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Dancing for Our Tribe
Potawatomi Tradition in the New Millennium
Published by: Shikaakwa Press
Imprint: Shikaakwa Press
304 Pages | 10 x 13 | 272 color and 32 b&w illus., 2 maps
$80.00
In the heyday of the Anishinaabe Confederacy, the Potawatomis spread across Canada, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Pressured by the westward expansion of the fledgling United States of America, they became the most treatied of any Indian tribe. Forced removals and multiple treaty-era relocations resulted in cultural chaos and an enduring threat to their connections to the ancestors. Despite these hardships, they have managed to maintain (or restore) their rich heritage.
Beginning with Citizen Potawatomi Nation, photographer and Citizen Potawatomi Sharon Hoogstraten visited all nine nations of the scattered Potawatomi tribe to construct a permanent record of present-day Potawatomis wearing the traditional regalia passed down through the generations, modified to reflect the influence and storytelling of contemporary life. While the silver monochrome portraits that captured Native life at the turn of the twentieth century are a priceless record of those times, they contribute to the impression that most Indian tribes exist only as obscure remnants of a dimly remembered past. With more than 150 formal portraits and illuminating handwritten statements, Dancing for Our Tribe portrays the fresh reality of today’s Native descendants and their regalia: people who live in a world of assimilation, sewing machines, polyester fabrics, duct tape, tattoos, favorite sports teams, proud military service, and high-resolution digital cameras.
The Potawatomi nations have merged loss and optimism to reinforce their legacy for generations to come. We learn from the elders the old arts of language, ribbonwork, beading, and quillwork with renewed urgency. Preserving Potawatomi culture, tribal members are translating traditional designs into their own artistic celebration of continuing existence, lighting the path forward for the next seven generations. Dancing for Our Tribe illustrates vividly that in this new millennium, “We Are Still Here.”
Beginning with Citizen Potawatomi Nation, photographer and Citizen Potawatomi Sharon Hoogstraten visited all nine nations of the scattered Potawatomi tribe to construct a permanent record of present-day Potawatomis wearing the traditional regalia passed down through the generations, modified to reflect the influence and storytelling of contemporary life. While the silver monochrome portraits that captured Native life at the turn of the twentieth century are a priceless record of those times, they contribute to the impression that most Indian tribes exist only as obscure remnants of a dimly remembered past. With more than 150 formal portraits and illuminating handwritten statements, Dancing for Our Tribe portrays the fresh reality of today’s Native descendants and their regalia: people who live in a world of assimilation, sewing machines, polyester fabrics, duct tape, tattoos, favorite sports teams, proud military service, and high-resolution digital cameras.
The Potawatomi nations have merged loss and optimism to reinforce their legacy for generations to come. We learn from the elders the old arts of language, ribbonwork, beading, and quillwork with renewed urgency. Preserving Potawatomi culture, tribal members are translating traditional designs into their own artistic celebration of continuing existence, lighting the path forward for the next seven generations. Dancing for Our Tribe illustrates vividly that in this new millennium, “We Are Still Here.”
Photographer Sharon Hoogstraten spent a decade portraying contemporary Potawatomis in regalia and as an unexpected dividend, discovered her own roots. A Michigan native, she traveled to Chicago for graduate study and then stayed having no clue that she was literally walking in the footsteps of her Potawatomi ancestors. Beginning with Citizen Potawatomi Nation, her home reservation in Shawnee, Oklahoma, she called on all nine nations of the scattered Potawatomi Tribe—traveling to Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario, and Kansas and producing photographic proof that in this new millennium “WE ARE STILL HERE.”
Hoogstraten previously published Green City Market: A Song of Thanks, a pictorial retrospective of the groundbreaking farmers market that boosted Chicago’s culinary reputation as a nationally acclaimed food destination. Sharon resides in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. With her husband, Robert Gray, they raised two fine young men and rescued a 1908 landmark house along the historic boulevards known as Chicago’s Emerald Necklace.
Hoogstraten previously published Green City Market: A Song of Thanks, a pictorial retrospective of the groundbreaking farmers market that boosted Chicago’s culinary reputation as a nationally acclaimed food destination. Sharon resides in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. With her husband, Robert Gray, they raised two fine young men and rescued a 1908 landmark house along the historic boulevards known as Chicago’s Emerald Necklace.
"A simply magnificent coffee-table style volume Dancing for Our Tribe: Potawatomi Tradition in the New Millennium features full page, full color photography of men and women in full and authentic regalia enhancing an impressively informed and informative commentary. A monumental and seminal work of meticulous scholarship, no personal, professional, college or university library Native American Studies collection can be considered comprehensive or complete without a copy of Dancing for Our Tribe: Potawatomi Tradition in the New Millennium on their shelves.”—Midwest Book Review
“Over the past decade, Citizen Potawatomi Nation member Sharon Hoogstraten took portraits of Potawatomi people and their relations in their regalia in Oklahoma, Kansas, and around the Great Lakes. Additionally, she collected statements from her subjects. In Dancing for Our Tribe, Hoogstraten offers a print exhibition of those portraits and statements. She has put together a vivid collection.”—Great Plains Quarterly
“This is much more than a coffee-table book. While the author eschews the label of artist and prefers storyteller, she is both and more. The powwow regalia beautifully reflect the artistry of the Potawatomi peoples across North America. Her photography is also beautiful, delightful, comforting, and moving. She shares her expertise in photography, which is her profession, and also shares her own ability to listen, inquire, and collect. These skills let her assemble material culture into a work that is about so much more than just regalia, powwows, tradition, innovation, expertise, and experience. It is a remarkable book that allows the reader to gain understanding about individual Potawatomi across North America. We learn who they are; why and how they do what they do; what being Potawatomi and Indigenous means to them; their connections to tradition, family, and mentors, while also expressing their creativity.”—Indiana Magazine of History
2023 -
Eric Hoffer Book Award, Grand Prize, finalist -
Short-listed
2023 -
Next Generation INDIE Book Awards, Coffee Table Book/Photography -
Short-listed
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