History of Survivance: Upper Midwest 19th-Century Native American Narratives

New Art Forms

Indian War Dance at White Earth, Minn. June 14 '10

Reproduce only with permission of Northwest Minnesota Historical Center.

Indian War Dance Celebration at White Earth on June 14, 1910. White Earth is located within the White Earth Indian Reservation (Gaa-waabaabiganikaag) and is home to the White Earth Nation, also known as the Anishinaabe.

Northwest Minnesota Historical Center, 1104 7th Avenue South, Moorhead, MN 56563; http://www.mnstate.edu/archives/NorthwestMN/Home.htm

http://reflections.mndigital.org/cdm/ref/collection/mhd/id/148

http://54.245.164.12:3000/mdl/items/mhd4852-624.jpg

The current thriving state of culture in Native Minnesota owes a tremendous amount to the dedication of the Native ancestors and elders who struggled to keep it alive during the 19th century. The 20th century saw further challenges to Native lifeways, yet Indian people have always managed to make the best of a bad situation. The role of pow wows in this cannot be underestimated – its insistence on a flamboyantly manifest Native presence has resulted in the arts as a principal bearer of indigenous survivance.  Projects of reclamation of indigenous languages like the <a title="Ojibwe People's Dictionary" href="http://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu" target="_blank">Ojibwe People’s Dictionary</a>, the fight for recognition of Native sacred sites like the one at Coldwater Spring, and the agitation for basic human rights for Native Americans continues.

Survivance

Ancient Legacies

Colonization

Colonial Narratives

Conflict

Reservation Era

The maintenance of endangered traditions requires the constant care and devotion of their practitioners. This first photograph of a group of men dancing at White Earth in 1910 shows them Trooping the Colors of the American flag directly next to the traditional eagle staff at the opening ceremony. Contemporary pow wows open the same way, generally with veterans of the Viet Nam, Iraq or Afghanistan Wars holding the flag and staff.
This new tradition to help Native people cope with colonialism’s depredations spread extremely quickly – the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society, for example, has one of the earliest extant Jingle Dresses. The piece was collected in 1905 – among the Dakota at Upper Sioux. The dress quickly began to morph from a shirt and skirt combination with a simple line of tin cone jingles on each garment to more elaborate styles like the caped dress in this photograph taken at Mille Lacs in the 1930s.

Ojibwe family visited by Sister Laura Hesch, Order of St. Benedict at Mille Lacs Indian Reservation, Minnesota

The first concern for Sister Laura Hesch when she began her mission on the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) was to get acquainted with the Ojibwe. She made her way to families and visited them in their homes on the reservation. The Ojibwe developed a faithful friendship with and a trust in Sister Laura--so much so that they requested she be buried on the reservation when she died.

Saint Benedict's Monastery, 104 Chapel Lane, St. Joseph, MN 56374-0220; http://www.sbm.osb.org

http://reflections.mndigital.org/cdm/ref/collection/stbm/id/454

http://54.245.164.12:3000/mdl/items/sbm23b01.tif

History of Survivance: Upper Midwest 19th-Century Native American Narratives

New Traditions

New Traditions