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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2004
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Museum gives contemporary Native-American view
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
sfarley@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., opened last week. Five University of Kansas students attended the opening.
Contributed photo
The museum focuses on contemporary Native-American life, said Bobbi Rahder, faculty member in the Center for Indigenous Nations Studies. Rahder said a new track, Indianous Museum Studies, had been started for students in the Indigenous Studies program.
JoAnne Grandstaff (from left), Tony Rogers, Travis Prater, Mary Lettau, Johnnie Fields, Johna Naw Noy and Jason Lewis are all faculty or students in the Indigenous Studies program. The group waited in line with their banner during the procession marking the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian on Sept. 21.
Students work with a collection of more than 9,000 artifacts in the University Museum of Anthropology, but Rahder said she wanted students to be able to see other native collections and museums. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences provided $2,000 for the trip and the Indigenous Studies department provided the rest.
The group made a banner, which read "KU Indigenous Nations Studies Program," and marched in the procession. Rahder said she thought at least 40,000 to 60,000 people marched along the Mall in to the Capitol. The procession lasted from 9 a.m. to about noon. The group arrived in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 20.
"One thing I like about this museum is that it concentrates on present-day Indians and it's not a historical kind of museum, which is what most museum"
"One thing I like about this
museum is that it concentrates on present-day Indians and it's not a historical kind of museum."
Bobbi Rahder Center for Indigenous Nations Studies faculty member
are," Rahder said. "So people get the impression that Indians only lived in the past and are not part of present-day culture."
Every culture represented in the museum has four community curators for each represented tribe and who have decided how to portray their culture, design their exhibit and choose what artifacts to use.
The museum is located on the Mall in Washington, D.C., between the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and the U.S. Botanic Gardens.
"I think it's appropriate that it be on the Mall, and be one of the major museums on the Mall, because they were the first inhabitants of this country and they should be featured in a major way." Rahder said.
um's building was designed to have no corners and was made to look like a natural rock formation.
The museum is the first to be dedicated exclusively to Native Americans and to feature exhibits made from a Native American viewpoint. The muse-
Three major exhibitions are showing at the museum. The public can see more than 8,000 artifacts from the museum's permanent collection.
Johna Van Noy, New Braumfels, Texas, graduate student in the museum track, had to design a museum for her final project this semester. She was
one of the students who went to Washington, and said seeing another museum provided her with more experience to complete the project. Van Noy, who is not Native American, said she wished more non-Native Americans had attended the procession and opening of the museum.
Noy said. "Groups from South America are very different culturally and they look very different and they wear very different clothes than a group from Alaska."
"I think it could have dispelled some of the myths and the preconceived notion we have of what a Native American is," Van
Travis Prater, member of the Creek and Cherokee Nations, was invited to participate in the procession in Washington, D.C. Prater, a Wichita graduate student in Indigenous Nations Studies, was invited because of his internship through the
Cultural Resources Center, which is affiliated with the National Museum of the American Indian in Maryland.
"I thought it was beautiful and a monument of an undying voice of resistance and empowerment." Prater said.
JoAnne Grandstaff, Kickapoo Nation member, went to Washington, D.C., to do research at the Library of Congress and expected to walk with her tribal affiliation in the procession, but she walked with the University group instead.
People normally get testy waiting in lines and the sun, but not the Kansas group, said Grandstaff, a Topека graduate student and associate editor for the Journal of Indigenous Nations Studies.
"The feeling there was like no other." Grandstaff said. "I don't think any human being can bring that much joy."
Grandstaff thought the good feelings had something to do with other tribes going ahead of the group and performing blessings.
Rahder said the museum's opening would have been a perfect opportunity for the U.S. government to apologize to Native Americans.
"I think that would have been totally appropriate for the grand opening of this museum, but that didn't happen," Rahder said.
- Edited by Stephenson
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