My Visit to the American Museum of Natural History Essay

After reading “Second Thoughts of Colonial Historians and American Indians” by James H. Merrell, it is important to acknowledge the symbolicism of the language used by so many Colonial Historians as they recount significant instances throughout our Indigenous American History. In many comparisons, word selection used to describe the Native peoples, tend to simplify their existence as merely hunters and gatherers.

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.

The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has

Upon the European’s discovery and colonization of the Americas an irreversible transformation was triggered. The extreme differences in the cultures of the Europeans and Native Americans would prove to be fatal to the way of life that existed before European colonization.

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 first exhibit that the museum presents is the Native American natural sciences where they demonstrated how the Natives use different resources to create and achieve various natural inventions. Inventions such as a small ~15 inch sundial, where they used formation of rocks that align with the sun where the lengths of the sun’s shadow casted on the rock indicates certain times of the day and also provides information for the next solstices and equinoxes. The idea that the Natives use astrology to conclude and

In the early history of the United States, even before Europeans set foot in North America, there were Native Americans all across the continent. Native Americans lived in tribes and were nomadic. Although they were nomadic, they would also inhabit “permanent villages” where they would live year-round. On the occasion that those “permanent villages” were abandoned, left behind would be artifacts from their culture that explained a great amount about their lifestyle and traditions. These popular artifacts were most commonly found in southwest and northeast regions such as the Great Plains, the Great Basin, and the Mississippi River Valley.

When I visited the Ziibiwing Center’s exhibits at the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tripe of Michigan building in Diba Jimooyung permanent other great lakes Anishinabek . I saw the weapon and plastic models, swords. the displays go through the Seven fires prophecy, an Anishinaabe prophecy which marks phases, or epochs, in the life of the people on Turtle Island, a Native American name for the North American continent. Anishinaabe is the identification often used by the Odawa, Ojibwa, Potawatomi. Also shows winter and summer living quarters, clothing, jewelry and photos from late 19th century. In the present current structure of the association reflects our dedication to our central goal. the staff is organized into three essential office

One of the greatest journeys in American history is the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Under President Thomas Jefferson’s orders, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark went on an 8,000 mile journey westward. The lands Lewis, Clark, and their men explored were purchased from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Over the next three years the two men would discover new plants, animals, landmarks, negotiate with Indian Tribes, and clear the way for Americans to settle in the west. I chose to do my research paper over Lewis and Clark, because it is important to appreciate the amount of knowledge they gave to all of America. I find Lewis and Clark’s numerous discoveries fascinating, because animals like the ground hog, which is so common to us today, were unheard of back in their time. Lewis and Clark helped people see the west side of North America in a new light, and helped prepare settlers for the west by teaching them things unfathomable at the time.

A book that fundamentally changes our comprehension of North America prior and then afterward the landing of Europeans Encounters at the Heart of the World concerns the Mandan Indians, notable Plains individuals whose overflowing, occupied towns on the upper Missouri River were for quite a long time at the focal point of the North American universe. We are aware of them for the most part since Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804-1805 with them, yet why don't we know more? Who were they truly? In this unprecedented book, Elizabeth A. Fenn recovers their history by sorting out imperative new revelations in archaic exploration, human studies, topography, climatology, the study of disease transmission, and dietary science. Her strongly unique

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles offers a surface level depiction of Mesoamerican civilization and culture. It excludes essential information and instead gives a shallow representation that offers implications of a barbaric civilization.

In early 16th century, European countries send out sailors to explore the world to obtain more resources, such as gold, territories, and food. Christopher Columbus is probably the most famous person when the discovery of America is being brought out. He and Cabeza de Vaca both sail to America ─called Cathay or Indies in the documents because they think they were sailing to Asia─ and meet the local people, Indian, in person. According to their diary and letters, they have some different perspectives and some similar thoughts about Native American. These literatures hold drastic impact in learning about Native American for future generations. (specifics)

In the early 1990’s the Smithsonian Institution and its National Museum of the American Indian committed to the returning of human remains, burial artifacts, sacred objects, and other articles of cultural patrimony to Indian tribes. (“IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY”). Moreover, members are active in court cases involving land claims. Dating back to a treaty during George Washington’s administration, the Indian Nations and all members of the Iroquois confederation, have demanded the return of vast swaths of land, which is back up by the federal government. Chen

I had an opportunity to visit the oriental institute museum . During my visit to the museum I was made aware of its location and the importance of it to chicago. The museum housed many exhibits of historical value dating civilization back to the paleolithic period of 2,500,000-100,000 B.C. Below you'll find examples of mans rise through the use of tools and refined skills from cave living to structured living throughout evolution. This is an experience that has grounded me to a new interest in structures that we have devised to become the homes we use today for the rest of my life.

Native American literatures embrace the memories of creation stories, the tragic wisdom of native ceremonies, trickster narratives, and the outcome of chance and other occurrences in the most diverse cultures in the world. These distinctive literatures, eminent in both oral performances and in the imagination of written narratives, cannot be discovered in reductive social science translations or altogether understood in the historical constructions of culture in one common name. (Vizenor 1)