Native American Voices opens at Penn Museum in Philly

PHILADELPHIA, PA-An exhibition entitled Native American Voices: The People-Here and Now, opened at the Penn Museum on March 1, 2014. It challenges visitors to leave preconceptions about Native Americans behind-and discover a living tapestry of nations with distinct stories, identities, and contemporary leaders.

The richly interactive new exhibition features a wide range of contemporary Native American voices-including artists, activists, journalists, scholars, and community leaders-from around North America. They speak out in video and in audio, sharing stories, poetry, and short essays on issues that matter to them today: identity, political sovereignty, religious freedom and sacred places, language, celebrations, art, and cultural continuity. Through a central introductory video, and at dramatic touch screen towers and multimedia stations throughout the gallery, visitors encounter Native American perspectives on key themes.

More than 250 Native American objects-ranging from thousands of years old Clovis projectile points to contemporary art-drawn from the Museum's expansive collections from around the United States and Canada, help to tell the stories of Native American peoples today, their aspirations, histories, art, concerns, and continuing cultural traditions.

Material highlights include Lenape objects from the Delaware Valley region, war bonnets and regalia from the Plains and Prairie, intricately woven baskets from Maine and California, robes and regalia, moccasins, jewelry, children's toys and clothing, contemporary Native American art, and world renowned stone tools from Clovis, New Mexico that are among the oldest objects in the museum's collection. Over the course of five years, nearly 300 objects representing more than 100 tribes will be rotated on display. At interactive digital stations visitors may investigate and sort these objects according to personal interests, fashioning their own unique experiences while gaining insight into the materials on display.

A Tapestry of Nations

Far from having disappeared into the American "melting pot," today's Native Americans are culturally distinct and diverse. Today there are more than 565 federally recognized tribal entities in the United States (far more if one counts U.S. tribes that are not federally recognized, and Canadian First Nations).

The exhibition touches on topics raised by today's Indigenous leaders-including issues of personal and group identity, tribal sovereignty, language retention, and Native American representation-while exploring four main themes:

Local Nations focuses on the histories and living communities of the Lenape people-the original peoples of Philadelphia and the Greater Delaware Valley region. The Lenape are known as the "grandfathers," the peoples from whom all other Algonquian-speaking groups are descended. Escaping persecution in the 1800s, many, but not all, Lenape moved to Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Canada where many are now federally recognized as sovereign Delaware nations. Several of today's local Lenape who chose to stay in this region now hold state recognition in New Jersey, and some are seeking recognition at the federal level. Ancient artifacts from this region as well as more recent contemporary Lenape objects and regalia are part of this theme.

The roles and meanings of Sacred Places are explored as a second exhibition theme. Natural landmarks are important to Native peoples, and ongoing issues around access to those sacred places, are explored. Places are important to Native Americans for many reasons. These are places where their ancestors once lived, where special events may have occurred in their histories, and others hold special resources needed today to continue traditions and strengthen Native American identities.

Objects often hold related stories and histories such as family crest objects from Alaska; Southwest pottery made of clay dug from the earth; and clothing, moccasins, and beadwork that hold associations and imagery of the land. Projectile points excavated in the 1930s at Blackwater Draw, New Mexico, by Penn archaeologists John L. Cotter and E.B. Howard revealed evidence of an early "Clovis Culture" that flourished for many thousands of years.

A third section of the exhibit explores Continuing Celebrations-the many ways in which contemporary Native American communities come together to mark and sustain their cultural identities. These range from familiar powwows (more than 1,000 powwows are held each year in the U.S. alone), to newer events such as Celebration, a biennial event in Juneau, Alaska, that brings together Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian families to celebrate the survival of their cultures. Today's celebrations often include dance regalia and clothing, oratory, art, traditional foods, language workshops and more. Mant Penn Museum objects come from traditions of celebration, and today's Native artists continue to draw inspiration from objects made by their ancestors and elders. Examples include regalia such as shirts, headdresses, and leggings, as well as paintings, feasting dishes, and crest objects.

A fourth theme of New Initiatives explores ongoing economic, health, and educational initiatives in the Native American community.

Native American activism has changed governmental policies and continues to create opportunities to raise economic and health standards in new ways. Highlights include the development of cultural centers and language programs, the tourist market for Native arts, new programs in the Academy, the return to traditional Native American foods, and repatriation legislation.

Many objects in the Penn Museum's collections speak to these issues: jewelry, basketry, and textiles created at different times and places for the tourist industry, and objects associated with continued health and well-being.