Native American Museum Essays

In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will

Quoted by Handler and Gable, critic Ada Louise Huxtable declares the newly constructed reproduction of Colonial Williamsburg as “too clean,” arguing that it “does not include the filth and stench that would have been commonplace.” (Source E) This sanitation of the truth completely misrepresents history, and the educational value greatly suffers. Conversely, the National Museum of the American Indian hopes to avoid this lack of judgment by dedicating itself to the “preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and Arts of Native Americans.” (Source C) The main goal of the museum is to “span all major cultural areas” (C) and educate the public about and preserve the rich history of such a vast culture. The authenticity and significance of artifacts are important to representing culture and history, and the ability of these artifacts to educate should be a key factor of the selection process.

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

In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man's ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. "Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition" (back cover) is a great way to show that the author's stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa's American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will discuss

The two buildings also differ in the way they interact with the city, since they have vastly differing neighbors. The main building is centered on Adams street and faces the Loop, the busiest area of the city. Flanking the main entrance are two large, bronze, lions that seem to protect the building from the city, while still allowing visitors to enter and exit the museum. The new Modern Wing, however, faces Chicago’s Millenium Park. The face of the building along the park side is a large face of windows. So, while the old building is trying to shut out the city to create a space for itself, the Modern Wing is opening itself up to let the park

On the second floor there was an exhibit that displayed more than thirty of the rare lithographs and their stories. According to this exhibit, between 1821 and 1842, Thomas McKenney, the U.S Superintendent of Indian Trade, commissioned Charles Bird King to paint portraits of courageous and distinguished tribal leaders after their arduous journey from their villages to the city of Washington to negotiate treaties which were later overturned. A fire at Smithsonian Castle destroyed the paintings, but an 1836 series of lithographs survives. Each of these portraits had fascinating story of the chief and his tribe. For example, portrait of an Indian man with red feather head piece and big earrings caught my attention. The portrait was belong to John Brant (Ahyonwaeghs), Mohawk Grand Chief. John Brant was the son of Joseph Brant, Mohawk chieftain and the first Aboriginal to receive a commission in the British Army, as a captain in 1757. John was also the nephew of Robert Johnson Kerr, who was the son of Major General Sir William Johnson and brother-in-law of Joseph Brant. John Brant was a loyal friend and supporter of John Norton (c.1760-1824), who was chosen by Joseph Brant as a War

he National Museum of the American Indian-New York, established in 1916 by George Gustav Heye, is also known as the George Gustav Heye Center and is part of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum complex. The museum is located in the Alexander Hamilton U.S Custom House, and is one of the three sites that make up the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Its galleries present iconic objects selected for their aesthetic quality and power as emblems of Native beliefs, objects associated with prominent Indians that offer perspectives on their place in history, and objects that tell stories of cultural encounter among Native peoples and between Indians and non-Indians. From the oldest pieces on view-stone points found in

Just when the human history of the Americas actually began is the subject of scholarly debate. The disciplinary tools of anthropology and archaeology continue to provide us with ever more refined and exact knowledge about early Native American communities, but the exact time frame remains murky, broadly defined, and subject to disagreement. This lack of precision results from the absence of writing among most of the Native American cultures, depriving us of the benefits of the account of any eyewitnesses to help guide the inquiry. Although the isolation of the western hemisphere allowed the humans there to develop distinctive cultures, some disadvantages became clear the moment Europeans appeared.

The monograph focuses several Native American religious prophets that inspired the Pan-Indian movement to unify the Eastern Woodland tribes together in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Gregory Evans Dowd argues that the narrative examines the religious practices of the Eastern Woodlands Native Americans. Continuing his argument Dowd states that instead of focusing on a particular “Indian point of view,” the monograph investigates two groups the nativists and accommodationists (Dowd, xxii). The author supports his arguments by using journals, military records, and several primary sources. An instance of one of the primary sources that Dowd uses is Benjamin Hawkins’ Sketch of the Creek Country in the Years 1798 and 1799.

The Florence Griswold Museum is located at 96 Lyme Street in Old Lyme, CT. Florence Griswold was the youngest child of a sea captain. Her father lost the family fortune by investing in boats at the time when Connecticut was losing the boating community. This made them broke and in debt. Mr. Griswold went and took out multiple mortgages on the house. Mr. Griswold passed away and Florence Griswold outlived her siblings. She inherited the family home, and along with that home came all of the debts also. Miss. Griswold had to figure out how to keep her home. She opened her home to boarders, which was common in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. In 1899, Henry Ward Ranger boarded at The Griswold home and wanted to set up an art colony in New England. He loved the

The consequences of colonization of 1942 has left many Americans to forget about the first people who inhabited the lands we now call the United States. Not only has it made us forget, but has dramatically affected Indian Country by the lost of culture, language, families, health, food sources, environment, and their overall traditional ways of living. As indigenous people are restoring what was taken away from them, Indian Country is also battling the disease of alcoholism, drug abuse, mental health, physical abuse, lost of Identity, high rates of suicide, poverty, unemployment and systemic oppression. Not to mention, their rights as Sovereign people.

Long before Europeans landed on the east coast of the American continent, native peoples were living and thriving across the land. This is historical fact that is taught in schools across the country. However, much of the rest of Native American history that we are exposed to in schools really does not reflect truth. While the broad lessons capture parts of the story, the reality is that much of the history is distorted and paints an inaccurate picture of the tribes and how they were treated by settlers. As the Europeans pressed westward across the Appalachians and into the Ohio valley, conflicts arose and continued as populations levels grew. Many times the Native Americans were portrayed as the aggressors as cultures clashed in the Plains. Obviously, we cannot absolve the tribes of wrong doing and aggressive behavior. However, upon closer inspection, the many times that the U.S. Government dealt with the Indians, they did from a position of dishonesty and force. These trends are especially noticeable in the post 1850 historical period and it is this period that cemented the foundation of distrust and anger felt by many tribes. A long tradition of the U.S. Government ignoring its own promises made to the Native American peoples can be easily uncovered with even the most basic research. These trends continue in 2016 with the deployment of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 30-inch conduit designed to move light, sweet crude oil from the Dakota Bakken region to a distribution

The Haggin Museum is a very well organized place, as they place each artwork in rooms and galleries by the time period they were painted in. The main rooms I visited were the Haggin and McKee room, since both rooms had artworks painted

Listed here are several accommodations that are situated within proximity to the museum, the closest located a minute stroll away! Residing near the museum definitely has benefits. For one, it is located near other popular landmarks such as Washington Monument and Mount Vernon Place, Charles Village and the Historic

You’ll find an assortment of unique museums in Atlanta. The Atlanta History Center is now home