Also the field is growing and changing all the time! I took a friend up to Montezuma Castle National Monument this past December, expecting her to learn about the Sinagua Indians, who might have assimilated into the Hopi. I was last there...oh, three, maybe four years ago? In just that small time the Parks Service had worked with the Hopi Nation to rename the extinct tribe and redo the entire small museum attached to the monument site. The former Sinagua, named by the colonialist Spanish, are now the Hisat'sinom, or "the ones who came before" in Hopi. Instead of "here's some stuff we found at the site," many of the exhibits are now "here's stuff we found at the site, and this thing right next to it is a modern recreation of this thing, made by the Hopi Nation for this museum, demonstrating one way we've determined they did assimilate because we can see unique weaving patterns and weapons from the Hisat'sinom showing up later in Hopi crafts and war kit." A lot of the signage still says Sinagua (changing that stuff takes time, money, and possibly a literal act of Congress if the signage itself is considered historical, because it dates back to the 1950s), but you can see the changes being made. (Also, checking the date on that signage has led me to discover yet another Wikipedia article I need to fix.)
Here's another for you, from the Minneapolis Institute of Art from when I visited a few years ago. First, I walked into this room and went "oh NO" because the very first thing I saw was this:
But off to the left was an entire wall of Native textiles where the MiA had repatriated historical artifacts and commissioned modern Native artists to make replicas of traditional clothing and weaving patterns, and it seemed really weird that they'd do that and then have a war bonnet gained by sketchy means chilling in the middle of the room, so I read the plaque for more detail:
TRANSCRIPTION AND CONTEXT:
The item is named as "Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) or Lakħóta artist, North America, Great Plains region." Right away we're on good ground with self-identified tribal names. It lists the item as "headdress, late 19th-early 20th century" and made of "eagle and other feathers, wool, buffalo hide, cowhide, horsehair, beads, pigments." So we're also continuing on with the certainty that they've really researched this item. It's not being dismissed as some "American Indian curiosity," it's being treated like the work of art and craftsmanship it is.
But here's why I posted this here:
"Gift of Jack Garcia, Lakħóta."
This wasn't looted. This was freely given. And the plaque goes on to make the provenance extremely clear:
"A Tsistsisas or Lakħóta artist created this headdress, which symbolizes power, leadership, and generosity. Jack L. Garcia, who donated the headdress to Mia in that same spirit of Lakħóta generosity, was a great grandson of two Oglála Lakħóta leaders: Śungmànitu Haņksa (Long Wolf) and Čhetáņ Lúta (Red Hawk). In 1874, the United States government discovered gold in the Black Hills, and broke its treaty with the Lakħóta, initiating hostilities. Both of Garcia's forebears fought against and defeated General George Custer and his army in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876."
That's a damn nice description. Correct names, a factual account with no moralizing or racist narrative: they fought, they won, period. The only inaccuracy here--on a technicality--is that the Native tribes involved in that battle called it the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and personally in a Native exhibit I'd use the Native terminology. I can see why they didn't (plaque space is finite and they would have had to explain the name), but the quibble is worth bringing up.
But here. The very last line. The point of all of this in the first place:
"At the installation of this headdress, a Lakħóta medicine man blessed the object with Garcia's family in attendance."
Not only is it freely given instead of looted. Not only is it given the respect it deserves as not just as a mark of honor but as an artistic object (seriously I couldn't get my camera to focus on the stitching but it is STUNNING how even and delicate it looks when you consider someone would have been dancing and attending ceremonies in this). But it was put in the museum with the very literal blessing of tribal elders. They made sure the Lakħóta community was involved and that the headdress was treated in a culturally appropriate manner. And off to the right is a small family tree showing Garcia's direct ties to the leaders they named, providing proof of provenance. That's an extremely far cry from "we're some old white bastards who took this because we wanted it, take a look."
Museums are trying. Some are doing better than others, but they are trying.
Try going to one sometime, and see for yourself.
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