The Last of the Ho-Chunk
August 21, 2018 9:09 PM Subscribe
She arrived in Iowa in 1917, aged 47, newly married, and pregnant. For the next 51 years, Emma Big Bear, lived a traditional indigenous lifestyle on the banks of the Mississippi.
The daughter of Chief Big Bear, and granddaughter of Chief Waukon Decorah, Emma was born in Southwest Wisconsin in 1869. Not much is known about her early life. It is assumed she spent her childhood in or near Fort Atkinson, moving as the US Government forcibly relocated the Ho-Chunk people several times during the late 1800s.
What is known, is that when Emma arrived in Northeast Iowa in 1917, she made her mark on the community, living the rest of her life on and near the land that would become Effigy Mounds National Monument. There she would fish, gather food, hunt ginseng, raise her daughter and make traditional Ho-Chunk baskets from the native black ash tree.
Later in life, after the tragic deaths of her husband and daughter, Emma moved into the town of Marquette, living in a wickiup she built on the banks of the Mississippi. In the summers, she would set out her baskets and beadwork on the sidewalk, selling them to tourists and locals. If you wanted her picture, she would sell that too for a quarter.
She lived in a wickiup well into her 80s, only moving into a small house and, eventually, a nursing home when her health started to fail.
She is now recognized as a master of Ho-Chunk basket-making and her works are prized by collectors for their craftsmanship and artistry. The Emma Big Bear Foundation actively works to preserve her legacy. A statue of Emma sits on St. Feriole Island, near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Emma Big Bear Day is celebrated every summer in Marquette, Iowa.
Emma Big Bear died 50 years ago today. She was the last known full-blooded Native American to live a free, traditional life in the state of Iowa.
The daughter of Chief Big Bear, and granddaughter of Chief Waukon Decorah, Emma was born in Southwest Wisconsin in 1869. Not much is known about her early life. It is assumed she spent her childhood in or near Fort Atkinson, moving as the US Government forcibly relocated the Ho-Chunk people several times during the late 1800s.
What is known, is that when Emma arrived in Northeast Iowa in 1917, she made her mark on the community, living the rest of her life on and near the land that would become Effigy Mounds National Monument. There she would fish, gather food, hunt ginseng, raise her daughter and make traditional Ho-Chunk baskets from the native black ash tree.
Later in life, after the tragic deaths of her husband and daughter, Emma moved into the town of Marquette, living in a wickiup she built on the banks of the Mississippi. In the summers, she would set out her baskets and beadwork on the sidewalk, selling them to tourists and locals. If you wanted her picture, she would sell that too for a quarter.
She lived in a wickiup well into her 80s, only moving into a small house and, eventually, a nursing home when her health started to fail.
She is now recognized as a master of Ho-Chunk basket-making and her works are prized by collectors for their craftsmanship and artistry. The Emma Big Bear Foundation actively works to preserve her legacy. A statue of Emma sits on St. Feriole Island, near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Emma Big Bear Day is celebrated every summer in Marquette, Iowa.
Emma Big Bear died 50 years ago today. She was the last known full-blooded Native American to live a free, traditional life in the state of Iowa.
I haven’t read everything yet, but those baskets are beautiful!
And LarryC, the post doesn’t say she was the last of her tribe, but rather that she was specifically the last to live a free, traditional life, in the state of Iowa.
posted by MexicanYenta at 2:31 AM on August 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
And LarryC, the post doesn’t say she was the last of her tribe, but rather that she was specifically the last to live a free, traditional life, in the state of Iowa.
posted by MexicanYenta at 2:31 AM on August 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
Great post. Thank you.
posted by spitbull at 5:12 AM on August 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by spitbull at 5:12 AM on August 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
And LarryC, the post doesn’t say she was the last of her tribe, but rather that she was specifically the last to live a free, traditional life, in the state of Iowa.
That doesn't make it better! It 100% suggests that the only 'real' Ho-Chunk lived in a traditional manner, and that modern Ho-Chunk are somehow lacking something. That construction comes direct from genocidal approaches to thinking of native people in America, as does the focus on her being 'full-blooded'.
It's a long walk to use that construction in a way that isn't bad. One fun thing is to flip it, and imagine describing the last white person to live in a sod house as 'The Last of the Settlers'. You'd seem silly, right? Settlers didn't go anywhere, they just started living differently.
This is just for context, it's a good post on an interesting person, but it's a bad phrase to ever use in conjunction with native people. Lotsa bad history with that.
posted by neonrev at 5:33 AM on August 22, 2018 [24 favorites]
That doesn't make it better! It 100% suggests that the only 'real' Ho-Chunk lived in a traditional manner, and that modern Ho-Chunk are somehow lacking something. That construction comes direct from genocidal approaches to thinking of native people in America, as does the focus on her being 'full-blooded'.
It's a long walk to use that construction in a way that isn't bad. One fun thing is to flip it, and imagine describing the last white person to live in a sod house as 'The Last of the Settlers'. You'd seem silly, right? Settlers didn't go anywhere, they just started living differently.
This is just for context, it's a good post on an interesting person, but it's a bad phrase to ever use in conjunction with native people. Lotsa bad history with that.
posted by neonrev at 5:33 AM on August 22, 2018 [24 favorites]
It’s a fair criticism. I struggled to come up with a good title and I missed the mark.
As a sidenote, the Ho-Chunk/Winnebago people are indigenous to SW Wisconsin not NE Iowa, so Emma’s life in Iowa was still a displacement.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 7:45 AM on August 22, 2018 [7 favorites]
As a sidenote, the Ho-Chunk/Winnebago people are indigenous to SW Wisconsin not NE Iowa, so Emma’s life in Iowa was still a displacement.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 7:45 AM on August 22, 2018 [7 favorites]
Great post, looking forward to digging in!
posted by Capricorn13 at 11:10 AM on August 22, 2018
posted by Capricorn13 at 11:10 AM on August 22, 2018
I also find it problematic given that the Meskwaki Nation in Iowa are the descendants of a group that, when forcibly relocated from Iowa, came right back, settled down, and purchased land so that it could not be taken from them. The Meskwaki people are well able to speak for themselves, but the idea that there is one way to be a “free, traditional” Indian and that way died in Iowa with Emma Big Bear strikes me as incorrect.
posted by epj at 8:08 PM on August 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by epj at 8:08 PM on August 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Just to be clear, nothing personal, it's a term of phrase that has become deeply embedded in our culture in a way that is passingly and plausibly positive on its face, which is why I felt like pointing all that out. It's still a good post to have made, and hopefully someone better at talking can get into the many interesting ways western and colonial culture describe and classify the entire history of native experience in the americas.
posted by neonrev at 10:23 PM on August 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by neonrev at 10:23 PM on August 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by LarryC at 12:58 AM on August 22, 2018 [12 favorites]