Analyzing Native American History Through Museum Artifacts

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The museum I attended was “National Museum of the American Indian” (The George Gustav Heye Center.) This historical center offered a superlative perspective of the social legacy of the Native Americas. There were displays that present famous items chose for their aesthetic quality and power as emblems of Native beliefs. My experience in this museum was very quiet and lonely, but I made the best out of it. When first entering the museum, I was lost as to how I would be able to connect any of the information to this class. It took me a while to get an understanding of how the information I collected could be relevant to this class. The concepts and theories I will be using to analyze my museum visit is race and ethnicity, commodification, theory of domination, and hegemony. The authors I will be using are Stephen Steinberg, Vine Deloria, Jr., Charles Fruehling Springwood, C Richard King, Harry Kitano, Nathan Glazer and Ronald Takaki. In his article “The Ignominious Origins of Ethnic Pluralism in America,” Stephen Steinberg explores the history of America’s immigrants from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. This article touches on the point of settlement, which is when one group of people settle on land first (Steinberg 6.) Because of their different race, ethnicity, and religion. Native Americans were driven out by Englishmen, who were first to settle. The first settlers had a serious issue with power and control. Vine Deloria, Jr. also relates to settlement in his article “Laws and Treaties.” He mentions that the idea to take Indian land was pronounced by the Christian churches shortly after the doctrine of discovery was announced. Deloria states “Discovery negated the rights of the Indian tribes to sovereignty and ... ... middle of paper ... ...that can show how Native Americans were mistreated by English settlers. With help from the National Museum of the American Indian, I was able to get a clearer understanding of how these specific concepts affected Native Americans. Though it was challenging to connect these concepts to the displays in the museum, I was able to grasp how they could relate to what I have read and learned this semester. By analyzing what I learned in class to what I learned in the museum, this essay became less demanding. Native Americans struggled throughout history and this struggle was caused by settlers and their control. The settlers did everything possible to downgrade the Native Americans. By going to this museum, not only did I learn about the conflict between the settlers and Native Americans, but I was able to get a great understanding of how Native Americans felt emotionally.

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