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!