Buried Indians: Digging Up the Past in a Midwestern Town
by Laurie Hovell McMillin
University of Wisconsin Press, 2006 Cloth: 978-0-299-21680-1 | Paper: 978-0-299-21684-9 Library of Congress Classification E78.W8M4 2006 Dewey Decimal Classification 977.549
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
In Buried Indians, Laurie Hovell McMillin presents the struggle of her hometown, Trempealeau, Wisconsin, to determine whether platform mounds atop Trempealeau Mountain constitute authentic Indian mounds. This dispute, as McMillin subtly demonstrates, reveals much about the attitude and interaction-past and present-between the white and Indian inhabitants of this Midwestern town.
McMillin's account, rich in detail and sensitive to current political issues of American Indian interactions with the dominant European American culture, locates two opposing views: one that denies a Native American presence outright and one that asserts its long history and ruthless destruction. The highly reflective oral histories McMillin includes turn Buried Indians into an accessible, readable portrait of a uniquely American culture clash and a dramatic narrative grounded in people's genuine perceptions of what the platform mounds mean.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Laurie Hovell McMillin is associate professor of rhetoric, composition, and religion at Oberlin College, Ohio. She is the author of English in Tibet, Tibet in English: Self-Presentation in Tibet and the Diaspora.
REVIEWS
“A very interesting and well-written book about what happens in a small river community when its sense of identity is challenged by its ancient Indian past.”—Robert Birmingham, coauthor of Indian Mounds of Wisconsin
"Laurie McMillin's account of unrecognized racism in a small Wisconsin village is wonderful and insightful yet painful."—Chloris Lowe Jr., former president of the Ho-Chunk Nation
"In this evocative book-at once history, investigative journalism, and richly textured memoir—Laurie McMillin re-narrates the good stories good people tell themselves about the past and present of their homes."—Philip Deloria, author of Playing Indian
TABLE OF CONTENTS
<table of contents, p. ix>
Contents
Acknowledgments 000
Introduction 000
Part I. The Surface 000
1. Routes 000
2. The Lay of the Land 000
3. Farmers 000
4. History 000
5. Old Things 000
6. Mascots 000
7. Casino 000
8. Memorials 000
9. Church 000
10. The Project 000
11. How I Got Started 000
12. Playing Indian 000
13. Who Lived Here 000
Part II. What's under the Surface 000
1. Digging In 000
2. Connections 000
3. Double Cousins 000
4. The Past 000
5. Hunting 000
6. Squier's Mounds 000
7. Mississippian Culture and the Platform Mounds 000
8. Progress 000
9. Departures 000
10. Farmers Again 000
11. Mother 000
12. Horses 000
13. The Dead 000
14. Platform Controversy Beginnings 000
15. Storytelling 000
16. Trempealeau Mountain 000
17. Rendezvous 000
18. Arrowheads 000
19. Local Informant 000
20. A Thing of the Present 000
21. View 000
Part III. What's at Bottom 000
1. Scientific Method 000
2. Gale and Squier 000
3. Platform Controversy Again 000
4. Opening Day 000
5. Mascots Again 000
6. Genealogy 000
7. Names 000
8. Dead Indians 000
9. Natural History 000
10. Trempealeau Mountain Again 000
11. The Removals 000
12. What We Tell Ourselves 000
13. Epiphany 000
14. Excavation 000
15. No Fools 000
16. My Meeting with Harold 000
Part IV. Backfill 000
1. Putting It Back Together 000
2. Passing On 000
3. Education 000
4. Journeys 000
5. Powwow 000
6. More Mounds 000
7. More Views 000
8. Preservation 000
9. One More Time to Trempealeau Mountain 000
10. To the Platform Mounds 000
11. And Home Again 000
12. Finishing Up 000
Notes 000
Index 000
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Buried Indians: Digging Up the Past in a Midwestern Town
by Laurie Hovell McMillin
University of Wisconsin Press, 2006 Cloth: 978-0-299-21680-1 Paper: 978-0-299-21684-9
In Buried Indians, Laurie Hovell McMillin presents the struggle of her hometown, Trempealeau, Wisconsin, to determine whether platform mounds atop Trempealeau Mountain constitute authentic Indian mounds. This dispute, as McMillin subtly demonstrates, reveals much about the attitude and interaction-past and present-between the white and Indian inhabitants of this Midwestern town.
McMillin's account, rich in detail and sensitive to current political issues of American Indian interactions with the dominant European American culture, locates two opposing views: one that denies a Native American presence outright and one that asserts its long history and ruthless destruction. The highly reflective oral histories McMillin includes turn Buried Indians into an accessible, readable portrait of a uniquely American culture clash and a dramatic narrative grounded in people's genuine perceptions of what the platform mounds mean.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Laurie Hovell McMillin is associate professor of rhetoric, composition, and religion at Oberlin College, Ohio. She is the author of English in Tibet, Tibet in English: Self-Presentation in Tibet and the Diaspora.
REVIEWS
“A very interesting and well-written book about what happens in a small river community when its sense of identity is challenged by its ancient Indian past.”—Robert Birmingham, coauthor of Indian Mounds of Wisconsin
"Laurie McMillin's account of unrecognized racism in a small Wisconsin village is wonderful and insightful yet painful."—Chloris Lowe Jr., former president of the Ho-Chunk Nation
"In this evocative book-at once history, investigative journalism, and richly textured memoir—Laurie McMillin re-narrates the good stories good people tell themselves about the past and present of their homes."—Philip Deloria, author of Playing Indian
TABLE OF CONTENTS
<table of contents, p. ix>
Contents
Acknowledgments 000
Introduction 000
Part I. The Surface 000
1. Routes 000
2. The Lay of the Land 000
3. Farmers 000
4. History 000
5. Old Things 000
6. Mascots 000
7. Casino 000
8. Memorials 000
9. Church 000
10. The Project 000
11. How I Got Started 000
12. Playing Indian 000
13. Who Lived Here 000
Part II. What's under the Surface 000
1. Digging In 000
2. Connections 000
3. Double Cousins 000
4. The Past 000
5. Hunting 000
6. Squier's Mounds 000
7. Mississippian Culture and the Platform Mounds 000
8. Progress 000
9. Departures 000
10. Farmers Again 000
11. Mother 000
12. Horses 000
13. The Dead 000
14. Platform Controversy Beginnings 000
15. Storytelling 000
16. Trempealeau Mountain 000
17. Rendezvous 000
18. Arrowheads 000
19. Local Informant 000
20. A Thing of the Present 000
21. View 000
Part III. What's at Bottom 000
1. Scientific Method 000
2. Gale and Squier 000
3. Platform Controversy Again 000
4. Opening Day 000
5. Mascots Again 000
6. Genealogy 000
7. Names 000
8. Dead Indians 000
9. Natural History 000
10. Trempealeau Mountain Again 000
11. The Removals 000
12. What We Tell Ourselves 000
13. Epiphany 000
14. Excavation 000
15. No Fools 000
16. My Meeting with Harold 000
Part IV. Backfill 000
1. Putting It Back Together 000
2. Passing On 000
3. Education 000
4. Journeys 000
5. Powwow 000
6. More Mounds 000
7. More Views 000
8. Preservation 000
9. One More Time to Trempealeau Mountain 000
10. To the Platform Mounds 000
11. And Home Again 000
12. Finishing Up 000
Notes 000
Index 000
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE