Sometimes, IU junior Sidney Bolam likes living in the past.\nShe lives in the past all across the Midwest and the North East. Her camp grounds include October's Feast of the Hunters Moon in Lafayette and Niagara Lake, N.Y., in July. Bolam is a historical re-enactor. The past is what she does. \nHistorical re-enactors often camp at the sites of battle scenes, to commemorate the event that happened there by recreating it. They serve as walking, talking history museums for the people in attendance. Living history might also happen at locations where no historical event is known to have taken place, such as School of the Native from 10 to 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Piankeshaw Trails located 10 miles southwest of Bloomington.\nBolam began historical re-enacting four years ago when she was still in high school. Now she has two personas: a Native American from the Wea tribe, a subbranch of the Miami, and a French woman from the 18th century. Bolam said she chose a Native American who would likely have lived in the Lafayette region, where she is from.\n"I wanted to portray a Native American from the 18th century," she said. "Nobody special, not a princess or something stupid like that ... and my second persona started because I was interested in the white counterpart of my persona. And you really get a real feel for people when you are in their clothes."\nBolam said there ends up being few representations of women in general in this male-dominated hobby.\n"I think it's (like) how guys go on fishing trips, but they're just going out there to drink ... Re-enacting is similar in that it's outside, lots of camping and tons of guns and weaponry," she said. "So it's very macho kind of hobby. So usually everyone thinks I'm somebody's horribly young girlfriend or daughter."\nSophomore Jessica Diemer doesn't dress up. Instead, she is a historical interpreter at Piankeshaw Trails, meaning she might interpret the actions of a historical re-enactor for the public. She also helped organized School of the Native, aimed at spreading awareness of historical crafts and Native American culture.\n"Although many reenactments of the mid-west revolve around wars, School of the Native is based more from a cultural aspect," Diemer said. "(It) revolves around the everyday life-ways of different and diverse Woodland Peoples. So many times, the only way people are exposed to Native American history is through romanticized and brutalized ideals ... omitting everyday ways of life."
"Braveheart" sneaks in\nSometimes, people come to historical re-enacting events dressed inaccurately, Bolam said. \n"When 'Braveheart' came out, we had tons of blue Scotsmen running around," she said. "It's a pretty bad problem."\nThis frustrates many people who have strived to represent history truthfully, Bolam said. She said usually people dressed incorrectly come into the park as day visitors, unlike the people who plan to camp on the grounds.\n"(It's) just irritating because the public doesn't necessarily know what's right," she said. "And so those people who do it wrong can sometimes cause a lot of harm, because they're perpetuating a racist stereotype; and the final thing is that it's just not educational."\nBolam dresses in her Native American persona for these public events perhaps six times a year, but Bolam herself is not Native American. She said most people who dress as Natives Americans at these events are not of Native American heritage, and many Native Americans who do attend might choose to dress as a French or English person. There is also a lot of gender crossing.\n"It's surprising how accepting (Native American re-enactors) are," Bolam said. "There's a lot of Native Americans who aren't re-enactors who might be offended by this, but the people who are Native (American) and re-enactors seem to know that we have nothing but the best intentions and only want to educate."\nBolam said while it is important to stick to regionally and historically accurate clothing, housing and food, she still sees herself as someone in a costume. She also said this hobby would not be open to her if she had to stick to her own German heritage.\n"If I were to pick the right race for my persona, I'd have to live in Pennsylvania where I'm from," she said. "Because Pennsylvania Dutch or Quakers aren't common or documented in this part of the country in the 18th century."\nZsuzsanna Cselenyi is currently working on a dissertation about modern Native American culture titled "You Are What You Dance: The Visual Rhetoric of Identity at Midwestern Powwows." She said the problem with Native American representation comes in when it is coupled with a lack of knowledge.\n"As far as I know, no one really problematizes historical re-enacting," she said. "Problems only arise because of people who do not identify either as re-enactors, but rather claim to be Native (American)... and to be representing a certain Native culture, but in reality they have a very limited knowledge and experience of that culture, and even more limited interaction with the legitimate members of that cultural group."
Historical Accuracy\nDiemer said School of the Native seeks to expose people to history by letting them participate in activities such as hide tanning. The goal is to provide a living, breathing interpretation of history, she said.\nSchool of the Native might end up being a safer event than some historical re-enacting events Bolam has attended. She said a variety of injuries occur during battle scenes, from heatstroke to landing on their canteen wrong and breaking a rib. \nBut the pastime also has its perks. Some historical re-enactors get to be extras in historical scenes for movies and TV specials. Bolam has a friend who was slated to be in "Pirates of the Caribbean," though he ended up not going. \nOne major reason Bolam said she keeps returning to this hobby is the sense of community she gains, she said.\n"Even if you travel all over the country to do this, which I do, you start to see the same people," she said. "And it's hard to explain, but you get this sense of a huge extended family and its complete with your 'protective brothers' and your 'dear grandparents' and even your 'black sheep.'"\nBolam said she realizes no matter how historically accurate a person can dress, some things will never be historically accurate.\n"What we do is really fun," she said. "Which is in itself inaccurate because you know you can't have a period camp of any kind without disease, without war, without modern medicine, and without violence, brothels ... It's a game for us, even fighting a battle ... and when you are talking with the visitors you have to always include the downside so they don't idealize the past."\n-- Contact Arts Editor Joelle Petrus at jpetrus@indiana.edu.
