D.C. exhibit examines Native American imagery
Bold. Visionary. A spectacular success.
The words in an online promotion for a new museum exhibit in Washington, D.C., describe an 1830 U.S. law that forced thousands of American Indians from their lands in the South to areas west of the Mississippi River.
Provocative, yes, says the co-curator of the exhibit “Americans” that opened earlier this year at the National Museum of the American Indian. Bold and visionary in imagining a country free of American Indians. A spectacular success in greatly expanding wealth from cotton fields where millions of blacks worked as slaves.
“When you’re in the show, you understand bold and visionary become tongue in cheek,” co-curator Cecile Ganteaume said.
The exhibit that runs through 2022 has opened to good reviews and pushes the debate over American Indian imagery — men in headdresses with bows, arrows and tomahawks — and teams named the Chiefs, Braves and Blackhawks. The Washington Redskins logo on one wall prompts visitors to think about why it’s described both as a unifying force in D.C. and offensive. Galleries expand on the Trail of Tears, Pocahontas and the Battle of Little Bighorn.
The exhibit falls short, some say, with its online characterization of the Indian Removal Act. The law led to the deaths of thousands of people who were marched from their homes without full compensation for the land they left behind, said Ben Barnes, second chief of the Shawnee Tribe.
Ganteaume said the exhibit and its website aren’t meant to dismiss the experiences of American Indians. They challenge people to recognize how indigenous people are ingrained in America’s identity and show how it happened, she said.