Special BHW Movie Screening!

[Robert Braun]

Members--

Dr. Jeffrey Chown of Northern Illinois University has asked for a screening and review of his new production "Lincoln and the Black Hawk War." This 50 minute motion picture will be shown at the Hoard Museum 407 Merchant's Ave., Fort Atkinson Thursday June 17 at 8 p.m. (If needed, the phone number is [phone].)

It is indeed a priviledge to be a small part of Dr. Chown's work... and we appreciate his flexibility in agreeing to come to Fort Atkinson to show his work to us.

Please forgive the late notice-- I posted this as soon as arrangements were finalized!

See you at the Hoard Museum at 8 p.m.!!

DIRECTIONS:

Fort Atkinson is located north of Janesville and midway between Madison and Milwaukee. Form the south, take I-39 north to the Janesville WI exists. Take the exit for "Route 26 North/Milton." At the end of the ramp turn right (north) towards Milton. Several miles past Milton, Route 26 becomes a bypass. Take the FIRST exit for Fort Atkinson. This road will become Janesville Ave. Proceed north on Janesville Ave. past the Fireside Dinner Theater on your right. After the second traffic light, turn right on 4th Street. Follow Fourth Street east for about 4-5 blocks to the intersection with Main Street. You will see the Hoard Museum and Dairy Shrine to your right front. Pull into the parking lot or, if full, park along 4th Street, or proceed to the next intersection, turn right, and park on Foster Street directly behind the museum.

From the North, take Route 26 Exit at Johnson Creek. Follow 26 south through Jefferson to where Route 26 Becomes a bypass. Take the FIRST Fort Atkinson exit off of the bypass. This road becomes N. High Street. Follow road and sharp right towards downtown. AT traffil light, turn LEFT on Main Street. Stay in left hand lane, cross the Rock River, and follow U. S. 12 to left after 3rd Street light. Follow U. S. 12 (Whitewater Ave.) about 2 blockts to intersection with 4th Street. Museum will be on your left.

[Robert Braun]

Our thanks to Dr. Chown and his staff of professionals for their offer to preview "Lincoln and the Black Hawk War." It was indeed a priviledge to be a small part of this production!

We had about eight adults and two young people present for the showing. Not bad for thirty six hours notice! And we thank Dr. Chown and his collegues for their interest in our comments and reactions to the movie.

A VERY special thanks to Susan Hartwig of the Hoard Museum for taking time out of her personal life to open the museum for us for this production!

My thanks to all who attended...

Bob.

[mpcavanaugh]

Bob, how was the new movie?

Mike Cavanaugh

[Cliff Krainik]

Can anyone give us a review of Dr. Chown's new movie, "Lincoln and the Black Hawk War" ?

When / where will the movie be shown next.

Thanks,

Cliff Krainik

[mary]

I felt very honored to be a part of this screening.

I found the movie to be very visually appealing. There were some amazing color paintings and prints of Native Americans that were just stunning! I never knew there was such emphasis on recording and preserving the faces and clothing of Native Americans.

I must say, and I said this to Jeffrey Chown at the screening, that while to movie built a good case for the Indian perspective, particularly Black Hawk, it gave almost no perspective from the white settler point of view. One is left with the very real impression that the settler spent all their time thinking up ways to "stick it" to the Indians, while dozens of years of conflict between Indians and the Spanish, French, English, Dutch, and eventually the Americans on the frontier seemed to be ignored. There was history and traditions of some truly awful warfare that occured, building a foundation from some of the animosity felt by BOTH sides. But what I came away with was the animosity felt by only one side.

I know my husband visably chafed at several of the remarks make by the university professors in the film. I'm sure he will provide his own remarks!

I also would like the film to answer the question "Why is the Black Hawk War important today?" I am not sure the movie answered that question, for me at least.

Mary.

[Cliff Krainik]

Thank you, Mary. ... and was Lincoln mentioned?

Cliff

[Robert Braun]

I see that it is my turn to offer some comments regarding Dr. Chown’s “Lincoln and the Black Hawk War.” My comments are based on only one showing of this film:

Fortes:

1. Kudos to Dr. Chown and NIU for looking to plow into this subject in the first place. NIU is already critically acclaimed for its excellent website resources regarding the BHW and Lincoln specifically;

2. The program is very visually appealing. Lots of stills, pen and ink and color paintings of people and places;

3. The production uses comment from several academians-- only one or two of whom were known to this reviewer. It was a pleasure to see some new faces... a refreshing change from the "usual suspects" seen on the "History Channel" et. al. Their comments were interesting, and occasionally illuminating;

4. The production does a good job of portraying the native Indian perspective. Also quite interesting in its treatment of Lincoln's uncle (Tom Lincoln's brother?) who did quite a bit in the frontier region... certainly more than ol' Tom. There are a few new items regarding Lincoln, although I personally would have preferred more analysis.. particularly the issue of WHY Lincoln would have volunteered three times.

5. The handling of the "Stillman's Run" fiasco was perhaps the MOST balanced, fair, well-researched and well-presented segments I have ever heard.

Foibles:

A. The opening sequence seemed to be a portend of the thrust of the production. A black screen with white letters: "Lincoln and the Black Hawk War." Over this was an Indian cedar flute-- which, intentional or not, seems to be the signature music for anything "pro-Indian." I remember thinking "Uhh oh" in the opening seconds of the production.

B. We lost the Lincoln theme for what seemed like large segments of the production, choosing to concentrate on the minutiae of the Indian issues-- which indeed were and remain complex (this item was mentioned Dr. Chown and his colleagues, and they tended to agree.)

C. I strongly disagree with the viewpoints of several of the Academic "talking heads." A few of these include--the characterization of the militia as a "lynch mob" is completely unresearched and misguided; Dr. Eby's discussion on whiskey missed the point that the beverage was still part of the daily Army ration in 1832; the "Warrior" was NOT sent upriver by General Atkinson to attack BH's band (the August 1 encounter was by pure chance, as the steamer and crew had been sent upriver to negotiate with the Sioux. They were heading south, or DOWNriver when the encounter on the banks of the Mississippi took place.) I strongly question whether the August 1 "Warrior" incident transpired over the course of "two to three hours"; etc.

D. The film jumped from "Stillman's Run" to "Bad Axe"-- essentially passing over more than 10 weeks of incidents, killings, and fighting. (This is a common omission seen on websites and other media and written "short" histories. Generally, the reason for this apparently has less to do with brevity and so-called "space constraints" than to make Americans look like drunken doofs at Stillman's Run, and soul-less murdering drunken doofs at Bad Axe.)

E. The music overlays used to punctuate the so-called "white militia" segments were drum segments, some of which included a fife rendition of the "White Cockade"-- great for Lexington and Concord, but probably inappropriate for 1832. Some fiddle music segments or other appropriate period band music would be much better.

It's tough to put the context of the BHW into a 50 minute movie, because of the volume of background material needed to build context for modern viewers unfamiliar with post Rev. War and pre-Civil War America. This being said, I applaud Dr. Chown and his colleagues for a decidedly good effort to present both Abraham Lincoln and the Black Hawk War.

I also want to commend their cordial reception of our comments after the showing. It often is not easy to receive critical (and by that I mean “constructive”) review of ones artistic endeavors. Dr. Chown and his colleagues were thoughtful, appreciative and thoroughly professional in this regard.

As Dr. Chown is off for the next several weeks in Europe, I do not know as of this writing when the next showing will be. Rest assured I will update the List when details are forthcoming.

[Cliff Krainik]

Excellent review! Thank you, Bob.

Please do let us know about future showings of "Lincoln and the Black Hawk War".

Cliff Krainik

[gorentz]

Robert Braun wrote: " I strongly disagree with the viewpoints of several of the Academic "talking heads." A few of these include--the characterization of the militia as a "lynch mob" is completely unresearched and misguided; Dr. Eby's..."

Do you remember the names of any of these talking heads? Who is this "Dr. Eby"? Any connection with Cecil Eby (not a historian, IIRC) who wrote the book? I thought that one was now dead. (I've come across some archive materials in his own hometown backyard that he probably didn't know about -- I can only imagine what he would have done with them had he known, considering his agenda and all.)

John Gorentz

[Robert Braun]

John--

I regret that I recognized only my "buddy" Dr. Cecil Eby, author of This Disgraceful Affair.

That I didn't recognize most of the other academians should not be viewed as a criticism. Indeed, many of their comments were insightful and refreshing. A couple of comments were a redux of the same old history that has come down since the 1970s... but those seemed to be in the minority.

That being said, the one professor with a moustache that was filmed next to a bookcase seemed particularly well-informed (of course, this cvommentary does board readership no good without the benefit of seeing the film... but trust me, you'll see him in the next showing.)

Regards, Bob.

[Patrick Jung]

I was one of the "academician talking heads" in Dr. Chown's documentary. I am a history professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and I just finished the initial draft of a new history of the Black Hawk War for the University of Oklahoma Press.

When Dr. Chown sent me a copy, I have to admit that several of the persons in the documentary had no business being in there. John Mack Faragher of Yale, for example, has written about the American West and the Oregon Trail; he has written nothing on Black Hawk.

As for myself, I did make one or two comments that I wish I could revise a bit; it is a lot tougher than it looks when you have a camera, lights, and interviewer in the room. It was hot, I was sweating to death, and I did not have any reference material with me. That made it a little hard.

Either way, I did like the movie. My book is scheduled for release in spring 2006. I will keep everyone apprised. I should have joined this discussion board years ago; I finally took the step.

As a final note, my research specialty is Indian-White relations in the American Great Lakes region. The Black Hawk War is my most recent project. It grew out of my doctoral dissertation, which was actually much broader in scope and examined Indian-White relations in the Upper Great Lakes from 1634 to 1856.

There are many competing theories about the nature of the frontier in American history and its significance, and my doctoral dissertation focused on the most current theories. More specifically, the Frontier Thesis of Frederick Jackson Turner has generally been rejected by scholars since the post-World War II era, but no one has tried to bring about a better paradigm. I used anthropological theories about cultural interaction to devise what I believe is a more useful and informative paradigm/theory of the nature of historical frontiers.

I still have a lot of revision to do on my Black Hawk War book, and I have to work with the editor to make maps, diagrams, etc.

My next project is up in the air, but I am currently working on an article (that I hope can be turned into a book) on Jean Nicolet. My theory is that he landed near Bay de Noc in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan rather than Green Bay.

I will keep everyone apprised of the progress of my Black Hawk War monograph.

[Robert Braun]

Hello and a hearty welcome to the Black HAwk War discussion board! We're very pleased to have you here!

Please be sure to sign your full real name after each posting (it's one of the every few rules we have on this board.) A signature block can be created to automatically sign each posting by setting one up in your "profile" page.

Thanks... and again welcome!

Bob Braun
Moderator

[Jeffrey]

We have another public showing of "Lincoln and the Black Hawk War" coming up this week. It will be shown Thursday, April 28 at 8:00 p.m. in the Art Building's Auditorium at Northern Illinois University. I am still re-editing as I write, but have enjoyed the constructive criticism on the board and one of these days soon I will feel the film is finally finished and ready for distribution. Particulars of the latest showing can be found in the university's press release:
www.niu.edu/PubAffairs/RELEASES/2005/april/lincolndoc.shtml
Hope some of you can make it.
Jeffrey Chown