Susan Power's Mother In Museum Indians

As Christian Morgenstern once said, “Home is not where you live but where they understand you.” This statement seems to reflect the disposition of Susan Power’s mother in her memoir, Museum Indians. As a teen, she had left behind her life on the plains of the Dakotas and moved to Chicago, looking for somewhere she felt people actually understood her, a real home. Years later, the story follows the author, as a young girl, and her mother touring their hometown and their Native American heritage. Power soon realizes that her mother doesn't feel the same comfort of a true home that she has always felt it in her city. Throughout the story, it becomes apparent how conflicted Power’s mother is between her old and new life through her hair and her reactions to the buffalo and her grandmother’s dress.

The most apparent example of Power’s mother’s confusion between her past and present selves is her hair.

She had spent her whole life prior to her move with her long, dark hair braided, like so many other Native American woman, so it was a significant moment when she chose to cut it. With her hair “too short to braid and… trained to curl at the edges in a saucy flip,” one could infer that she had hoped taking this step toward conformity would make her seem like she belonged in her new environment (Power 37). However, cutting her hair did not mean she would be able to completely let go of her old life. She kept the long braid intact and in her possession as a reminder of her true self, even though she no longer looked the

part.
Another example of Power’s mother’s confusion is shown in how she reacts to the museum exhibit with her grandmother's dress in it. The Indian clothing was displayed on mannequins with no heads, as if to say they aren’t even people. This was disheartening for her, because it seemed to dehumanize their people as a whole. This evident lack of understanding for such a large portion of herself only makes it harder to feel at home in the city. Her grandmother’s dress itself serves as an additional connection between her old and new life, with the glass barrier symbolizing one between them. The city had somehow acquired the dress from the family, making it and Power’s mother’s old life in the Dakotas even more out of reach.
In the same fashion, Power’s mother’s reaction to the stuffed buffalo in the museum only improved upon the notion that she never felt at home in Chicago.