Sunday, December 26, 2010

Glory of the Morning: The search continues

Glory of the Morning: The search continues: "As with any good research I started my lit review on google > wikipedia. This led to me several good sources all with the same orig..."

The search continues

As with any good research I started my lit review on google > wikipedia.  This led to me several good sources all with the same origin, Wisconsin Historical Society (1917).  I found one interesting magazine article about Glory of the Morning, which states she was most certainly a leader among her people and a Chieftess.  She was the leader of the Doty Island village which is present day Neenah, Wisconsin.  Other articles refer to her as a leader, a queen with attendants and further as the only woman allowed in a council, which was convened to discuss important tribal matters.

The search continues and the reading is never dull.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Glory of the Morning: lit review

Glory of the Morning: lit review: "So my advisor would like me to do a lit review for the upcoming semester. I have already done it. Or so I thought. After I..."

lit review

So my advisor would like me to do a lit review for the upcoming semester.  I have already done it.  Or so I thought.  After I completed my mylesley library modules it turns out that there are a lot of search engines out there and I need to do a more thorough review.  So, I started with the holdings at Lesley and ordered one more book from Amazon.  There are NOT a lot of resources out there on Glory of the Morning.  There are resources out there for Winnebago Indians but not Ho Chunk Indian or Native Americans.  See the Ho Chunk changed their name to their original name for themselves, not some name given them by another tribe, people or entity.  Therefore, this is good and not so good.  Good, in that it frees us from labels or other biases place on us by others who don't understand who we are.  Not so good because there is less out there on the Ho Chunk people as opposed to Winnebagos.  At any rate I did a lit review on the Web using google as my search engine.  I like google.  Yet there are others out there and I need to continue to get through the academic web sites and hope I turn up a few more resources.  Most of my resources are in the Wisconsin Historical Archives.  It looks like I will be traveling to Madison, Wisconsin this summer.

One interesting find is that the books that I ordered about Winnebago Indians or Wisconsin Indians has a picture of my grandfather's mother on it.  She is holding my grandfather.  That was very surprising.  In fact two books that I ordered about Wisconsin Indians has her and his picture on the cover.  Just another step closer to discovering who Glory of the Morning was and is.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Glory of the Morning starts today

Today I embark on a journey that has been years in the planning.  I am amazed that my 50 year journey has brought me to this point.  I am the descendant of Glory of the Morning.  A daughter of a principal chief of the Ho Chunk Nation during the late 1600's, who married a French voyageur and together they had two sons and a daughter.  How many times have I heard my grandfather or Choka say these very words?  Too many to count.  He recounted the same story over and over again.  I wish I had paid more attention.

At first I wanted to write a historical fiction book about her, but as with all of my writings I needed to do some research.  As I started to gather my information that I have collected over the years, it became apparent to me that if I could conduct this research and get credit for it, that would be awesome.  I have never been conventional.  One of my degrees was self designed- Physiology at UMD.  So it was not surprising to me that I am now a graduate student at Lesley University in their self design master of arts program and will begin my studies in Native American Women's Historical Writing.

Glory of the Morning: Ho Chunk woman or Chieftess?  Quite a beginning.

In this blog I will relate my findings and feelings surrounding my study of Glory of the Morning.  I would welcome feedback of any kind, preferably nice feedback.  Or rather, I hate to say it, but here it goes, constructive feedback.  GAK!

Some of my early discoveries thus far are pluralism.  I am a member of the Ho Chunk Nation, a registered nurse, a mother, and a Christian yearning to learn more about my heritage through a master's degree program at a private university.  Striking really.  Through this study of Glory of the Morning, I am learning that not all published research is entirely accurate regarding Ho Chunk history, let alone the events surrounding Glory of the Morning and her French voyageur.  When I broached this subject with George Garvin, a respected Ho Chunk historian, he said that everyone is entitled to their opinion.  Very gracious.  He taught me that recorded history can be seen in various lights and though they may differ, differences (or points of contention) can be explained.  Wow!

Glory of the Morning was not a conventional Ho Chunk woman either.  Obviously this runs deep in my family.  She married outside of her tribe and continued to guide, stand with, intervene in behalf of, and associate with her people.  I am very fortunate to have this time to study her contribution to Ho Chunk history.