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In This Issue: |
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By Hayes Lavis, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. |
Gover plots course to keep NMAI vital, relevant in period of change Saying he finds his role as director more "intriguing" than any rumored job prospect, he steers the museum to emphasize fundraising, education and the Internet. By Kara Briggs
Washington—When Kevin Gover needs a break from the demands of running the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, he slips onto the private terrace adjoining his fifth-floor office. From that vantage point, NMAI's second director gets a view of the marble and limestone buildings of the nation's top government and cultural institutions. As the former head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Gover once looked to the government side; now he looks toward the 17 Smithsonian museums. In November, just shy of his first anniversary leading NMAI, Gover accepted an appointment by Smithsonian Institution Secretary G. Wayne Clough to co-chair an institution-wide committee charged with envisioning the Smithsonian of the future. "These great museums on the Mall could be mausoleums if we don't figure out how to address a rapidly changing public," said Gover, 53. Gover, who is Pawnee and Comanche, is leading the National Museum of the American Indian during an era of change for the Smithsonian Institution as a whole. The change is being driven, Clough told staff in a letter, by "technology, the ways people access information, threats to funding, the way children learn, changing demographics and public perceptions of museums…" Gover agrees, even though NMAI on the National Mall only opened in 2004, it too must adapt to its audience's fast-changing habits, interests and needs. "The challenge," he said, "is how to most efficiently and effectively get NMAI into the hands and minds of as many people as possible. We simply have to reprioritize our personnel and resources." The top priorities Gover sees are education and the Internet. He wants to build the education arm of NMAI so children in the nation's schools can grow in their knowledge and understanding of Native America. He also wants to expand the online expression of NMAI, whether on the museum's website (www.AmericanIndian.si.edu) or through social-media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Four major exhibitions in development — including "Infinity of Nations," "TREATIES: Great Nations in Their Own Words," "Brian Jungen" and "Inka Road," each of which will cost several million dollars — may take more time to prepare than initially forecast, he said, "so we can do what we would like to do with them. But we will do them." Gover came to NMAI with the goal of expanding the museum's sources of funding beyond federal appropriations. The downturn in the economy has slowed all sources of giving, making November's gift of $500,000 for the treaties exhibition from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community very significant. The museum had an annual budget of $43 million in 2008, and a projected 2009 budget of $44 million that is dependant on a $31.7 million appropriation by Congress. The museum's collection of more than 800,000 objects in three museum buildings hails from the southern tip of Chile to Northern Canada. The Kasota limestone-clad museum on the Mall has had millions of visitors since it opened in 2004. The museum also operates the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City and the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Md. The museum's founding legislation was passed by Congress in 1989, identifying Native Americans as its core constituents. "The museum finds its ultimate role as public intellectual, meaning we are extremely knowledgeable and, in another way, provocative," Gover said. In the last year Gover squeezed his 5-foot-11-inch frame into coach-class middle seats on airline flights so he could participate in Native events across North America. At every stop, he has welcomed Native America into the museum, hoping Native Americans will consider it their place in Washington, D.C. And they have, including Native leaders in Barack Obama's transition team who needed a place to meet. When ill-founded rumors started to swirl around Gover at the end of 2008 as the possible Obama pick to head the Interior Department, he just smiled and shook his head. "At this point in my life," the former law professor said, "I have to make decisions about what I am willing to learn. Learning about all the things that the Interior Department does isn't as intriguing to me as what I do here." |
NMAI exhibition: Indian Leaders at Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 Inauguration By Kara Briggs
The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is using the occasion of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration to look back a century to another inauguration in which Native America figured prominently. The NMAI exhibition "A Century Ago…They Came as Sovereign Leaders" features nearly 40 images of Native leaders whom President Theodore Roosevelt invited to be part of the 1905 Inaugural Parade in Washington, D.C. The exhibition will be on display in the museum's Sealaska Gallery from Jan. 14 through Feb. 17. The 26th president of the United States wanted a "picturesque touch of color" from the leaders, including Buckskin Charlie, Ute; American Horse, Oglala Sioux; Quanah Parker, Comanche; Geronimo, Chiricahua Apache; Hollow Horn Bear, Brulé Sioux; and Little Plume, Piegan Blackfeet. But the six leaders, who came in regalia and rode borrowed horses, carried the concerns of their nations to the U.S. nation's capital. "They each came with a serious thought in mind," said José Barreiro, of the Taino Nation, assistant director for research at the National Museum of the American Indian. "Going behind the faces in the pictures, we know they came to talk about issues of allotment, mineral rights, tribal government, education and other concerns of their people." Geronimo wanted 300 imprisoned Chiricahua Apaches set free; Quanah Parker sought $500,000 that the U.S. had promised the Comanche; Hollow Horn Bear was concerned about the poor quality of the Yankton Sioux reservation; American Horse was an advocate for Native self-government; Little Plume would speak about the poverty brought on the Blackfeet by allotment policies; Buckskin Charlie had concerns about what would happen when white settlers moved into former Ute lands. But the Native leaders would have little opportunity to raise their issues to the administration during the inauguration. For his part, Geronimo strategically dedicated his autobiography to Roosevelt, thus ensuring that the president would read the story of the Chiricahua Apache and see "whether my people have been rightly treated." Later the diplomatic Quanah Parker would invite Roosevelt to a hunt as a way to show Comanche lands to the president. He told Roosevelt, "This was a pretty country you took away from us, but you see how dry it is now. It is only good for red ants, coyotes and cattlemen." Looking back, former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Northern Cheyenne, said, "They conducted their business with the United States on a government-to-government basis." But President Roosevelt—who also invited Filipino Scouts, Puerto Rican troops and the 7th Calvary, which had fought the Battle of the Little Bighorn under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer— had other objectives. American Horse was among the four major Oglala chiefs during those battles for the Northern Great Plains. If impolitic by today's standards, President Roosevelt declared that what he wanted was "a good show" for the inauguration. Roosevelt was an early advocate for peace with American Indians and sought a high standard of education especially for Lakota students. And the six leaders visited the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania before the inauguration. "While friendly with individual Indians," Barreiro said, "President Roosevelt was adamantly against the survival of Native people as tribal entities." The current NMAI exhibition on the prominent Native leaders' participation as a group in the 1905 event received some funding from the Presidential Inaugural Committee's $700,000 donation to the Smithsonian Institution. |
Go to www.nmaie-newservice.com to access high resolution photo page or add editor@nmaie-newservice.com to your address book to receive the HTML Version of this news service The NMAI E-Newservice is supported by National Museum of the American Indian membership dollars. For information about membership, go to http://www.AmericanIndian.si.edu/subpage.cfm?second=membership&subpage=support. The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is located in Washington, D.C. The Museum also operates the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City, and the National Museum of the American Indian Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Md. The National Museum of the American Indian is committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of the Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere, past, present and future, through partnership with Native people and others. The museum works to support the continuance of culture, traditional values, and transitions in contemporary Native life. The NMAI E-Newservice is a free news service to news media serving Native America from the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. The NMAI E-Newservice provides articles, photographs and editorial content for news outlets to use free of charge. Please credit the NMAI E-Newservice, AND use bylines as provided. Kara Briggs, a Yakama and Snohomish journalist, is the editor. She owns Red Hummingbird Media Corp., which contracts with the National Museum of the American Indian to provide this service. Contact her at editor@nmaie-newservice.com or by phone at 503-577-0012 if you have questions, comments or requests, or if you wish to subscribe. Kara Briggs, Editor National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center Cultural Resources Center To opt-out to this publication, please email editor@nmaie-newservice.com. ©Copyright 2008, NMAI, All Rights Reserved |