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
has the balance 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.