The Soul of a Museum

by Sandra Kaye Massey, Sac and Fox NAGPRA Representative and Tribal Curator

I must preface my impression of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) by stating that, although I serve my people as a cultural resources representative, my views expressed here are personal. However, given the nature of the museum itself, I believe anyone who visits there in whatever capacity will find the experience a personal one.

I could not imagine what might await me behind the museum’s curved walls as I trudged along Independence Avenue for my visit to NMAI. I admit to some degree of trepidation, a tinge of concern, that arose from our history of museum visits and their interpretations of our people. I serve as a member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma Repatriation and Cultural Resources Committee. We work jointly with the representatives of the Sac and Fox of the Mississippi in Iowa and Sac and Fox Nation of the Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska in the Sac and Fox NAGPRA Confederacy (SFNC). In our work together, we often have to educate museums about our people, history, and the treatment of our items in their possession. At times we have had to insist that a museum remove our items from display, but in other cases museums have become trusted allies.

Thus, my involvement with NMAI began in the fall of 1998. The SFNC representatives come from tribal communities where our ceremonies and traditions still live. We were concerned in that initial visit that the persons we met did not seem to have the same involvement with their traditional communities, and we firmly believe that one may truly know our ways only by being part of them. I have always emphasized that only we can tell our own story, that we know better than anyone else who we are and where we came from.

NMAI agreed. As one example, in their meetings with us and other tribes, they learned about our beliefs surrounding the items they hold and made changes in the treatment and storage of those items to provide for the practice of those beliefs. Our visit even produced friendships that endure to this day.

My contact with NMAI is therefore personal as well as professional. I have friends there. A favorite relative worked there. Still, the concept of a whole museum to tell the stories of indigenous nations seemed optimistic, perhaps idealistic, even daunting. One hopes it can be done, can work. The trend toward telling tribal stories from a living perspective is a new one among museums, although, of course, as tribes we know quite well we are still here.

Hope accompanied me as I entered NMAI’s doors.

And hope turned into a myriad of emotion that included delight and satisfaction.

The museum does tell as much as it can of the individual tribal stories. No exhibit is like another one. Each offers a different tribal world, introduced by the quotes from contemporary as well as historic sources, and created by the involvement of the tribal members. Their pictures and brief biographies are featured in the exhibits, and in some instances their voices can be heard through audios and their living expressions in video. Their pasts, presents, and their homelands are there in pictures. Although my people are not yet featured, I found familiarity in the exhibits and in the artists’ gallery. The museum also offers a computerized resources library open to the public and a café offering foods from tribal regions.

Living history at NMAI is not limited to exhibits, galleries, or pictures. A storyteller in his native dress sat in a corner and entertained children with stories from his people, and I found myself following him around, too. The museum theater featured a native writer. At every turn is something else to investigate, and throughout my visit native personnel passing by said hello.

The museum is as full and detailed as this account cannot be. It bustles with life, not only that of its many visitors, but through what it offers those visitors. Our tour took us behind the scenes, where we saw that great attention is paid to detail even in the parts most people don’t see. Were I to list specific items or formats I especially enjoyed in the exhibits, I would not stop writing.

My people may not yet be featured, but I saw my tribal flag waving over my head during the orientation film, and I knew to look for it because of one of the museum staff. I think this symbolizes my visit to NMAI---a personal relationship to the museum. As in personal relationships and life, one finds always with grounding an evolution, a progression that takes into the future the living identity forged by all that we have been.

Only the tribes can tell our stories, and NMAI heard. It is the living embodiment of collaboration and cooperation.

I thank the Missouri Humanities Council and its Executive Director, Michael Bouman, for making my trip possible. I also want to thank Jim Pepper Henry, Assistant Director at NMAI, for arranging our “behind the scenes” tour, and express a special thank you to his assistant, Charlene Foreman, and Duane Blue Spruce, Facilities Planning Coordinator, for not only providing that tour but their warm welcome, friendliness, information, laughter, and generosity of time and spirit.

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