Denver museums offer meaningful ways to learn more about Native American culture
History Colorado, Denver Art Museum have meaningful exhibits
“Invisibility is the biggest challenge we face. The misunderstanding, or people not understanding who we are as a people,” says Rick Waters ( Kiowa/ Cherokee), executive director of the Denver Indian Center.
Waters said he likes a sentiment expressed by President John Kennedy in a 1963 speech, about Indians being the most misunderstood and least understood Americans of all of us. He interprets Kennedy as alerting Americans to educate themselves to achieve a more indepth understanding of who Indians are.
Many would agree with Waters’ assessment that most of our knowledge of American Indians has come from movies, TV and stereotypes. School textbooks today convey a more truthful portrayal of First Americans, but not nearly enough to rectify the past or end tacit beliefs that some of us may hold about Indian people.
Unless students have delved into Indian studies in much more detail, perfunctory booklearning is not enough to foster meaningful changes in attitude. Augmented learning that relies on more than just the written word is powerful and efficient, especially since seeing something with your own eyes makes it real. Which brings me to my belief that an essential part of learning the history of Indigenous people will come from taking in their art at various exhibitions we are privileged to have in Denver.
A Long Awaited Experience
I was blown away by the extensive Sand Creek Massacre exhibition at History Colorado. The museum has gotten the story right after, by all accounts, failing miserably to do so in 2012 by not consulting with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes about the facts of the 1864 slaughter.
The extensive exhibition recounts an atrocity that is among the worst in Colorado history. About 230 people, most of them
women, children and the elderly, were brutally murdered and dismembered by the U. S. Army at Big Sandy Creek.
The murderers waited until the tribes’ men were out hunting for food to converge on the encampment at the behest of Colorado Territorial Gov. John Evans, who stoked racist fears that the Indians were poised to attack the good white folks of Denver and take “their” land.
Evans told the big lie to justify the government’s continuing efforts to exterminate Indian people.
If you’ve felt indifferent about renaming Mount Evans and other landmarks that honor that guy, tour the exhibit and you’ll quickly conclude that such changes have been long overdue.
One gut- wrenching scenario of the massacre involved Colorado Calvary soldiers on horseback, chasing a small boy for target practice as he ran for his life. He was eventually felled by their bullets.
Another story that was news to me involved the lone hero among the marauders on that dreary November day.
“It was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized,” wrote Captain Silas S. Soule to his commanders.
Soule refused to take part in the carnage and was eventually murdered on a Denver street, possibly for reporting the truth about the massacre during his public testimony before a military inquiry.
There’s a mountain of information that Coloradans can take away from the exhibition in a much more meaningful way than by just Googling it, including Abraham Lincoln’s shameful actions that directly contributed to the murders.
While most of the exhibition focuses on before, during and after the massacre, there are lighter moments such as an explanation of the four stages of Indian life, the pride of being Arapaho or Cheyenne, and the reverence that young Natives hold for their ancestors.
In a separate area from the Sand Creek installation, History Colorado also tells the story of the Ute people, the state’s longest continuous residents who settled here nearly three centuries before Europeans showed up.
Exploring history through Indigenous eyes
The Denver Art Museum’s “The Indigenous Peoples of North America” permanent collection is a moving display that includes videos of Indian artists talking about creating works that teach tribal history and inform about contemporary tribal life.
“Art has always been a way to transmit knowledge from person to person, whether it be through hide paintings, quillwork, drawings, beading, ( or) whatever,” said Jordan Dresser ( Northern Arapaho), in a video.
“Indigenous art brings a lot to the world because it provides a context of this land,” he noted.
Indians educating non- Natives about tribal traditions via the arts is not a novel idea. Powwows held for the public around Colorado feature songs and dances that honor their ancestors and their heritage.
“I really want people to know and understand that not only are we still here, but that many of our traditions, our values are still thriving,” said University of Colorado professor Angelica Lawson ( Northern Arapaho).
The issue of invisibility is also on the mind of Helen Munoz ( Ute Mountain Ute). “Even though we live on reservations and you don’t see us, we’re alive and thriving too,” she said.
Unforgettable
Many beautiful works of Native art can be found on several floors of The Martin Building at The DAM.
“The Scream” by Kent Monkman ( Canadian Cree) on Level 3 is a must- experience. It stopped me in my tracks. The haunting 7- by- 11- foot painting evoked an overwhelming, almost unbearable feeling of sadness.
Moments later, I got so mad that heat began to rise on the back of my neck, filling my face and head.
Great art often provokes a strong reaction.
It’s ironic that Monkman chose bright, vivid colors to express the horror of Catholic nuns and priests joining Canadian mounties in ruthlessly ripping children from their mothers’ arms to cart off to boarding schools.
Luckily, I found a bench nearby to sit and collect myself. Other museum- goers appeared equally aghast, frozen in place, mouths agape.
No doubt the anguish etched on the faces of Canadian mothers in “The Scream” was also felt in Colorado.
Parents who refused to send their children to the schools risked going to prison and being deprived of food and clothing on the reservations controlled by the government.
By last count, the state was home to 10 federal boarding schools where some children died, suffered brutal beatings and were emotionally scarred, all for the ignoble cause of assimilation into white society.
Recently, the Canadian government agreed to pay First Nations $ 2.8 billion to settle lawsuits over the boarding schools.
Currently, Colorado is studying its role in complying with the federal program of cultural genocide.
Meanwhile, reparations promised in 1865 by the federal government to the descendants of the Sand Creek Massacre, have yet to be paid.
A chance to feel more
Multimedia, 3- dimensional art installations are meant to take museum- goers beyond the confines of books, lectures, and history classes.
If you are fortunate enough to have time to check out the aforementioned exhibitions on a weekday when museums are less crowded, don’t hesitate. Minimal noise and fewer distractions make it easier to contemplate and reflect at your leisure — and fulfill that which John Kennedy called for: Educating ourselves to understand who Indian people are and what they have experienced.
Let’s erase the negative legacy that prevents us from forming a more perfect union.
Jo Ann Allen retired recently from Colorado Public Radio in Denver after 47 years of reporting the news. The latest episode of her podcast, Been There Done That, features Rick Waters of the Denver Indian Center on boarding schools, broken treaties, life on the reservation, land acknowledgments, and more at beentheredonethatpodcast.com.