Spirited Encounters: American Indians Protest Museum Policies and Practices Book

A refreshing and factual account of native American protests against museums and museum practices dated as far back as 1876 through 2006. Native American people have had a long and uneasy history due to the harshness in treatment of the culture from repatriation through the reclamation of lands. Examples of protests include Columbus Day celebrations, placing loved ones bones one walls as a sign of a Native American skeleton (aka repatriation), return of property used in ceremony, memorials placed in honor of white men on tribal lands, claiming native art as folksy versus contemporary, and the list goes on and on. (If you are interested, I may re-type it.)

It discussed the peaceful and not so peaceful protests of natives across the country in an effort to regain some semblance of respect and their culture that still lives on. I consider myself lucky to have this book in print as it is rare to find someone with enough time, energy, and gumption to collect these stories and place them in a tome. Museums rarely share this side. You should not expect Native Americans to do this either.

I was fortunate enough to meet the author of the book as she presented to a group of people from Calvert County. (I think I write about this in my journal at one point?) Anyway, it is always a warm, relaxed feeling when you know you are supposed to be somewhere. I never met her before but she looked at me square in the eyes and called me "Sister." After five minutes of talking, she had that feeling……ya know, the one where someone really knows you yet they have never met you before? Yep.

Without going too far off the track, I stayed out of many history and science museums for this purpose. It is not the materials or the fact that I wanted to learn. It was the treatment.