UW–Madison: For Her Undergraduate Project, Megan Binkley Created A Map Of Ho-Chunk History, Language & Culture

Madison WI

15 May, 2022

12:01 AM

Description

Press release from the University of Wisconsin-Madison: May 12, 2022 Travel routes used by the Ho-Chunk Nation wind their way through the Dejope or Four Lakes region, which includes Wisconsin. Though in some cases they have morphed into modern roads and walking paths, many of the original paths exist only in scattered historical records and living memory. Combining investigation and historical work and in collaboration with the Ho-Chunk Nation, University of Wisconsin-Madison PhD student Megan Binkley will continue to work with Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Bill Quackenbush, other Ho-Chunk Nation Community Advisors, and Nelson Institute Faculty Associate Jessie Conaway to combine historical records, oral histories, and archaeological data into a map of Ho-Chunk travel routes and trails throughout time. "There's just so many different interpretive avenues to gather to try to understand the past that can't be accessed through textual records," Binkley said. Binkley is pursuing a PhD in anthropology with an emphasis on archaeology and minors in community engaged scholarship and geography. This work began as a collaborative, interdepartmental project based in Conaway's environmental studies capstone course and Dr. Holly Gibbs' land use class. It later developed into an internship with UniverCity Alliance. Binkley said Gibbs and Conaway demonstrated how to incorporate community engagement into academic research. "Working with Dr. Conaway and Dr. Gibbs showed me that there really are so many potential avenues for blending archaeology, community engagement, and collaborative work with the First Nations while approaching the situation as a student and from the standpoint of, 'I still have so much to learn about the landscape in which I spent my entire life living,'" Binkley said. This press release was produced by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The views expressed here are the author's own.