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Museum of a Living People: One of the Country’s Oldest Tribal Museums is Shifting its Focus Closer to Home [1]
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Date: 2024-09-26
In 2022, staff at the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians tribal historic preservation office identified over 200 sacred or funerary objects in the Museum of the Cherokee People that should not be publicly displayed. Taking them down left gaping holes in the museum’s main gallery. The staff soon filled the empty display cases with a companion exhibit, called “Disruption,” which responded to the removed artifacts.
Containing new works by contemporary Cherokee artists, “Disruption” was also a response to the exhibit itself, last overhauled in 1998. The first piece was a matriarchal figure that held the end of a silver thread running through the entire exhibit. Symbolizing feminine energy, it was designed as a counterpoint to the formerly male-dominated narrative. Staff designer Tyra Maney (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Diné) selected a vibrant, unexpected palette. The colorful labels popped in contrast to the old exhibit, and the newly filled cases were painted bright colors.
The 76 year old institution, located in Cherokee, North Carolina, is in the midst of a mindset shift, centered around one principle.
“In the mid-20th century we were leaning into tourism as an economic driver and focused on visitors as our primary audience,” explained Executive Director Shana Bushyhead Condill (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “Now the pendulum is swinging the other way and we are talking about how to serve our community first and bring visitors along.”
The museum recently made a seemingly small but significant change to put the community first. In its long history, the formerly named Museum of the Cherokee Indian had never had a Cherokee name. The staff developed a paragraph of their hopes for it as a cultural hub, a place to protect tribal artifacts where Cherokee tell their own story. They then went to the Cherokee speaker’s council, who developed the name, ᏣᎳᎩ ᎢᏗᏴᏫᏯᎯ ᎢᎦᏤᎵ ᎤᏪᏘ ᎠᏍᏆᏂᎪᏙᏗ, (Tsalagi idiyvwiyahi igatseli uweti asquanigododi), and the English translation, Museum of the Cherokee People.
“It is powerful to name ourselves, versus what other people have called us,” said Condill.
Disrupting Old Ways
In December 2023, the museum closed the major exhibit space in preparation for a total revision. The changes will encompass both physical and philosophical elements. The old school horseshoe layout will be replaced with a hub and spoke, allowing visitors to choose where to go next and how long to spend in different areas. Knowing the museum will tell some difficult stories, spaces will be set aside for visitors to gather themselves and reflect.
“Disruption” exhibit, with brightly painted cases. (Photo courtesy of the Museum of the Cherokee People)
The previous chronological format will change because fundamentally, it is not a Cherokee way of understanding the world. The timeline didn’t allow for contemporary additions, particularly problematic when one of the museum’s goals is to communicate that Cherokee people didn’t just live in the past, but are also alive today. The new exhibit will be story-centered, not object-centered, and prioritize themes and the ways they weave through different narratives.
“We have the opportunity to de-silo our history,” said Condill. “How do we do public history in a new way – everyone is thinking about this.”
Two current exhibits give a hint of what is to come.
In “Sovereignty,” the curators experimented with incorporating fewer carefully selected objects centered on a theme. The stories of all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes start here, at their ancestral homelands. This display touches on the importance of place, the complex history and ongoing resilience of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
“This story is not told enough from our perspective,” said museum Community Program Manager Shennelle Feather (Diné Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians). “It is usually focused on the genocide of indigenous people, not how intelligent we are to fight for our sovereignty and what victories we have had to remain where we are. We are telling contemporary events and how we exist today.”
Mud Dauber Community Pottery Workshop. (Photo by the Museum of the Cherokee People)
Alongside is “Didanisisgi Gadagwatli,” an exhibition of work by students in the museum’s three-month intensive pottery class. Renowned ceramic artist Tara McCoy (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) developed the Mud Dauber Community Workshop three years ago when she noticed a decline in practicing Cherokee ceramic artists. While each piece incorporates elements of traditional techniques and styles taught by McCoy, students are encouraged to follow their own artistic directions.
“They are ALL different, and they are ALL Cherokee,” said Condill.
Keeping the Flame
The museum’s community programing now focuses on preserving and sharing Cherokee song, stories, beliefs, language, and art. The Atsila Anotasgi (translated as fire builders) Cultural Specialist team, comprised of enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, are active teachers and learners about their culture and identity.
“Growing up here in the 90’s, there was shame in being indigenous and very few of us grew up with pride in our cultural identity,” explained Feather. “The team members go into all of the public schools with enrolled members and give their acquired knowledge freely back to the community to keep our culture alive. The young students don’t know a world where they can’t be proud of who they are.”
Atsila Anotasgi Team. (Photo courtesy of the Museum of the Cherokee People)
Each week, Atsila Anotasgi members work with the preschoolers of the New Kituwah Academy Cherokee language immersion school to embed a sense of pride and place. The students learn dances they perform at the end of the year, accompanied by the male team members (traditionally, boys and men are the singers). This year, the team noticed a couple of the young boys were singing as they were dancing and invited them to practice the music instead. These preschoolers learned the words, grasped the rhythm and feel of the traditional songs, and then made gourd rattles to play.
“Singing is not easy, it takes courage, and I have never seen three-year-old boys singing these songs,” said Feather. “I love that impact, knowing every aspect of our culture is being seen and picked up by people younger and younger.”
The programming for non-tribal visitors has shifted as well. In the past, a lot of it was performative; now it is informative. People are invited to participate in a cultural exchange, to dance and experience the Cherokee way of life.
Native Story, Native Way
Condill interned at the museum while in college, and after time at the National Gallery, she is thrilled to be back doing this work with her own tribe. Her experiences outside of Cherokee, though, have given her important inspiration and context for her work. An internship at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., taught her a life-changing way of thinking. Staff there are intentional about caring for objects in an indigenous way: they smudge each artifact when it arrives, they install muslin curtains instead of metal doors on the collection cabinets so objects can breathe, they play music in the gallery for the collection.
Learning from other museums developed by Native people has challenged her to imagine a truly native space. As she looks to the future, working towards a reimagined structure with expanded galleries, her pursuit is of a space that allows the museum to tell the story in a way that is fully and uniquely Cherokee.
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[1] Url:
https://dailyyonder.com/museum-of-a-living-people-one-of-the-countrys-oldest-tribal-museums-is-shifting-its-focus-closer-to-home/2024/09/26/
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