Dr. Jane Simonsen (Augustana College Illinois/ Universit?t Regensburg) "Picturing Black Hawk: 'Indian' Portraits and Cultural Exchange."

Tuesday, 24.06.2014, 6:15 - 7:45 p.m., U5/01.18

Relationships between whites and Native Americans in the U.S. West are far more complex than the popular image of "cowboys and Indians" might suggest. Paintings and photographs also functioned - sometimes in surprising ways - as a way of negotiating relationships between cultures. Using portraits of the Sauk leader Black Hawk and his descendants as a case study, this lecture looked at the ways in which both whites and Native Americans participated in creating "Indian" identities  between 1830 and 1920.