Working with Native American Communities

The San Bernardino County Museum, located in Redlands, California, is a mid-size museum that tells the story of a region so rich in floral, fauna, and people groups that span millennia. San Bernardino County is the largest county in the nation, and so our mission-driven team works tirelessly to bring these stories to life! Though we house specimens and artifacts from all over the world, our mission is to serve this community by stewarding natural and cultural collections in perpetuity.  

These very early meetings with tribal collaborators, though many times tearful, were crucial in finding mutual understanding and respect regarding both Ancestral Remains and objects. 

Exhibits

As a type of cultural intermediary, it is important for me, as the Anthropology Curator, to understand the nature of artifacts, the appropriateness off their use, as well as manage the various exhibit planning deadlines with the tribal consultant’s calendars. It is also important to understand that not all information should be made public. We have found though, that a simple statement to guest that stories may exist but information is not available for public consumption, is interesting in and of itself.

See one exhibit space's transformation below. 

The vetting of interpretation through a tribal community is an important step to include in any the exhibit development timeline. It is unfortunately easy to do a quick internet search and push ideas forward that are not accurate or appropriate to the groups in question.

I remember the feeling of awe and reverence as a young person at exhibits in large LA and DC museums. Even though I was far removed from the culture, it was easy for me to draw conclusions about what I was looking at. The way a basket was twined, the artful design, perhaps even its utility, were all elements that I could visualize from the many pictures and movies that told me that these elements were important.

These are just a few examples of the types of objects used in the grandest Native American exhibits on the continent. But, we must look beyond the glass. As I entered the world of curatorship, I began working with tribal community members and was met with a vulnerability, trust and friendship. I learned and changed in ways I did not expect. I was taught that the value of objects we display is not held in its condition, utility, or art. The objects themselves are and hold spirit, creation, memory, and connection. 

In the western world, artifacts are typically collected ONLY by people who are far-removed from the group that deposited the artifact. We have the unique benefit of being amongst the living community.

The SBCM frequently functions as an intermediary between tribes and researchers. In many instances, I get requests from independent organization or researchers to use photographs of native artifacts in their publications or curricula, especially now with the heightened need for digital content due to school closures. The Anthropology Division has begun to funnel these types of requests through the respective affiliate cultural group, so that a thorough and appropriate conversation can be had.

This is still quite a rare process for many organizations, but by continuing this type of shared responsibility, more people than ever are calling local tribes to report artifacts or even human remains to local tribal offices.

The noble effort of many curators is to care and preserve objects during their career. But, the spiritual and emotional burden of preservation and repatriation of thousands of objects dispersed across the world is one weight that local tribal leaders hold, one that I will never feel in my lifetime. Working with our local consulting tribes has opened my eyes to the level of responsibility that they hold, and what my response as a steward of archaeological and ethnographic collections, should be…one of openness, clarity, and reconciliation.