Hocak Wazijaci Artistic Traditions Project Collection, 1994
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Summary Information

Collection Summary

Title: Hocak Wazijaci Artistic Traditions Project Collection
Dates: 1994

Creator:
  • Hocak Wazijaci Language and Culture Preservation Committee (Mauston, Wis.) (Later known as the Hocak Wazijaci Language Division and presently as Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division)
Unique Identifier: CSUMC0007-CG

Contents: Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division: 8 folders, 96 slides, 106 negatives, approximately 40 mounted photographs (from exhibit), 5 contact sheets, 8 audiocassettes; James P. Leary: 15 folders

Publisher:
Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures
432 East Campus Mall, Room 332
Madison, Wisconsin 53706
608-262-8180
Web site: http://csumc.wisc.edu

Archival Location:
Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division (Map)

Summary:
Folklorist James P. Leary worked with two Ho-Chunk student fieldworkers, Michelle Greendeer and Randy Tallmadge, to interview and photograph eight traditional Ho-Chunk master traditional artists in 1994. They documented black ash splint basketmaking, beadwork, drum-making, fingerwoven sashmaking, moccasin and regalia-making, ribbonwork, quillwork, and contemporary work in oil painting and sculpture. Overseen by Ho-Chunk elder Kenneth Funmaker Sr., then Director of the Hocak Wazijaci Language and Culture Preservation Committee, the project culminated in a photo-text exhibit, a two-day art show, and a booklet featuring the traditional artists.

Language: The records are in English.

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-csumc-csumc0007cg
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Collection Concordance by Format
Quantity Physical Description Location
Manuscript Materials
8 folders Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division
15 folders James P. Leary
Sound Recordings
8 90-minute audiocassettes Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division
Graphic Materials
96 35 mm color slides Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division
91 black-and-white negatives Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division
15 color negatives Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division
5 black-and-white contact sheet sets Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division
approximately 40 mounted color and black-and-white photographs Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division

Biography/History
Staff/Fieldworkers

The Hocak Wazijaci Artistic Traditions project grew from collaborations between Ho-Chunk elder Kenneth Funmaker Sr., then Director of the Hocak Wazijaci Language and Culture Preservation Committee, and folklorist James P. Leary, who had worked together on a number of previous initiatives. Leary acted as project director through the Wisconsin Folk Museum, which served as the fiscal agent for the Hocak Wazijaci Language and Culture Preservation Committee. He and Ho-Chunk members Michelle Greendeer and Randy Tallmadge documented the artists. At the time Greendeer and Tallmadge were undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who had taken Folklore Program courses from Leary. Tallmadge earned an Anthropology degree and later worked for several years as the archivist for the Hocak Wazijaci Language Division. Greendeer went on to earn a law degree from UW-Madison and works for the Ho-Chunk Nation specializing in land claims.


Project History

In 1994, Kenneth Funmaker Sr., then directing the newly-formed Hocak Wazijaci Language and Culture Preservation Committee, initiated a project to document a number of elder Ho-Chunk (then still termed "Winnebago") traditional artists as the first step in documenting, preserving, and presenting the artistic traditions of Ho-Chunk people. Folklorist James P. Leary, then at the Wisconsin Folk Museum, helped secure funding through the museum from the Folk Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fund for Folk Culture's Community Folklife Program. Lila Greengrass Blackdeer (maker of regalia, pah-keh beadwork, and black ash splint baskets), drummaker Victor Browneagle, black ash splint basketmaker Ruth Cloud, fancy dressmaker Suzette LaMere Daugherty, beadworker Polly O'Brien, fingerwoven sashmaker Willa Red Cloud, sculptor and painter Harry Whitehorse, and quillworker Mike Winneshiek were identified as exemplary Ho-Chunk traditional artists and craftspeople. Leary supervised University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduates and Ho-Chunks Michelle Greendeer and Randy Tallmadge as they documented the masters and generated materials for a photo-text exhibit and booklet.

Leary, Greendeer, and Tallmadge, assisted by folklorist Janet C. Gilmore, produced a traveling photo-text exhibit based on the lives and work of the documented traditional artists. It debuted at a two-day "Hocak Wazijaci Art Show," September 24-25, 1994, held in conjunction with the General Council meeting of Wisconsin's Ho-Chunk Nation in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. The artists displayed their work and judged works submitted by others at the show. A booklet profiling the artists, based on the exhibit text and images, was published afterwards. The photo-text exhibit components and original documentation are lodged in the Language Division archives in Mauston, Wisconsin. Leary retains copies of some fieldwork and exhibit documentation as well as grant and financial records.


Scope and Content Note

Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division holds the original documentation, including sound recordings, interview transcriptions, image logs, 35 mm color slides, black-and-white photographs, negatives, and mounted photos from the traveling exhibit. Documentation on drummaker Victor Browneagle is viewable by permission to members of the Ho-Chunk Nation only.

Jim Leary's personal collection of manuscript materials includes a file for each artist documented (7 altogether), and 8 project files that contain grant proposals, correspondence, reports and financial information, as well as documentation of the fieldwork and exhibit production stages, and exhibit text that features the lives and work of the traditional artists involved in the project. Each artist file contains the tape index of the interview and correspondence concerning the art show; some include rough drafts of quotes and exhibit text. The Lila Greengrass Blackdeer folder also possesses material concerning her nomination and receipt of a National Heritage Fellowship in 1999.

This project took place during a transition in the Ho-Chunk Nation's official name. Earlier records of the project often bear the former name "Winnebago" instead of "Ho-Chunk" or "Hocak," in Hocak orthography.

Related Materials

"Wisconsin Folk Museum Records" (Call No. M98-044) Artist File on Ruth Cloud, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives Division, Madison, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Folk Museum Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society Museum Division, four woven baskets made by Ruth Cloud.

Janet C. Gilmore and Richard March, "Woodland Ways: Folk Arts Apprenticeships among Wisconsin Indians, 1983-1993," unpublished manuscript, Wisconsin Arts Board and the Wisconsin Folk Museum, 1994, revised 2005.

Woodland Indian Project Collections, in-house and traveling exhibits, and artist demonstrations at the Wisconsin Folk Museum, Mount Horeb, 1995.

Gilmore, Janet C., and March, Richard. Woodland Ways: Folk Arts Apprenticeships among Wisconsin Indians, 1983-1993. Madison: Wisconsin Arts Board and the Wisconsin Folk Museum, 1994, revised 2005. Viewable online at: http://artsboard.wisconsin.gov/docview.asp?docid=20357&locid=171

Govenar, Alan. Masters of the Traditional Arts: A Biographical Dictionary. Dallas: Documentary Arts, Inc, 2002. [Lila Greengrass Blackdeer]

——————. Masters of Traditional Arts: DVD-Rom. Dallas: Documentary Arts, Inc, 2002.

Productions

Greendeer, Michelle, Leary, James P., and Tallmadge, Randy. Hocak Wazijaci Artistic Traditions. Mauston, 1995: Hocak Wazijaci Language and Culture Preservation Committee.

Hocak Wazijaci Language and Culture Preservation Committee, "Hocak Wazijaci Artistic Traditions" traveling exhibit, 1994, produced with assistance from James P. Leary, Michelle Greendeer, Randy Tallmadge, Gerry Glaeve, and Janet C. Gilmore through the Wisconsin Folk Museum, Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.

Key Subjects
Groups (Ethnic, National, Cultural, Religious, etc.)

  • Woodland Indians
  • Ho-Chunk (Nation)
  • Traditional Artists
Languages

  • English language
  • Hocak language
Locations

  • Baraboo (Wis.)
  • Camp Douglas (Wis.)
  • Dane County (Wis.)
  • Dells Dam (Wis.)
  • Jackson County (Wis.)
  • Juneau County (Wis.)
  • Monona (Wis.)
  • Monroe County (Wis.)
  • Sauk County (Wis.)
  • Tomah (Wis.)
  • Wisconsin
  • Wisconsin Dells (Wis.)
  • Wisconsin Rapids (Wis.)
Organizations

  • Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division (Mauston, Wis.)
  • Hocak Wazijaci Language Division (Mauston, Wis.)
  • Hocak Wazijaci Language and Culture Preservation Committee (Mauston, Wis.)
  • Wisconsin Winnebago Language and Culture Preservation Committee (Mauston, Wis.)
Subjects

  • Basket making
  • Beadwork
  • Black ash splint basketry
  • Bow and arrow making
  • Sewing
  • Fancy work
  • Oil paintings
  • Fingerwoven beadwork (or pahx-keh)
  • Fingerwoven yarn sashes
  • Moccasins
  • Paax ge
  • Pah-keh
  • Pahx-keh
  • Sculpture
  • Quillwork
  • Wood-carving
Traditional Practitioners

  • Blackdeer, Lila Greengrass
  • Browneagle, Victor
  • Cloud, Ruth
  • Daugherty, Suzette LaMere
  • O'Brien, Polly
  • Red Cloud, Willa
  • Whitehorse, Harry
  • Winneshiek, Mike
Provenance

This documentation was created with the intent that it would be housed and made publicly accessible in the archives of the Hocak Wazijaci Language and Culture Preservation Committee, now called the Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division, in Mauston, Wis.

Access

Documentation on drummaker Victor Browneagle is viewable by permission to members of the Ho-Chunk Nation only. Consult the records custodians for specific information on access to other materials.

Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division
P.O. Box 390, Hwy 58
Mauston, Wisconsin 53948
Phone: (608) 847-5694
Web site: http://hcnlanguage.com/
Prof. James P. Leary
209 S 4th St.
Mount Horeb, Wisconsin 53572
Phone: (608) 437-4816
Email: jpleary@wisc.edu
Use

Consult the Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division for information on appropriate use of the documents housed there. Review of the materials held by James P. Leary for non-profit personal, educational, and research purposes may be arranged, but prospective use of his materials for public presentation, publication, and production requires permission from the Language Division.

Preferred Citation

Consult the Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division for citation guidelines. We suggest the following citation form when using direct quotes from a person documented: [Name of person documented]. [Date]. [Tape/video/other]-recorded interview by [Fieldworker name]. [Place interviewed]. [Name of collection/project]. [Repository, city, state]. When using a specific image: [Identify subject matter/people in caption]. Photo/image by [Photographer/fieldworker name]. [Date]. Courtesy of [repository]. To quote fieldworker, follow bibliographical style.

Collection Inventory and Description
Series: I: MANUSCRIPT MATERIALS. Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division. Winnebago Project Files.
Tape logs
Folder   1
Blackdeer, Lila Greengrass
Folder   2
Browneagle, Victor (Restricted)
Folder   3
Cloud, Ruth
Folder   4
Daugherty, Suzette LaMere
Folder   5
O'Brien, Polly
Folder   6
Red Cloud, Willa
Folder   7
Whitehorse, Harry
Folder   8
Winneshiek, Mike
Series: II: MANUSCRIPT MATERIALS. James P. Leary Research Collection. Hocak Project Files.
⇧
Folder   1
WFM: Winnebago Project: NEA Award Letter and Forms
Scope and Content Note: Grant-related documents including the application, the award letter, progress reports, financial reports, and correspondence with Hocak Wazijaci Language and Culture Preservation Committee.
Folder   2
Winnebago: NEA and FFC
Scope and Content Note: Copies of grant materials for each granting agency and newspaper articles regarding the Ho-Chunk Nation
Folder   3
Expenditures/Budget
Scope and Content Note: Financial reports, budget summaries, and invoices
Folder   4
Exhibit Plans
Scope and Content Note: Sketches and notes on the exhibit including the slides and photographs used
Folder   5
Exhibit signs
Scope and Content Note: Hocak Wazijaci Artistic Traditions booklet and final copies of quotes and exhibit text.
Folder   6
Photo Text Exhibit and Art Tour
Scope and Content Note: Exhibit planning materials including correspondence with Michelle Greendeer (field researcher), the Hocak alphabet, art show awards, rough drafts of exhibit text and captions, sketches of exhibit layout, and flyers advertising the art show
Folder   7
Photo Indexes
Scope and Content Note: Indexes of photographs taken by Jim Leary and Randy Tallmadge of painting and sculpture by Harry Whitehorse; regalia by Lila Blackdeer; fingerwoven sashes by Willa Red Cloud; the photo-text exhibit and Hocak Wazijaci Art Show; bead painting by Polly O'Brien; appliqué and clothing by Suzette LaMere Dauherty; Janet Saiz and sisters, "Imagining Indians" at Scottsdale, Arizona, and a day at Noah's Ark; and quillwork by Mike Winneshiek. Most of the photo indexes include a photocopy of the contact sheet.
Folder   8
Slide Indexes
Scope and Content Note: Slide indexes of slides taken of painting and sculpture by Harry Whitehorse; regalia by Lila Blackdeer; fingerwoven sashes by Willa Red Cloud; and the Hocak Wazijaci Art Show
Folder   9
Lila Greengrass Blackdeer
Folder   10
Ruth Cloud
Folder   11
Suzette Daugherty
Folder   12
Polly O'Brien
Folder   13
Willa Red Cloud
Folder   14
Harry Whitehorse
Folder   15
Mike Winneshiek
Series: III: SOUND RECORDINGS. Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division. Winnebago Project Files.
⇧
Folder   1
Blackdeer, Lila Greengrass, 1994 June 2
Folder   2
Victor, Browneagle, 1994 April 3
Access Restrictions: Documentation on drummaker Victor Browneagle is viewable by permission to members of the Ho-Chunk Nation only.
Folder   3
Cloud, Ruth, 1994 May 23
Folder   4
Daugherty, Suzette LaMere, 1994 June 22
Folder   5
O'Brien, Polly, 1994 June 26
Folder   6
Red Cloud, Willa, 1994 June 2
Folder   7
Whitehorse, Harry, 1994 May 24
Folder   8
Winneshiek, Mike, 1994 June 22
Series: IV: GRAPHIC MATERIALS. Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division. Winnebago Project Files.
⇧
Images
Physical Description: 96 35 mm color slides 
Photo Text Exhibit
Introductory Panel
9x12 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Blackdeer's moccasins and hair ornament
9x12 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Blackdeer's moccasins and hair ornament
Crafts and Culture panel
10x8 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Woman tanning hides
6.5x8 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Red Cloud's sash, lightning design
7x10 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Blackdeer holds old button
Tourism and Transition panel
7.5x9.5 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Greengrass family basket
10x8 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Susie Redhorn
8x11 Dells postcard
Scope and Content Note: 1929 Stand Rock performers in regalia
7x9 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Lonetree Family
Portraits to Powwows panel
6.5x8 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Lake Delton powwow
8x10 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Dan Goodvillage, wife and granddaughter
10.5x13.5 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Lonetree Family
Ruth Cloud panel
8x11 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Sewing basket
8x11 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Ruth Cloud
11x8 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Kettle basket
Lila Blackdeer panel
7x10 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Reverse appliqué with buttons
6.5x8 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Moccasins
9x12 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Blackdeer at table with work
6.5x9.5 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Blackdeer at table with dress
Willa Red Cloud panel
7x9.5 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Red Cloud head
7x10.5 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Red Cloud standing and weaving
7x9 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Red Cloud weaving
7x12 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Red Cloud sashes on pole
Mike Winneshiek panel
7x10 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Mike Winneshiek quill materials
8x11 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Flag pendant quilled dance stick
8x11 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Mike's quilled cuff
10x8 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Winneshiek in regalia
Harry Whitehorse panel
5.5x7 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Clan pole
7x10 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Harry with warrior sculpture
7x9.5 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Harry with bird sculpture
7.5x9.5 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Painted sculpture of a warrior
Polly O'Brien panel
6x8 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Polly with lake behind her
8x11.5 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Beaded eagle head medallion
8x11 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Polly's hands doing beadwork
8x12 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Bear clan medallion necklace
Suzette Daugherty panel
6.5x10 black-and-white photograph
Scope and Content Note: Suzette LaMere and Jan Saiz
8x10 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Appliqué on serger
8x12 color photograph
Scope and Content Note: Suzette showing appliqué
Closing panel