Skwachàys Lodge, an Aboriginial Hotel & Gallery in Vancouver

all photos from schwachays.com

Name: Skwachàys Lodge
Tribe: Northwest Coast First Nations, Urban Native community
Location: 29/31 West Pender, Vancouver, BC V6B 1R3, Canada
Type: Hotel, Art Gallery, Not-for-profit Social Programs
Visiting Info: Hotel: open daily, Reservations; Gallery: Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, Sat-Sun 11am-5pm.
Contact: Website, telephone 888-998-0797 (toll free)

Skwachàys Lodge in Vancouver is a jewel of socially responsible travel, culturally inclusive community building, and Native self-reliance. Besides the 18-room boutique hotel and the Urban Aboriginal Fair Trade Gallery in the lobby, Skwachàys Lodge and Residences is also home to affordable apartments for Native artists, workshops and art production space, and a commercial kitchen. A sweat lodge and smudge room on the roof of the hotel were especially designed as a sanctuary for Native patients who must travel to Vancouver from outlying rural areas for medical treatments.

The project was conceived in part beginning in 2002 by the not-for-profit Vancouver Native Housing Society (VNHS), who saw a need for culturally sensitive temporary housing for traveling patients. An online community space for local Native artists started by VNHS was later combined with the housing project, and has grown into a gallery and work space for 24 artists-in-residence.

The VNHS was able to mesh its social programs with a provincial and federal government-supported urban renewal project through the renovation of the Victorian-era Pender Hotel. The current façade combines the original, preserved, Victorian architecture with a longhouse and 40-foot story pole by Coast Salish artist Francis Horne Sr. in a unique way that vividly represents the area's history and community. The hotel was renamed Skwachàys (pronounced skwa-chize), the Squamish name for the land at the head of False Creek that is now part of Vancouver. And while these elements unify the layered histories of the place, the video art presentation embedded in the glass sidewalk pushes the project into the future.

Skwachàys Lodge is growing into a public, multifaceted cultural experience and self-sustaining, Native-owned business enterprise. The VNHS transforms the hotel and gallery profits into housing and artist support programs for the local Native community, thereby avoiding federal government aid programs.

The hotel offers two meeting spaces, the Cedars Boardroom and Kayachtn (The Welcome Room). An aboriginally-focused menu provided by Cedar Feast House Catering and local beers and wines are served all day in the Kayachtn Room, where the hotel also holds events such as artist meet-and-greets and storytelling.

Each of the 18 suites has it's own theme and was created by local Native artists and interior designers. The hotel's webpage provides photos and a detailed description of each room, including the names of the artist and decorators.



The Poem Suite

The Longhouse Suite

Resources:
Skwachàys Lodge at Aboriginal Tourism BC
Skwachàys Lodge on Tripadvisor
Vancouver Sun article from Oct. 14, 2014, "Skwachàys Lodge: country’s first urban aboriginal hotel opens for business (with video)."
NY Post article from Marc 16, 2015, "Checking In: Skwachàys Lodge, Vancouver."
Gazette Magazine article from April 14, 2015, "Living with Legends at Vancouver's Skwachàys Lodge."

Five Civilized Tribes Museum

Name: The Five Civilized Tribes Museum
Tribe: Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole
Location: 1101 Honor Heights Drive, Muskogee, OK 74401
Type: Art and History Museum, NRHP Historic Building
Visiting Info: Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-2pm (closed Sundays and all of January), Admission: $1.50-$3
Contact: Website, telephone 918-683-1701

In 1951, a Native women's organization called the Da-Co-Tah Club began a campaign to turn the abandoned Union Indian Agency Building in Muskogee, Oklahoma, into a museum.

The Club's mission since its establishment in the 1930s was to create an intertribal organization to raise awareness of Native history and communities, foster better communication between Nations, strengthen social ties, and meet the needs of their underserved population.

Throughout the Dust Bowl and the Second World War, the Da-Co-Tah women raised money for the Murrow Orphanage, the Drought Relief Fund, the Unemployment Fund, and the Salvation Army, as well as providing services for impoverished children and Native families.

Out of their desire to celebrate Native identity and encourage intertribal cooperation, they envisioned a museum that would showcase the cultures and art of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma - the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole - together. And as part of their vision, they would preserve the building that had once housed the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory. The building itself would commemorate the terrible history of the Removal period, the Trail of Tears, and the struggles and survival of the Five Tribes in Oklahoma afterward.

During the 20th century, the Agency Building had passed from the BIA to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation who used it as a school for Creek Freedmen. The Creeks gave it to the city of Muskogee in 1909 as part of Honor Heights Park, and then the city gave it back to the federal government during WWII to be part of the veteran's hospital complex that still stands next door. Seeking to transfer the building back to the town of Muskogee, the Da-Co-Tah Club sponsored a bill in the US House of Representatives with Muskogee-born US Rep. Ed Edmonson in 1954.

The House Bill was signed by President Eisenhower in 1955, the building was restored entirely by privately donated funds raised by the Club, and the Museum was opened in 1966.

Today, the Five Civilized Tribes Museum displays historical exhibits on the ground floor and its art collections upstairs. Many of the Five Tribes' most famous artists have pieces on view, and the Museum owns the world's largest collection of works by Jerome Tiger (Muscogee Creek-Seminole). There is a library and archive upstairs, but it is open by appointment only.

The Museum hosts a yearly Masters Art Show in November and a Student Art Show (grades 7-12) in March. The "Art Under the Oaks" Art Market happens in April, around the time of the Azalea Festival in the adjoining Honor Heights Park.

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Resources:

Five Civilized Tribes Museum on Facebook

Honor Heights Park on TravelOK.com
Union Agency at the Oklahoma Historical Society webpage
Intertribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes

Ocmulgee National Monument

Stairs up the Great Temple Mound
photo from Wikimedia

Name: Ocmulgee National Monument
Tribe: Mississippian and Lamar cultures, Muscogee (Creek)
Location: 1207 Emory Highway, Macon, GA 31217
Type: National Park, prehistoric mounds, hiking trails, museum, events
Visiting Info: Open daily, 9am-5pm, Admission is free except for special events
Contact: Website, telephone 478-752-8257

The Ocmulgee National Monument, located on the Ocmulgee River in Macon, GA, preserves 702 acres of prehistoric mounds and other earthworks built on a site that has been inhabited by Native people for an estimated 17,000 years. The site came under the protection of the National Park Service in 1934 and was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1966.

Although people have been living and hunting along the river since the last Ice Age, the seven mounds located in the park were built by the South Appalachian Mississippian people around 900 AD. The largest earthwork is the Great Temple Mound, which is 55 feet high and has a wooden stairway that visitors can climb to take in the view from the top. Nearby is the Lesser Temple Mound, and the park also includes a burial mound, other small ceremonial mounds, and defensive earthwork trenches.

Park Map via NPS

In addition to the mounds, the park includes six miles of hiking and biking trails, fishing and picnicking areas, and an 800 foot long boardwalk over wetlands. There is also a historic railroad bridge, some civil war era landmarks, the historic site of an English colonial trading post from 1690, and a reconstructed ceremonial earthlodge, the floor of which is the original one thousand year old floor of a Mississippian earthlodge.

Two more mounds and the remains of a palisade and village are located three miles away at the Lamar Mounds and Village Site. The Lamar culture developed after the decline of the Mississippian culture around 1300 AD. The Lamar site is part of the Ocmulgee National Monument park but is accessible only by a park ranger-guided tour and four mile roundtrip hike (call 478-752-8257 for details and reservations).

Ocmulgee Visitor Center
photo from ONMA

Inside the striking, terracotta and white art moderne Visitor Center, there is a gift shop and a small theater area presenting a short orientation film, "Mysteries of the Mounds." An archaeology museum displays thousands of artifacts from excavations that have taken place onsite. Other exhibits detail the history of the Ocmulgee River location, including the rise of the Muscogee (Creek) Confederacy from the descendants of the Lamar people whose culture and population was decimated by disease spread by Hernando de Soto's expedition in 1540.

photo from ONMA on Facebook

Two special events are held at the ONM each year, the Lantern Light Tours in March and the Ocmulgee Indian Celebration in September. The Ocmulgee Indian Celebration is the largest Native gathering in the Southeastern United States and represents all the tribal nations from the region through hundreds of craftspeople and music, dance, food, storytelling, and more.

Resources:
Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative
Ocmulgee National Monument Association

Spas in Indian Country

The Spa at Salish Lodge
photo from www.salishlodge.com

This month's issue of Native Peoples Magazine has a cover story, "Natural Beauty: Health, wellness and beauty secrets from Indigenous peoples," on Native-owned spas and traditional health and beauty treatments. It's an important topic because, as with cultural appropriations in the fashion industry, the health and wellness industry is also rife with New Age-y rip offs of Native spirituality and traditional medicine.

Here's a compiled list of the businesses mentioned in both the NPM cover article and an Indian Country Today article from last year, "5 Spas in Indian Country Using Luxury Accommodations and Native-Based Treatments."

I have also previously done a post here about the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe's Spa at Norwich Inn in Norwich, CT.

The Spa at Talking Stick Resort
(Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community)
Scottsdale, AZ

Aji Spa at Wild Horse Pass Hotel and Casino
(Gila River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community)
Chandler, AZ

Salish Lodge and Spa
(Muckleshoot Tribe)
Snoqualmie, WA

Travaasa Hana
(Hawai'ian)
Hana (Maui), HI

The Skʌ:nʌ́: Spa and Ahsi Day Spa at Turning Stone Resort and Casino
(Oneida Nation)
Verona, NY

Spa Ssakwa'q'n at Coeur d'Alene Resort
(Coeur d'Alene)
Coeur d'Alene, ID

Tamaya Resort and Spa
(Pueblo)
Santa Ana Pueblo, NM

Besides spa facilities, there are also Native-owned health and beauty supplies retailers. One example that I know of is ArXotica, Inc. in Bethel, AK. Three sisters from the Quissunamiut Tribe make bath and beauty products from hand-gathered ingredients from their arctic tundra environment in Alaska.

Another botanical products shop is Laughing Berry Botanicals of Metlakatla, AK. They make health and skincare products from the locally harvested devils club plant and black seaweed. The Shearers, the husband and wife team who own Laughing Berry Botanicals and make all the products, also own Laughing Berry Gifts and a tour company that focuses on Tsimshian culture and history around Metlakatla.

And again, from an article from last year in Indian Country Today, "All-Natural Beauty: 7 Indigenous-owned Skincare and Cosmetic Lines You'll Love," here's their list of Native-owned health and skincare companies:

Native Touch (Andrews, NC)
Sister Sky (Spokane, WA)
Medicine of the People (Tucson, AZ)
Native Naturals (Norman, OK)
Native Wisdom (Chicago, IL)
Mother Earth Essentials (Alberta, Canada)
Kamamak Cosmetics (British Columbia, Canada)

I'll continue to update this list as I find more resources!

Poeh Cultural Center and Museum

photo from the Pueblo of Pojoaque's website

Name: Poeh Cultural Center and Museum
Tribe: Pueblo of Pojoaque
Location: 78 Cities of Gold Road, Santa Fe, NM 87506
Type: Cultural and Arts Education Center, Museum
Visiting Info: Mon-Sat, 10am-5pm; Free admission, donations accepted
Contact: Website, telephone 505-455-5041

The Poeh Cultural Center and Museum is located about 16 miles north of downtown Santa Fe, NM, at the Pueblo of Pojoaque. The Center was designed to resemble a traditional pueblo with its collection of golden adobe buildings arranged around a series of open plazas. The beautiful architecture is more than just for show. The Center has been used as a training project for teaching traditional construction methods in partnership with the tribally-owned Poeh Pueblo Construction Services Corp.

The construction training program is just one of several projects designed to further the Poeh Center's mission of preserving Pueblo culture and language, promoting artistic expression, and educating both tribal members and non-natives. Although visitors are probably focused on touring the small but well-designed museum and visiting the gift shop, the Center is also home to the Poeh Arts educational institute which includes studio space for local working artists, classes, and an internship program for tribal members who are interested in arts and museum administration. Research archives provide online access to some of the Museum's collections, a photo archive that includes over 10,000 historic and contemporary photographs, and the Oral History Documentation Project. Online access is available by request.

photo from Facebook

More programs are in the works, such as a children's museum, an amphitheater for lectures and dance exhibitions, a larger library/archive facility that would include the Pojoaque Public Library, and a garden.

Already, the Museum has been expanded to include space for artist demonstrations, a gift shop, and a rotating exhibit gallery in addition to the permanent exhibit, Nah Poeh Meng. The word Poeh is the Tewa (one of five Pueblo languages, and the one spoken at Pojoaque) word for "path" and Nah Poeh Meng means "Along the Continuous Path." The imagery of time and culture as a leading path can be found throughout the Center, including the upcoming temporary Pueblo embroidery exhibit, "Paths of Beauty," which opens August 20, 2015.

Sculpture from Nah Poeh Meng
There are more photos on the PCCM website

Nah Poeh Meng leads guests through Pueblo history in six temporal or "seasonal" spaces from the Pueblo origin story to the modern day. The Pueblo people tell this history from their own perspective through art and sculpture made by local artists and storytelling presented as audio in seven languages: Tewa, Tiwa, Towa, Keresan, Zuni, Spanish, and English. The Tewa recordings provide more detailed information for tribal members to have a deeper educational experience with their own culture and "to protect sensitive portions of Pueblo culture." Adding to this examination of the broader Pueblo culture, the current rotating exhibit, "Everything and Everybody," presents the history of the Pojoaque Pueblo specifically.

Beyond the Poeh Center, local art is on display via a self-guided tour at the nearby Buffalo Thunder Resort Casino. The Pojoaque Pueblo also offers several tribally owned restaurants, another casino resort called Cities of Gold, a Hilton Homewood Suites, an RV park, a spa, and a golf course. Guests are welcome during Pojoaque's feast days for Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 and July 27, as well as at the King's Day dances on January 6.

Resources:

The Pueblo of Pojoaque
Poeh Center on Facebook
Buffalo Thunder Resort Casino Art Collection
New Mexico Tourism Dept.'s Native American homepage

Cherokee Heritage Center

photo from visitcherokeenation.com

Name: Cherokee Heritage Center
Tribe: Cherokee Nation, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
Location: 21192 S. Keeler Drive, Park Hill, OK 74457
Type: Cultural Heritage Complex
Visiting Info: Open year round, Summer (Memorial Day through Labor Day) Mon-Sat, 9am - 5pm, Winter (except Jan 1-14: closed) Tues-Sat, 9am - 5pm; Admission: $5-$8.50.
Contact: Website, telephone 888-999-6007

 

The Cherokee Heritage Center is a complex of attractions that includes the Cherokee National Museum, the Trail of Tears exhibit, Diligwa -  The 1710 Cherokee Village, Adams Corner Rural Village, Nofire Farms, the Cherokee Family Research Center, and the Cherokee National Archives.

The Center also offers special exhibits, cultural workshops, and events, including the Cherokee National Holiday celebration, the Trail of Tears Art Show and Sale, and the Homecoming Art Show.

Trail of Tears Exhibit
photo from cherokeeheritage.org

Artifacts, cultural objects, and art pieces from the span of Cherokee history are on display in the Museum and the Trail of Tears exhibit.

The Diligwa village depicts a traditional Cherokee settlement in the 18th century prior to assimilation. Docents guide visitors through the encampment, explaining traditional culture, crafts, hunting techniques, and games. The self-guided Adams Corner Rural Village and Nofire Farms show what tribal towns looked like after assimilation and the horrors of the Trail of Tears. Set in the 1890's, the seemingly bucolic Rural Village presents the turmoil faced by the Cherokee as Indian Territory began its transition to Oklahoma statehood.

The Swimmer School at the Adams Corner Rural Village
photo from cherokeeheritage.org

The Heritage Center is also home to the Cherokee National Archives, and admission to the complex provides visitors with access to the Cherokee Family Research Center and their genealogical resources. Staff are available to help researchers access Dawes Commission records and the Final Rolls, Seminary records, Cherokee cemetery documentation, and citizenship resources.

The Center is located just to the south of Tahlequah, the Cherokee Nation's capitol, on the grounds of the original Cherokee Female Seminary in an old settlement called Park Hill. The spot is of great historic significance as Park Hill was the home of many important tribal leaders, such as John Ross, in the period after the Removal, and the Seminary was the first educational institution for women west of the Mississippi River.

Park Hill is also home to the John Ross Museum, Ross Cemetery, and the Murrell Home.
 

Resources:

Cherokee Nation
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
Visit Cherokee Nation tourism homepage
Cherokee Heritage Center on TravelOK.com

Cherokee Heritage Center on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (National Parks)

Travel Journal: Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Museum

Even though as a white person I always feel a little bit like I'm intruding at pow wows, as someone who grew up in tribal towns and now lives in an area with comparatively few Native people, I also get a warm feeling of familiarity and nostalgia for my childhood. Finding myself in a room full of Native people again last week at the Pequot Museum choked me up a little bit, I have to be honest. The adorable little kids in regalia who were already great dancers only doubled down on my emotional state. Beautiful!

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Museum and Research Center holds an annual Educational Pow Wow that introduces pow wow culture, etiquette, and meaning, and explains the different styles of dances and accompanying regalia. My girls and I drove down to Connecticut to attend the most recent one on July 9th.



The museum is on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation near Ledyard, CT, between Norwich and New London in the far southeastern corner of the state. It's a couple hour's drive for us, so we didn't get there until late morning. The pow wow had already started, and the museum was crowded with school or summer camp groups.

The program is run through twice, in the morning and again in the afternoon, with a lunch break in between. That meant we were able to catch the tail end of the morning presentation, grab some lunch in the Pequot Café, do a quick trip through the exhibits as the field trips cleared out for the day, and still catch the afternoon presentation. There is plenty to do and see at the Pequot Museum even without an event like the pow wow, so we crowded a ton of activity into one afternoon.

View of the Green Roof

First things first, the museum is gorgeous. It's won a bunch of architectural awards since it opened in 1998, and the modern building is surrounded by a lush green forest that visitors can enjoy on the hiking/walking trails that surround the grounds or from the 185 ft. tall Observation Tower. The 65,000 sq. ft. "green roof" is an eco-friendly garden of soft grass - growing on the roof of the exhibit halls! A round, glass atrium just inside the front entrance, called the Gathering Space, is two stories of sunlight with that backdrop of thick, green trees.


The Gathering Space

Up in the balcony looking down over the Gathering Space floor, the Pequot Café serves local, native, seasonal foods cafeteria style. I jumped at the chance to get an Indian taco - something I grew up with in Oklahoma, but rarely see now that I live in New England. Frybread is just perfect for sopping up buffalo chili and salsa and melted cheese. Yum! My daughters had a grilled cheese and a peanutberry (peanut butter and whole summer berries) on thick, homemade whole wheat bread and a side of sweet potato fries. A small market area also sells White Earth Nation and Red Lake Nation products.

Back down a long ramp under the Gathering Space atrium, there are two floors of exhibit space that trace the Pequot Nation from the last Ice Age to the present day. The impressive, recreated pre-colonial Pequot Village would probably be the most memorable part for most people, my kids included, but I was struck most by an audio/visual presentation in a mock farmhouse about the tribulations of the people during the 20th century. I think most Native American history, when you can get it at all, focuses on the devastations of Native communities during the colonial or westward expansion periods. Rarely are we encouraged to ask what was happening with Native people in 1920 or 1940 or 1960, and yet the legal and cultural blows were still being delivered.

My girls also loved the outdoor 1780s Farmstead exhibit.

The "Mission Mishoon" dugout canoe in progress

Another striking exhibit was the Portrait Gallery which consists of large black and white photos of current Pequot tribal members, young and old. The Pequots are a particularly racially diverse tribe, and seeing a presentation of cohesive tribal identity amongst such a diverse-looking group of people was inspiring. The same was true of the dancers in the Gathering Space above when we followed the sound of drums back up the ramp to take our seats around edge of the atrium.

My daughters (ages 6 and 8) were enthralled with the dancing. The younger one was totally Team Jingle Dance and the older was Fancy Shawl all the way. We skipped out before the group round dance at the end because the girl were begging to see the Observation Tower before it closed at 4:30, but I couldn't keep them from dancing down the hallway, across the parking lot, and at the rest stop McDonalds on the way home.

Dancing

The Educational Pow Wow (and the Museum as a whole) provided a great opportunity to have several good talks with my girls about appreciating without taking, about Halloween costumes, and about Native Americans being "a people with a past, not of the past." We enjoyed ourselves, but we also definitely learned a lot.

For more photos, click here to see The Norwich Bulletin's photo gallery of the Pow Wow.

Birchbark Books & Native Arts

photo from Facebook

Name: Birchbark Books & Native Arts
Tribe: All, but primarily Ojibwe and Lakota/Dakota/Nakota
Location: 2115 West 21st Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55405
Type: Bookstore
Visiting Info: Open daily 10am-6pm, Thursdays until 8pm
Contact: Website, telephone 612-374-4023

Birchbark Books & Native Arts in Minneapolis is an independent bookseller than specializes in Native literature, languages, authors, and publishers. They also provide Native arts, herbs, gifts, jewelry, and community events.

Their website begins with this mission statement: "Birchbark Books is operated by a spirited collection of people who believe in the power of good writing, the beauty of handmade art, the strength of Native culture, and the importance of small and intimate bookstores. Our books are lovingly chosen. Our store is tended with care."

With cozy chairs and interesting artwork, a handmade wooden canoe hanging from the ceiling, and perhaps a collection of dogs onsite, the store looks like a reader's dream come true. There is also a loft with a "hobbit hole reading nook" just for children.

Birchbark is owned by author Louise Erdrich, who is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. She writes novels, short stories, poetry, young adult and children's books. According to Wikipedia, in addition to many other awards, she received the National Book Award for Fiction for her novel The Round House, and her novel The Plague of Doves was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She posts her thoughts on the books she's reading and recommends titles on the store's blog.

Ms. Erdrich and her sister also run Wiigwaas Press, which sells it's Ojibwe-language books through the Birchbark store and online shop. Online sales and shipping are available to Canada and the US.

Resources:

Indian Country Today article from Dec. 14, 2011, "Shelf-Promotion: Famed Novelist Louise Erdrich's Bookstore Stocks Great Native Books."

Birchbark Books on Facebook
Birchbark Books on Twitter
Louise Erdrich on Goodreads

Sealaska Heritage Institute's Walter Soboleff Center

Opening Day Ceremonies, May 15, 2015
photo from Facebook

Name: Walter Soboleff Center of the Sealaska Heritage Institute
Tribe: Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian
Location: 105 S. Seward Street, Juneau, AK 99801
Type: Cultural Heritage and Research Center
Visiting Info: Summer hours: 9am-8pm, daily. Admission: $5, Seniors $4, children under 7 free.
Contact: Website, telephone 907-463-4844

Newly opened on May 15, 2015, the Walter Soboleff Center is Sealaska Heritage Institute's brand new 29,000 square foot cultural arts center in downtown Juneau, Alaska. The Center will serve artists, educators, students, community members, and visitors by providing space for exhibits, art demonstrations, ceremonial events, cultural presentations, and a retail shop. There is also a research facility with archival work and storage space and a Native languages program.

photo from Facebook

The place is so new their website isn't even complete, and I found most of the visiting information listed here on their Facebook page. The beautiful new building in downtown Juneau is named in honor of Tlingit civil rights activist and community leader Walter Soboleff and stands as "a physical manifestation upholding the traditional Native values he held dear."

Artist demonstration in the Center on Free First Friday, June 5.
photo from Facebook

Sealaska Heritage Institute is the non-profit arm of the Sealaska Corporation, a for-profit, Native-owned economic development and resource management corporation. SHI administers Sealaska's cultural and educational programs. Language restoration is the primary focus of the Institute, but they also support Native artists, sponsor historical and archival projects, and host the biennial Celebration. The next Celebration will take place in Juneau June 8-11, 2016.

Resources:

Walter Soboleff Building on Twitter
Juneau Empire article from May 17, 2015, "A 'great day for Alaska': Hundreds gather to celebrate dedication of Walter Soboleff Building."

KTOO Public Media slideshow from May 15, 2015, "Slideshow: Soboleff Building Grand Opening."
SHI's website on Alaskan Native Artists

Travel Journal: Peabody Essex Museum

If everything is bigger in Texas, then everything is just a little bit smaller in New England. This is especially true of the pockets of Native culture quietly persevering across the region. 

Small tribal museums are tucked away in towns all around the Northeast if you go looking: The Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum in Mashpee, MA, the Tomaquag Museum in Exeter, RI, the Tantaquidgeon Museum in Uncasville, CT, the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner, NH, and the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, ME. [Please let me know if I'm missing anyone! I'd be grateful for the info.] 

On the other hand, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Ledyard, CT, is a substantial, anchoring institution for the region. And a few other prominent organizations have important presentations on Native culture within their programs. The Wampanoag Homesite at the Plimoth Plantation comes to mind.

One little gem within a larger institution is the current Native American art exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. It's quite small - only one room of the museum - and only a portion of their whole Native American art collection, the rest of which is not on display. Even their Oceanic Art collection, into which they categorize their South Pacific Native art, is not currently on display. However, the pieces I was able to enjoy there were definitely worth the morning I spent driving up to Salem to see them.

East India Marine Hall, the original exhibit hall

As I wrote in a previous post, The Peabody Essex is one of the oldest continuously operating museums in the United States and has one of the oldest collections of Native American art. The PEM got its start in 1799 when the East India Marine Company was chartered from Salem's community of shipping captains with the provision to create a museum from the interesting things they brought home from their world travels.

Richard Orr's model of Cleopatra's Barge, the first private ocean-going yacht built in America. Constructed in Salem in 1816, it was eventually sold to King Kamehameha II, who renamed it Ha'aheo o Hawai'i ("Pride of Hawaii"). A life-size recreation of the Barge's stateroom, including some original furnishings, can also be seen at the PEM.

As a result of this shipping and trading history, the collection is not representative of local tribes, but is made up primarily of art and cultural artifacts from the Pacific region (in addition to their larger collections of maritime and Asian export art). Much of their work focuses on pieces that were created by indigenous people specifically for trade, and then relating that historical art to contemporary pieces from the same tribes.

Heiltsuk dancer's mask from coastal British Columbia about 1845.

photo from pem.org

The current exhibit is Raven's Many Gifts: Native Art of the Northwest Coast. It showcases traditional and contemporary art from Pacific Northwest tribes, focusing on themes of "Living Stories, Family Connections and Market Innovations." The exhibit explains central concepts of Northwest tribal art, such as formlines, the dark bands of color that outline the image, and the prevalence of family crests and insignia, most of which include specific animals such as Raven.

Richard Hunt and John Livingston's piece Door (1984) illustrates some of these concepts. Killer Whale and Raven are commonly featured in traditional stories and family crests. Killer Whale, carved by Livingston on the outside of the door, sometimes embodies the souls of deceased chiefs, and Hunt painted Raven on the inside of the door. Raven appears on his Kwakwaka'wakw father's family crest. The art on the door is a continuance of the storytelling about these animal characters and their connections to the artists' families.

It was once common for PNW tribes to tattoo their family crest motifs on their faces and bodies, but when missionaries and other colonists in the 19th Century started pressuring them to stop, Native people created jewelry like these bracelets to display their family crests without attracting the negative attention of their colonizers.

In the 1800s, Haida artisans started making fancier forms of their traditional pipes to sell to sailors and travelers as curios or souvenirs. The boar on this pipe may have been influenced by the figureheads of the ships and the houses are Euro-American style to appeal to their customers.

One of the most beloved pieces from their previous and highly successful Shapeshifting exhibit is now on display as part of Raven's Many Gifts. Nicholas Galanin's (Tlingit/Aleut) "Tsu Heidei Shugaxtutaan part 1 and part 2," which translates to "We Will Again Open This Container of Wisdom That Has Been Left in Our Care" (2006), is comprised of two videos, one of a breakdancer over traditional Tlingit music and the other of a traditional dancer in regalia dancing to EDM. The piece is also online, and can be viewed here.

Galanin's Bear Mask Vol. 9 (2006) is also in the exhibit. The piece is a modern twist on traditional Tlingit woodcarving by using laser cut pieces of paper to form the mask.

This exhibit, like PEM's other recent Native Art exhibits, pushes itself to turn a very old collection of curios from white traders and explorers into a modern conversation with living Native artists that discusses the meaning and self-representations within the classic forms and contemporary twists in tribal art. As former Deputy Director and Curator of Native American Art John R. Grimes said in his essay, "Curiosity, Cabinets, and Knowledge: A perspective on the Native American Collection of the Peabody Essex Museum,":

The new paradigm opens the locked doors of the cabinet, allowing us to move beyond possessive knowledge of objects and admitting new relational knowledge and aesthetic experience.

My only disappointment might be that my tuna wrap and can of soda in the Atrium Café were underwhelming. There is a fancier Garden Restaurant with beautiful outdoor seating in the Asian Garden and Terrace, but I had to pick my kids up from school and didn't have time for the linen-napkin treatment so I can't comment on the quality. Considering the rising popularity of Native cuisine and the fact that no place in Boston is doing it yet (the Pequot Museum has the Pequot Café), the PEM might consider treating patrons to some truly local fare. Don't mind me suggesting that Sherry Pocknett has a catering company in Mashpee that specializes in traditional Wampanoag cuisine! I might drive up just for lunch if I could get smoked mussels and johnnycakes with cranberry chutney.

Beautiful spot for lunch, though.

Raven's Many Gifts: Native Art of the Northwest Coast is on display at the Peabody Essex until December 27, 2015.

Peabody Essex Museum

all photos from www.pem.org

Name: Peabody Essex Museum
Tribe: various nations
Location: East India Square, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970
Type: Museum, Archive/Library
Visiting Info: Open Tues-Sun, 10am-5pm (9pm on 3rd Thursday of every month). Admission: $10-$18.
Contact: Website, telephone 978-745-9500, 866-745-1876

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, is one of the oldest continuously operating museums in the United States and has one of the oldest collections of Native American art in the Americas. Although it has a history steeped in the traditional narrative of the white explorer collecting "curiosities" from exotic Native communities, the museum is making strides to present Native art thoughtfully and collaboratively today.

The PEM got its start in 1799 when the East India Marine Company was chartered from Salem's community of shipping captains with the provision to create a museum from the interesting things they brought home from their world travels. The modern collection focuses heavily on Maritime art and history, Asian art, Native art, and historic architecture.

In 2012, the PEM staged Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art, one of the largest presentations of Native art in decades, consisting of 80 works from a wide array of media. Shapeshifting mixed traditional and modern art pieces based on themes, which is an unusual presentation for Native art. The exhibit was highly respected and received a lot of complementary media attention.

The current, smaller Native art exhibit, Raven's Many Gifts: Native Art of the Northwest Coast, is on view until to December 27, 2015. It showcases traditional and contemporary art from Pacific Northwest tribes, focusing on themes of "Living Stories, Family Connections and Market Innovations."

The PEM offers paid internships to Native graduate students who are interested in pursuing museum studies and other cultural professions. The program is designed to bring more Native representation and perspectives into the museum field and to promote Native leadership in the cultural professions.

Peabody Essex is also committed to building partnerships with contemporary Native artists and to promote Native culture and values through their involvement with the ECHO Project (Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations).

Note: One of the most beloved pieces from the Shapeshifting exhibit was Nicholas Galanin's (Tlingit/Aleut) "Tsu Heidei Shugaxtutaan part 1 and part 2" which translates to "We Will Again Open This Container of Wisdom That Has Been Left in Our Care" (2006). The two videos that comprise the artwork, one of a breakdancer over traditional Tlingit music and the other of a traditional dancer in regalia dancing to EDM, can be viewed here.

Resources:
Wall Street Journal article from Jan. 18, 2012, "Artifacts to Artworks."
Boston Globe article from Feb. 3, 2012, "Review: Two museum show Native American art, then and now."

"Curiosity, Cabinets, and Knowledge: A perspective on the Native American Collection of the Peabody Essex Museum," by John R Grimes.

The Spa at Norwich Inn

photo from the Spa at Norwich Inn photo gallery

Name: The Spa at Norwich Inn
Tribe: Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation
Location: 607 West Thames Street, Norwich, CT 06360
Type: Luxury Hotel and Spa, Event space
Visiting Info: Check website for reservations, Kensington's Restaurant: daily 7am-10pm, Ascot's Pub: daily 11:30am-11pm (midnight Fri-Sat), Spa: Sun-Thurs 7am-8pm.
Contact: Website, telephone 1-800-275-4772

Built in 1929, the Norwich Inn hosted tons of celebrities before falling into disrepair after World War II. In 1994, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation bought the renovated property which then included a spa in addition to the original inn and golf course. The tribe renovated and doubled the size of the resort again in 2000 to make it the luxurious destination it is now.

The property includes 45 guest rooms and four suites in the Inn and 50 condo villas that have their own kitchens and sitting areas. The full-service spa offers 37 different treatments, a salon, a steam room and sauna, indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness center, and tennis courts. If you can't stay for the night, you can eat in the Kensington's Restaurant or have a drink in Ascot's Pub. The Inn also hosts conferences and weddings with in-house catering.

photo from Weddings at Norwich Inn 

The Spa at Norwich Inn is conveniently located halfway between New York City and Boston and is one of the Historic Hotels of America, part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It's also minutes away from the Lake of Isles Golf Courses, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Foxwoods Resort Casino, and Mohegan Sun Casino, all of which are tribally-owned.

Resources:
The Spa on Facebook
The Spa on tripadvisor
Restaurant review of Kensington's

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Indian Museum

photo from Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Facebook page

Name: Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Indian Museum
Tribe: Seminole Tribe of Florida
Location: 34725 West Boundary Road, Big Cypress Seminole Reservation, Clewiston, FL, 33440
Type: Museum, Cultural Heritage, Traditional Crafts, Library/Archive
Visiting Info: Open everyday (closed some holidays), 9am-5pm, Guided tours by appointment, Library open by appointment, Mon-Fri, 9am-4:30pm; Admission: $7.50-$10
Contact: Website, telephone 877-902-1113

The Seminole Tribe of Florida (along with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida) is one of three federally-recognized tribes of the Seminole people. When the Native people of the Southeastern states were forced to move to Indian Territory, some of the Seminoles retreated into the Everglades, refusing to be removed. Today, the Seminole Tribe of Florida maintains six reservations in the southern part of the state, the largest of which is the Big Cypress Reservation near Clewiston in between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades National Park.

Big Cypress is home to the tribe's acclaimed Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum. Visitors start out in the museum space which includes a short introductory film and galleries depicting traditional Seminole communities and culture. Changing temporary exhibits explore contemporary Seminole life and people, such as the current exhibit on modern reinterpretations of Seminole patchwork clothing.

Exhibit runs until Nov. 30, 2105.

Outside the museum, a raised boardwalk path leads through a cypress grove, past the Clan Pavilion which presents background information on the eight current Seminole clans, to a replica ceremonial grounds and village. In the village, craftspeople demonstrate how they make traditional Seminole art pieces, which are then for sale.

photo from tripadvisor.com

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki also houses a library and an oral history museum. Much of the oral history recordings are available to tribal members only, but the museum posts some podcasts on their webpage. Some of their archival collections are also online.

Big Cypress Reservation is also home to the Billie Swamp Safari, the Junior Cypress Rodeo and Entertainment Complex, and the Big Cypress RV Resort, all of which are tribally-owned. The Seminole Tribe of Florida also owns several other business enterprises across the state (and the world), including the Hard Rock restaurants and casinos, two of which are on their reservations in Tampa and Hollywood, FL.

Resources:

Seminole Tribe of Florida

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki on Facebook
NPR's April 2013 All Things Considered feature "Meeting Florida's Seminoles Through Rediscovered Photos."