In an editorial, Museum Anthropology Review editor Jason Baird Jackson discusses the work and circumstances of the journal in the context of it suspending publication with volume 17.
This article examines themes of collaboration and stewardship, the importance of cultural protocols, and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge in the context of a Haida totem pole raising ceremony held at the Denver Art Museum in November 2019. Collaborating with members of the Wallace family, direct descendants of the original owners of the house frontal and memorial poles in its collection, the Denver Art Museum organized the event to honor the family’s legacy and the history of the poles. In this article, we outline the planning process, events, and outcomes of the event, and situate this within the context of Haida cultural practices. Combined with an analysis of Haida oratory, song, and dance, we demonstrate the ways in which collaborations that honor Haida cultural protocols can engender meaningful relationships between institutions and originating communities.
The work is a book review considering the title Wedding Clothes and the Osage Community: A Giving Heritage by Daniel C. Swan and Jim Cooley (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019).
This article summarizes the results of a multi-year ethnographic research study commissioned by the National Park Service (NPS). The goal of the project was to gain a better understanding of Native American connections to Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument and Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, jointly administered units of the (US) national park system located in the Texas Panhandle. This paper presents, albeit in abbreviated form, the findings contained in the project technical report. Researchers identified eight federally acknowledged American Indian tribes with ties to the park units. In addition, the study documented ethnographic resources present within the project area and reconstructed traditional patterns of resource use. During the project, Indigenous community members shared both concerns, as well as recommendations, regarding the interpretation of their tribes’ histories. The report concludes by proposing ways in which the NPS might collaborate with the traditionally associated tribes in the development of interpretive and educational programming that acknowledges Indigenous people’s historic ties to the parklands, as well as the continued vitality of their cultures.
This project report discusses the 2018 Centennial Commemoration of the Native American Church State of Oklahoma (NAC-OK). Chartered in 1918 the NAC-OK is an intertribal organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of its members to use peyote as a holy sacrament. The Centennial Committee of the NAC-OK invited the University of Oklahoma’s Sam Noble Museum to collaborate on an interpretive exhibition on the history of the NAC-OK. The Committee and the museum employed a methodology grounded in shared authority to integrate community driven content with established museum processes for exhibition development. This approach allowed the museum to produce the exhibition through the museum’s established workflow while privileging community interpretation and design.
