Okay, actually I'm going to yell about this online on behalf of my cousins: our museum is a fucking clown show right now.
The Museum of the Cherokee People (formerly Museum of the Cherokee Indian) is a privately-run organization indirectly managed by the tribe in accordance with a charter.
It'd be nice if we just ran our museum instead of having it be run indirectly with an oversight committee consisting of five elders, all of whom have beeves with the other four.
The charter empowers the museum to use tribal artifacts and other resources to produce exhibits that are meant to educate both members of the tribe and tourists about the history and traditional culture of the Cherokee people for the purposes of cultural preservation.
All of this is news to the museum's head, a White woman without any background in Native history or culture who was hired against Tribal policy, who instead believes that the museum should be an art gallery for modern Cherokee artists, ignoring that already exists across the street in the co-op.
The museum's historical exhibits were last updated before fucking 9/11. We still have a video illustrating one of our myths (the invention of pottery to capture fire) with god-awful 90's CG graphics. The whole place is moldy and busted-looking as fuck.
It looks *so* bad, in fact, that they've closed down the vast majority of the actual museum "for renovation" (out of shame), with no planned re-opening. Oh, but you can come and see modern pottery, some of which were even made by Cherokee people!
But the worst part- the *very* worst part- is the goddamn fucking sign.
Here's the old sign- it's simple and direct. You might bitch about red-and-gold being very stereotypical colors to associate with Natives, but it's inoffensive and it has Grandmother Spider (an important deity) on it.
Here's the new sign, that was briefly up before the Tribal Council ordered it taken down as an eyesore. Most people won't understand why this sign is bad so I will explain it:
-We are crossing out the eyes of Grandmother Spider like she's fucking *dead*? Really? It's insulting.
-That mask should not be on a billboard for our people. It shouldn't be on display outside at all. That is a *sgili* mask, or "booger mask" if you use the common translation. It symbolizes an evil spirit that spreads disease and conflict, and is worn one day a year in an apotropaic ritual.
(In the ritual, the *sgili*, played by dancers, are invited to symbolically feast with us, where they dance drunkenly and lasciviously, and then depart, taking their evil influences with them.)
Putting it on a sign is asking for touble.
Yeah, he's from Snowbird, which is like 90 minutes away from the rest of the rez and is really underserviced.
And he didn't have to compromise- Shana loved it because it's on-brand for what she wants to do with the museum, which is turn it into an art gallery.
I don't know if this is happening to you too, but on web nothing else can be shown below this post. It just says "Continue this thread..." and jumps up to the top when you click it.
