My presentation examines 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: the Charles Van Schaick Collection and the Henry Hamilton (H.H.) Bennett Collection. Both collections include visual materials that document, represent, and convey a deep history of Ho-Chunk resilience and survival, along with the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism. My talk will address the importance of employing decolonizing methodological strategies when analyzing these sources, privileging the perspectives of the Indigenous people captured in the frame and the ongoing meaning that this visual archive has to our understanding of Ho-Chunk identity, issues of representation, modern labor, and survivance. I will also consider the diversity of Indigenous peoples’ affective responses to these historic images through an analysis of my own engagement with family images in the visual archive.

Funded by Annual Gifts from Dr. Joan Roche to the Regina Flannery Herzfeld Memorial Fund

To request disability accommodations, please contact Chasity Cooper (coopercha@cua.edu).