My nose and furry mukluks

What a stunning museum! I missed the Wednesday lab but was just as thrilled to explore the National Museum of the American Indian by myself. I am finding anthropology to be one of those exhilarating academic fields that sends chills down my spine... plus they had an exhibit on the Quechua tribe, with llama-skin sandals, flutes, and all. Splendid!

Bonus Q:

Whose values are expressed in the National Museum of the American Indian? How are remembrance and othering manifest in the museum's layout and presentation of artifacts?

Whose values? To me it appeared the values expressed were those of the "Community Curators" posted before every tribal entrance on the 4th floor. These people seemed to be ones who had helped in the consolidation of the their tribe's rituals and traditions, ones who most probably helped outline the most important aspects of their past and current culture.

Or was it the values foreign anthropologists deemed exemplary? What were those "Community Curators" doing up there?

As goes for the manifestation of remembrance, there was a plethora of examples. The display of the Denver March Powwow memorabilia was an easy representation of how the folk dances and songs of the American Indians are preserved to this day at annual contests and celebrations. The usage of natural, earthy colors in the design (yellows, reds, browns), smooth, curvy architecture, rock-like flooring, flowing staircases, and dusky, dimmed lighting all established an almost mystical ambiance with intention to preserve aspects of the physical world of the American Indians. This mystique generates awe, respect, and yes, reignites a remembrance of the Indian ways.

(Although, back to terms of values, I feel the layout and majority of the museum’s presentation focus specifically on the physical realities of Northern American Indians [the term 'American Indians' encompasses Central and South American Indians, too. In fact, people in Central and South America tend to call themselves Americans as much as we do. Side note – US Americans are called gringos or estadounidenses.])

Wow... there was one especially dramatic and impressive display, the "We are the Evidence" wall, which lit up the names of many (not all) of the tribes that had been decimated after "Contact" (with the Europeans), in a sweeping eye-of-the-storm form. The Quechuas, Lakotas, Huapas, Mapuches… and Andean Quichas, Quechas, Aymaras, Callhuayas.

The manifestations of othering within the layout and artifacts included hung tribal flags in the middle of the first floor, specifically delineating boundaries of tribes within and visitors outside; yet, for the most part, I found the manifestations of “othering” welcoming. Visitors are not solitary and excluded in their perusal of the museum, the learning is not a “cold” examination, one does not apperceive a feel of great distance between the self and the Indian peoples of the past and present. Instead, one is accompanied by narrated cartoon stories and welcoming interactive modules that open the outsider boundary. But, the most spell-bounding aspect of the presentation, again, the mystique, for me… was the glass.
I, as incoming visitor, peeked in to view the artifacts through the glass, but my eyes perceived not only the given costume I was attempting to examine, but also, a spooky, phantasmal, reflection of myself. As I moved, the reflection flowed and distorted my figure, softly warping my shape and face and granting me the opportunity to view myself as I viewed the American Indians. This happened on all the artifacts, electronic displays… I have reasons to believe that reflective glass is there for a purpose. That reflective glass opens community boundaries and yes, invites the visitors to generate their own comparisons to the tribespeople.

As I peered at both my reflected nose and a mannequin dressed in parka and fur mukluks, I certainly did, side-by-side, muse on my relation to the universe of the American Indians.