmdeniably
agricultural, Iowa is also nationally known for its contributions to
American literature and arts. While rural, the small towns are empty-
ing and the family farm is struggling to survive. While viewed as ho-
mogenous, Iowa is home to a surprising number of new immigrants.
The approach taken in this volume—drawing a number of writers and
scholars together to write about a place from their own perspectives—
is a fruitful way to explore a state or regional identity.
Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal, by Patty
Loew. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2001. xii, 148 pp. Il-
lustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95 cloth, $21.95 paper.
Reviewer Patrick J. Jung is an adjunct professor of history at Marquette Uni-
versity in Milwaukee. His research interests include Indians in the Great Lakes
region.
Author Patty Loew, a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior
Ojibwe, originally wrote the material found in this book for a 1998
public history exhibit on Wisconsin Indians. Loew states that because
Book Reviews and Notices 433
"Native voices have been absent" (x) from previous histories, she de-
pends primarily on Indian sources such as speeches and oral tradi-
tions that provide more faithful windows into the past. Although that
is a noble objechve, such a methodology has certain inherent weak-
nesses. Specifically, Loew ignores many excellent and even crucial sec-
ondary sources, and thus, her book is replete with factual and inter-
pretive errors.
The first two chapters discuss the early history of Wisconsin Indi-
ans and the arrival of Europeans. Loew's first chapter is not the survey
of Wisconsin Indian prehistory that is initially promised but instead is
an vineven patchwork of Indian origin stories interspersed with in-
complete archeological data conceming the prehistoric period. Her
chapter on European arrivals is better organized, but there are several
interpretive problems. For example, Loew's assertion that the fur trade
"essentially exploited" Indians and "fostered dependency" (15) ig-
nores more recent scholarship that argues that Indians were not help-
less pawns but instead were active participants who made the fur
trade function in a manner to their lildng, and, contrary to what is of-
ten believed, were not wholly dependent upon European trade goods,
particularly during the French period.
The remainder of the chapters provide tribal histories for the In-
dian groups that currently reside in Wisconsin, namely, the Menomi-
nee, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Oneida, Stockbridge-Mimsee,
and Brothertown Indians. The chapter on the Ojibwe is particularly
useful because it presents histories of the six bands of the Lake Supe-
rior Ojibwe. Historians have woefully overlooked these histories, and
Loew's book makes an important contribution to our understanding
of the Lake Superior Ojibwe. However, these chapters also contain
many factual errors that coxild have been avoided easily if Loew had
conducted a more careful survey of the secondary literature. One of
the more serious errors is found on pages 42-43, where Loew argues
that the influx of white lead miners into the Fever River region was the
most significant factor that led the Ho-Chvmk to support Tecumseh's
pan-Indian movement prior to the War of 1812. There were virtually
no white miners on Ho-Chunk lands prior to 1812, and the federal
goverrunent did not issue the first leases until 1822. Indeed, the num-
ber of white miners in the Fever River district did not even reach one
thousand until 1826. Had Loew consulted an adequate number of sec-
ondary sources, she would have righfly concluded that the influx of
white lead miners precipitated the 1827 Winnebago Uprising and not
Ho-Chunk participation in the War of 1812.
434 THE ANNALS OF IOWA
Errors such as these make this a disappointing book. Although it
has several interesting passages and contributions, I cannot recom-
mend it for serious students of Wisconsin Indian history. Those
seeking a solidly researched survey wül be well advised instead to
read Robert E. Bieder's Native American Communities in Wisconsin,
1600-1960 (1995).
Ho-Chunk Chiefs: Winnebago Leadership in an Era of Crisis, by Mark
Diedrich. Rochester, MN: Coyote Books, 2001. 200 pp. Illustrations,
maps, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95 paper.
Reviewer Edward J. Pluth is a retired professor of history at St. Cloud State
University. His research interests include the Ho-Chunk, German prisoners of
war, and rural history.
This is Mark Diedrich's tenth book on Native American history, his
second on the Ho-Chunk, or Wirmebago. In this latest book he exam-
ines the leadership of 26 nineteenth-century Ho-Chimk chiefs. A too
brief introductory chapter relates the history of Ho-Chunk chieftain-
ship. In each of the 18 chapters that follow, the author weaves together
a biographical sketch of one or several of these notable leaders and a
narrative of their efforts on behalf of the Winnebago within the histori-
cal context that this occurred, supported by selected quotations from
their speeches or other statements. The structure of the work, with
each chapter standing alone, results in annoying repetition of the his-
torical events involved; for example, six chapters include a discussion
of Tecumseh. The challenge in writing Native American biography is
reflected in the uneven content and varied length of chapters. Unfor-
tunately, there is no concluding chapter that assesses, individually or
collectively, the decisions, actions, and leadership of this group of
chiefs.
The Ho-Chunk have an important connection with Iowa history
and that of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. For example, in the
1830s they were removed from Wisconsin to a reserve called The Neu-
tral Ground in northeastern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota. Several
Iowa locations, such as Winneshiek County and Decorah, reflect that
history. Diedrich's work is of value in identifying and bringing to-
gether information on sigrüficant Ho-Chvmk leaders. Readers will gain
some insight into why the nineteenth century was an era of crisis for
the Winnebago.



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