WAA | Ho-Chunk Land: Stories of Teejop w/our own Kendra Greendeer!

The Ho-Chunk Nation has lived on Teejop — the land on which UW–Madison currently sits — for thousands of years. The UW is a recent resident here and constitutes only a fraction of Teejop’s long and rich history.

At the Wisconsin Idea Spotlight: Ho-Chunk Land — Stories of Teejop, hear from Ho-Chunk elders, alumni, students, and faculty members who will share the story of the Ho-Chunk people and their relationship to this land over the past 100 years. Learn about important Ho-Chunk villages and geographical markers, and about the impact the university has had on Teejop and the Ho-Chunk people since its arrival. Panelists include Ho-Chunk Nation trial court judge JoAnn Jones ’82, MS’83, JD’86; professor of photography Tom Jones ’88; and art history doctoral candidate Kendra Greendeer PhDx’23. The panel will be moderated by anthropology doctoral candidate Molli Pauliot x’90, MA’20, PhDx’23.

Before and after the panel, enjoy a reception featuring refreshments and complimentary pontoon boat rides, weather permitting.

This is a free event, but registration is required, as space is limited.

About the panelists

Kendra Greendeer PhDx’23 (she/her)

Kendra Greendeer, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and descendant of the Red Cliff and Fond du Lac Bands of Lake Superior Ojibwe, is a doctoral candidate in art history with a focus on contemporary Native American arts. Her dissertation, “Rematriating Indigeneity in Contemporary Native American Arts,” explores the work of contemporary Native women artists and their creations as expressions and enactments of Indigenous knowledge that work to restructure colonial spaces. Most recently, Greendeer has curated and been the conservator for objects exhibited in the cocurated exhibition Intersections: Indigenous Textiles of the Americas at the Ruth Davis Gallery on the UW–Madison campus and in Ho-Chunk Objects, displayed in the permanent installation Mrs. M’s Cabinet at the Milwaukee Art Museum. She has also conducted research for the Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe exhibition catalog, written and researched for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian’s Native New York and Americans exhibitions, and been a consultant for numerous exhibitions. She is currently the collections manager for Little Eagle Arts Foundation in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Greendeer has received fellowship support by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (Fall 2022), the Institute of American Indian Arts (Fall 2021), Cobell Graduate Research (Summer 2021), the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2017–18, 2021–22), and others. She has received support for curatorial work through the Center for Curatorial Leadership (2020), the ArtTable Fellowship at the Portland Art Museum (2021), and the Midwest Art Conservation Center (2018). She earned her bachelor of fine arts degree in museum studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and her master’s degree in art and museum studies from Georgetown University.

JoAnn Jones ’82, MS’83, JD’86 (she/her)

The Honorable JoAnn Jones is a graduate of University of Wisconsin Law School. She previously earned a master’s degree in social work and a bachelor’s degree in political science and social work from UW–Madison. Judge Jones is in her second elected term as a Ho-Chunk Nation trial court judge. She was the first female president of the Ho-Chunk Nation and has been active in national, tribal, and state issues and matters involving tribal sovereignty.

Tom Jones ’88 (he/him)

Tom Jones is a professor of photography at UW–Madison. He received his master of fine arts degree in photography and a master’s degree in museum studies from Columbia College in Chicago. Jones’s photographs examine identity and geographic place with an emphasis on the experience of American Indian communities. He is interested in the way that American Indian material culture is represented through popular and commodity culture, such as architecture, advertising, and self-representation. He continues to work on an ongoing photographic essay on the contemporary life of his tribe, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. He is critically assessing the romanticized representation of Native peoples in photography through the reexamination of historic pictures taken by white photographers. This reassessment questions the assumptions about identity within the American Indian culture by non-Natives and Natives alike. Jones is a coauthor on the book People of the Big Voice: Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families by Charles Van Schaick, 1879–1943. Jones’s work is in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, Polaroid Corporation, Sprint Corporation, the Chazen Museum of Art, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, and Microsoft.

Molli Pauliot x’90, MA’20, PhDx’23 (she/her)

Molli Pauliot is a doctoral candidate in the UW’s Department of Anthropology. She is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, Buffalo clan, and has professional experience on collaborative projects with tribal, county, state, and federal officials addressing critical social needs in the state of Wisconsin. Her research interests within cultural anthropology are in Native American populations in the Great Lakes region, material culture, Native American art, museum anthropology, Indigenous resilience, climate change, and United States American Indian policy. Pauliot has a PhD minor in art and is an accomplished designer and beadworker. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a human services emphasis and psychology minor coursework in drug and alcohol counseling from Viterbo College in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She also holds a master of social work degree with an emphasis in child welfare from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. At the UW, Pauliot has completed a graduate certificate in material culture and a master’s degree in anthropology.

The Wisconsin Alumni Association will follow the latest public health guidance from local authorities and the CDC to ensure the health and safety of our guests at this in-person event. If changing conditions or local guidelines require changes to the event, we will update you via email or phone call.

This program is supported by the generosity of the Sandra G. Sponem Alumni Park Signature Program Series Fund and is a collaboration with UW–Madison’s Our Shared Future program.