Commentary On 'Museum Indians' By Susan Power

During the first half of the 20th century numerous changes went on in the native community. Life on the reservations was bleak and economic opportunities were almost non-existence. Many natives remained on the reservations where they were able to maintain their language and culture (Otten, Dutton). However, some others left the reservations for economic opportunities that the growing U.S economy promised and offered. Native Americans who didn’t live on the reservations chose to make as little reference as possible to their indigenous roots, much like other ethnic groups that migrated into the U.S. That is because though most Native Americans knew that the dominant culture would enjoy the indigenous dances and native jewelry and pottery, etc, it was almost impossible to live a traditional native lifestyle. Several natives

Museums serve as a way to connect with the public on a large scale, and the knowledge held within exhibits can be a fruitful experience for those who choose to visit these institutions. Experiencing all that a museum has to offer, no matter how well intentioned, can at times be confusing and overwhelming to the individuals visiting the site. The Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian dedicates itself to Native Americans in North and South America, and worked tirelessly with varying tribes to create a new standard. Some visitors and scholars found their work to be successful in design and approach while others found it to be lacking in execution. This institution does not approach Native American history in a familiar fashion; however it does cover an expansive period of time, and produces a great amount of detail while generating powerful emotions.

In this article, “ From Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life,” by David Treuer, he talks about the struggles that Native Americans have gone through. Mr. Treuer brings to the reader’s attention the struggles that most people don’t even realize have happened. Mr. Treuer has one big struggle that is still happening today that needs help to change, which is the lack of Native American language. This is such a high priority struggle due to the fact that without Native American language, there is a loss of heritage.

Native Americans have existed in the different regions-the plains, mountains, marshes- of the North American continent- long before the United States existed. Yet, most were not treated with the respect and dignity that the white American settlers were given. Viewed as outlandish and savage by white settlers, series of negotiations to “correct” the Indian way of life were implemented- through forced relocation, war, and assimilation into white culture. Those who stood up against the American government were viewed as beacons of hope by their fellow Native Americans. Many Native American traditions still exist today, but unfortunately most of them have been lost along with their people.

The Lakota, an Indian group of the Great Plains, established their community in the Black Hills in the late eighteenth century (9). This group is an example of an Indian community that got severely oppressed through imperialistic American actions and policy, as the Americans failed to recognize the Lakota’s sovereignty and ownership of the Black Hills. Jeffrey Ostler, author of The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground, shows that the Lakota exemplified the trends and subsequent challenges that Indians faced in America. These challenges included the plurality of groups, a shared colonial experience, dynamic change, external structural forces, and historical agency.

Popular culture has shaped our understanding and perception of Native American culture. From Disney to literature has given the picture of the “blood thirsty savage” of the beginning colonialism in the new world to the “Noble Savage,” a trait painted by non-native the West (Landsman and Lewis 184) and this has influenced many non native perceptions. What many outsiders do not see is the struggle Native American have on day to day bases. Each generation of Native American is on a struggle to keep their traditions alive, but to function in school and ultimately graduate.

In American Indian life, they believe their life is interconnected with the world, nature, and other people. The idea of a peoplehood matrix runs deep in Indian culture, in this essay the Cherokee, which is the holistic view of sacred history, language, ceremony, and homeland together. This holistic model shapes the life of the American Indians and how their sense of being and relationship to their history is strong and extremely valuable to them. This essay will try to explain how each aspect of the peoplehood matrix is important and interconnected to each other and the life of the Native Americans.

The fascination with Native Americans has been a constant with outsiders since explorers first “discovered” the New World. The biggest surge in this fascination came in the mid-19th century when the Indian Wars were starting to come to an end and the belief that Native Americans were disappearing, walking into the sunset never to be seen again. This led to an increase in the collecting of anything Native American, from artifacts to stories to portraits. The inevitable outcome of this was that Native Americans, who were never considered very highly to begin with, where now moved into a category of scientific interest to be study. This scientific interest in Native Americans is what many museums and other institutions based their collections and exhibits on and is one of the issues that many Native Americans have with how both their people and their culture were, and to some extent still are, represented in these places.

“The Indian presence precipitated the formation of an American identity” (Axtell 992). Ostracized by numerous citizens of the United States today, this quote epitomizes Axtell’s beliefs of the Indians contributing to our society. Unfortunately, Native Americans’ roles in history are often categorized as insignificant or trivial, when in actuality the Indians contributed greatly to Colonial America, in ways the ordinary person would have never deliberated. James Axtell discusses these ways, as well as what Colonial America may have looked like without the Indians’ presence. Throughout his article, his thesis stands clear by his persistence of alteration the Native Americans had on our nation. James Axtell’s bias delightfully enhances his thesis, he provides a copious amount of evidence establishing how Native Americans contributed critically to the Colonial culture, and he considers America as exceptional – largely due to the Native Americans.

In her novel, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, Deborah A. Miranda theorizes that the underlying patronage of her father’s violent behavior arises from the original acts of violence carried out by the Spanish Catholic Church during the era of missionization in California. The structure of her novel plays an essential role in the development of her theory, and allows her to further generalize it to encompass the entire human population. “In this beautiful and devastating book, part tribal history, part lyric and intimate memoir, Deborah A. Miranda tells stories of her Ohlone Costanoan Esselen family as well as the experience of California Indians as a whole through oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, personal reflections, and poems.” Patching together every individual source to create the story of a culture as a whole, Miranda facilitates the task of conceptualizing how Societal Process Theory could play into the domestic violence she experiences growing up as the daughter of a California Indian.

Did you know that the Ancient Indian people of the Southwestern United States have dated back to the year 10,000 BC? First appearing toward the end of the last Ice Age, they were the first “Americans.” (Noble, 1998) When Christopher Columbus arrived in the America’s in 1492 and seeing the people of this land for the first time, he thought that he had landed in India, thus giving them the name “Indians.” (Noble, 1998) However, he was nowhere near India, or that region of the world. Because the Ancient Indians were nomadic people, (people who wondered the lands with no permanent home) through the years they developed, separated, and re-located their clans, developing

On Monday, I went Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. This museum is located in 4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. I want to know about American tribe’s story. So I visited there. By visiting museum, I could experience about American tribe’s culture, clothes, language and so on. In that time, I could find ‘Oklahoma’. Oklahoma is one tribe of American tribes that I found in class. There is a ‘Kaw calumet’. It is a product of Oklahoma that represent a sacred badge of friendship. It is used by some Indian leaders in opening ceremonies of treaty meetings. ( These ceremonial pipes marked the solemnity of the occasion.)

Indian-Americans are people who either originated themselves or descend from an ancestor who was born in India. The dynamics in a home where parents are native Indians and the children are first generation born Indian-Americans are quite different from other hyphenated American cultures. The languages used within the homes as well as the rituals to show levels of respect are critical things implemented within a family unit of this stature. The spoken and unspoken rules of communication shape the first generation Indian-Americans and how they interact with others in their generation.

“Indian History is within the landscape.” (Standing Bear 's Footsteps Video) Over time the United States have learned a lot from the American Indian cultures. They inhabited the land in America long before the Europeans and other cultures even discovered it. Each American Indian nation had their own beliefs, practices and qualities. They provided the United States with an income and a way of life, through trade, food production, hunting and so much more. The Netsilik, Navajo, Ponca, and Chumash have not only shown but proved their roles through their hunting skills, utilization of their environment, their contributions, and standing up for what they deserved. I want to explain who each culture is and describe the traces they left on this

There were times of hesitation and skepticism leading up to taking a course on American Indian studies. Am I even interested in this? Is it relevant to me? Will I take anything away from this course? These moments of worry were short lived and now near the end of the course I find myself promoting the importance in learning of these once unfamiliar tribal people for good reasons. It is important to learn about Native Americans in Iowa so that we can support their communities, understand the complexity of their culture, build respect for their culture, clear up any misconceptions we have towards Natives, and help people come to realize their ethnocentric thoughts and turn towards cultural relativism.