Here is a picture of the Ho-Chunk Nation Tribal "Headquarters" as my grandfather used to say. Most people call it the "Complex" but he was a military man. I dropped off my study of the Roles and Cultural Practices of Contemporary Ho-Chunk Women at the office of one of the members of the Internal Review Board for the Ho-Chunk Nation. Sixty-nine pages of information from research done from 2011-2012. It was a good feeling, though it was done with some trepidation. I would like to have the approval of the IRB as this would mean that the content cuts cultural mustard. We shall see.
As I wrote this behemoth it occurred to me that no one has recorded any information about Ho-Chunk women since Paul Radin (1923). He was a man who obtained his information from other men (usually Ho-Chunk or who spoke Ho-Chunk) who reported their own observations or interpretations about the women. I am blazing, perhaps that is too strong...how about embarking? I am embarking on new territory and my research was sorely needed. My research came from the women themselves via interviews and questionnaires, though I would say that the interviews were more revealing. For me, my research reflected their voice first and then I synthesized their voice into themes. The analysis was very revealing as well.
The upshot was this: The Ho-Chunk women I interviewed would do anything to protect their families, their ways and cultural traditions. The women were from their 20s' to 90s', from all educational levels (normal school to Ph.D.), some spoke Ho-Chunk while others did not, all engaged in some form of cultural practices, some lived on ancestral lands and others did not, they were married, widowed and single and of the twelve women used in this study, four of the twelve heard of GOM. These women viewed family, language and traditions are their primary concerns and worth every effort to protect, defend and sustain them. Some of the women in the study SACRIFICED all they had to care for families, immediate and extended.
There were several themes in the study and while I will not go into all of them, one intriguing theme was that there were several women who would not speak ill of their male relatives. Let me explain. While their men struggled with finding a job, alcohol or drugs, many of the women would not pass judgement or assign blame to the men. Instead these women felt that our extreme history was at the root of most if not all of their problems. Aculturation, cultural appropriation, assimilation, or genocide, call it what you will, but these atrocities are at the root of many a cultural and /or personal identity crises across the Indian nations.
One last theme that surfaced was that today's Ho-Chunk women do not know how to treat a man. This actually startled me! This view was held by several women between the ages of 93 - 62. Nor did they feel that today's Ho-Chunk women knew how to be Ho-Chunk women. Very interesting! There are certain cultural and clan teachings that guide the interaction between men and women and also that guide each gender. Many of these women felt assimilation was at the root of this problem as well.
Much insight was gained.
What does this have to do with GOM? The roles and cultural practices of contemporary Ho-Chunk women helped me to understand why GOM would marry outside of her tribe. She did it to protect her people and her ways. Marrying outside of the tribe was not uncommon in her day. The Menominee, the Anishinabe, the Huron, the Pottowatami, the Ottawa, and the Sauk and Fox, also inter-married with the French. As their landscape was changing, with the fur trade and new people encroaching on their lands, it was evident to see that change was coming, and at times this change at least initially was seen as a benefit for the tribes. Now, as for her role as chief, well the research plods on.
