Amy Lonetree

Imaging Native Survivance: A Visual History of the Ho-Chunk Nation, 1879–1960

Amy Lonetree’s manuscript explores the intersections of photographic images, family history, tourism, and Ho-Chunk survivance through an examination of two extraordinary photographic collections housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society. In 2008, Lonetree resumed research on the Charles Van Schaick collection, which includes close to 1,000 photographs of Ho-Chunk people taken between 1879 and 1936. She is also studying the H. H. Bennett Collection, which is comprised of hundreds of images of tribal members taken between 1865 and 1960 along with film reels of the Stand Rock Indian Ceremonial from the 1920s through the 1960s. Both collections comprise an amazing visual legacy for Ho-Chunk people and are rich historical resources documenting a long-neglected period in Native American history. Lonetree’s work seeks to place these photographs in historical and cultural context. In addition, she will conduct oral history interviews with Ho-Chunk community members to develop a tribal history of the Ho-Chunk Nation from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century.