TRAVEL: Looking
for Native American culture in the U.S.? Here's where to go.
Dana
Joseph, for CNN • Updated 12th May 2015
(CNN) — Think Native American culture has been
co-opted by casinos, twisted by inaccurate films, relegated to the rez or
buried with arrowheads? No chance.
American
Indian culture is alive and thriving in modern galleries, powwows, museum
exhibits, film festivals and restaurants.
Here
are some of the best places in the United States to experience Native America
(arranged in a roughly east-to-west geographic order).
The
George Gustav Heye Center in New York is part of the National Museum of the
American Indian.
"The
Heye Center began as the personal collection of George Gustav Heye, a wealthy
investment banker who collected nearly a million items that became the largest
collection of American Indian items in the world," says NMAI director
Kevin Gover (Pawnee).
Heye's
will stipulates that his collection always be made available to the people of
New York, and since 1994, it's been on view for all to see in Lower Manhattan
across from Battery Park, in the historic Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House.
Highlights
of the collection include 10 headdresses from different Native tribes and duck
decoys from Lovelock Cave, Nevada (at ca. 400 B.C.-A.D. 100, they're the oldest
known in the world). Nursing moms will especially appreciate the Yup'ik jacket
that holds junior on Mom's back till feeding time, when the jacket can be
ingeniously turned forward.
Elsewhere
in New York City, which, by the way, has the largest indigenous population of
any city in the country, the Queens County Farm Museum holds the
Thunderbird American Indian Mid-Summer Pow Wow, the city's largest and oldest
(July 25-27, 2014).
2. National Museum
of the American Indian (D.C.)
The National Museum of the American Indian is
the Smithsonian Institution's great national repository of American Indian art
and culture on the National Mall.
"Our world-class collection
covers cultures from North, Central and South America and totals more than
800,000 items," says museum director Kevin Gover. "Our Mitsitam
Native Foods Cafe was the first Zagat-rated museum cafe in Washington and has a
devoted following."
The museum presents a full calendar
of public programs, including concerts, festivals, symposiums and theater,
along with one-of-a-kind temporary exhibitions featuring the likes of esteemed
Native artists such as Fritz Scholder, George Morrison, Brian Jungen and Allan
Houser.
It's Native inside and out: the
design of the grounds has reintroduced a landscape indigenous to the Washington
area before "contact."
3. Oklahoma
You might know it as the Sooner
State, but the state name Oklahoma is Indian, from the Choctaw words
"okla" and "humma," meaning "red people."The
entire state is rich with American Indian culture. Makes sense: Oklahoma has 39
federally recognized tribes and the second greatest percentage of Native
Americans in the country.If you know about the forced removal of the Cherokee
in 1838-1839 along the Trail of Tears (now a National Historic Trail) to
reservations in Indian Territory in what is now southeastern Oklahoma, you'll
appreciate Tahlequah, the capital
of the Cherokee Nation. At the
Cherokee Heritage Center there's a re-created ancient Cherokee village and
a permanent Trail of Tears exhibit.You can tour the Tahlequah Original Historic Townsite
District, where the street signs are written in English and Cherokee. More
Cherokee-related museums include the John Ross Museum,
the John Hair Museum and Cultural Center and the Cherokee Supreme
Court Museum.In Muscogee, you can learn about the art, culture and history
of the Five Civilized Tribes (the term refers to the tribes considered most
able to assimilate: the Cherokee, the Choctaw, Muscogee/Creek, Chickasaw and
Seminole) at the Five Civilized Tribes
Museum.In the Osage Hills, 10 minutes from downtown Tulsa, the acclaimed Gilcrease Museum houses the world's
largest, most comprehensive collection of art and artifacts of the American
West and an unparalleled collection of Native American art and artifacts.You'll
want to allow time for the museum and its acres of gardens.
Painted drum at the Red Earth Festival.
In Oklahoma City, lots of the almost
40,000 indigenous residents turn out for the three-day Red Earth Festival every
June (in 2014, June 5-7).
It kicks off with a parade and keeps
right on kicking with dancing, singing, storytelling, poetry, music and art.
In Shawnee, The Jim Thorpe Native American Games
bring together athletes representing 70 different tribes from across the
country.
The Games honor Jim Thorpe (Sac and
Fox), the athletic legend who was born in Indian Territory near the town of
Prague, Oklahoma, and went on to become a pro baseball player, pro football
player and an Olympic Gold medalist in record-setting wins of the pentathlon and
decathlon in the 1912 Olympics.
Inaugurated in 2012 to honor the man
often called The Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century, the Native Games host
thousands of athletes competing in 10 sports. The 2014 Games will be held in
Shawnee June 8-14. And coming to Oklahoma City in 2017, the $10 million American Indian Cultural Center
and Museum.
4. Santa Fe, New Mexico
Experiencing Santa Fe's rich
American Indian culture requires more than a couple of days -- and many return
trips.
American Indian vendors line the
historic Plaza, selling authentic silver and turquoise jewelry and other Native
crafts.
Galleries like Shiprock on the Plaza, Blue Rain on Lincoln and the many
along Canyon Road are a gateway to a life-altering addiction to Native arts,
from painting and sculpture, to textiles, pottery and jewelry.
The city is also filled with
world-class museums: The Wheelwright Museum
of the American Indian,
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and Museum
of Contemporary Native Arts.
For a one-fell-swoop approach, you
can hit Santa Fe during August's world-renowned Indian
Market, when the parking is horrible but the historic center overflows with
booths devoted to Native arts and eats.
"This is the biggest and the
best venue for we Native American artists," says sculptor Upton Greyshoes
Ethelbah (Apache). "Collectors arrive for the two-day show by the tens of
thousands (estimates range from 80,000 to 100,000).
"Visitors to the Santa Fe
Indian Market are treated to the best diverse Native American art in the
country, with over 10 different classifications, from stone and bronze
sculpture, which is my specialty, to pottery, beadwork, jewelry, painting,
weaving and even filmmaking."
The Indian Market is an opportunity
to share cultures not only with visitors unfamiliar with Native differences,
but among different tribes as well.
"There are over 562 different
tribal groups in the U. S. with different languages, ceremonies and
traditions," he says. "Everyone benefits by experiencing the great
variation of artwork that emerges from these many tribes and nations. Virtually
every individual item offered to the collector by over a thousand Indian
artists originates in tribal tradition or symbology, and artists are eager to
share with the collector the inspiration and the historical or spiritual
meaning of their work."
The Inn and Spa at Loretto is an
architectural re-creation of the famed Taos Pueblo.
As soon as you see it, you'll know
why it's one of the most photographed buildings in the country.
5. Gathering of Nations (Albuquerque,
New Mexico)
The fourth weekend of April, Native
America flocks to Albuquerque for the Gathering of Nations.
Billed as the world's largest Native
American cultural event, it's a tribal extravaganza in all its flying fringe
and bodacious beading.
Where else but North America's most
prominent powwow are you going to find the crowning of Miss Indian World and
more than 700 tribes doing their thing?
"The Gathering of Nations
strives to be a positive cultural experience that is exhilarating for
everyone," says Derek Mathews, founder of the event, which marked its 31st
year in 2014. "The powwow features thousands of dancers performing
different styles from many regions and tribes, offers the finest in Native
American arts and crafts in the Indian Traders Market, a delicious variety of
Native American and Southwest cuisine and the best in contemporary
entertainment performances."
The Grand Entry is special --
thousands of Native American dancers simultaneously enter the University of New
Mexico's arena in full regalia to the beating of hundreds of drums.
Between Albuquerque and Santa Fe,
the Hyatt Regency
Tamaya Resort and Spa is located on the sacred lands of the Santa Ana
Pueblo.
The resort offers golf, pools, spa,
restaurants and all the usual upscale amenities but distinguishes itself with
American Indian cultural experiences.
There are Pueblo bread-baking
demonstrations by tribal members using a traditional oven called a huruna,
flute and tribal dance performances on certain weekends, a cultural museum with
personal tours hosted by a tribal member, hiking and riding (horses or bikes)
through cottonwoods along the Rio Grande on trails used by the Tamayame people
for centuries and creation stories told under the stars by a Native American
storyteller (followed by s'mores).
In the city, you can stay at the
funky, artsy Nativo Lodge (American
Indian meets modern meets retro boutique hotel/motel) and make an extra day of
the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
and Petroglyph National Monument.
6. Taos, New Mexico
Taos is crazy with galleries and
museums highlighting Native American culture.
The Millicent Rogers Museum is one of
the best -- it houses important collections of Native American arts, including
pottery and jewelry.
Just outside of town is the Taos Pueblo -- a settlement of adobe
dwellings and ceremonial buildings that dates to the late 13th century, the
pueblo is still a living community.
It's both a UNESCO World Heritage
Site and a National Historic Landmark and open to the public for guided walking
tours, shopping and fry bread eating. (Check ahead for hours and entry fee.)
The Rio
Grande Gorge is located just outside of Taos. You can cross the famous
long-span bridge over the incredible 600-foot-deep gorge.
7. Shiprock, New Mexico/Monument
Valley
With more than 17 million acres, the
Navajo Nation encompasses the entire northeast quarter of Arizona, and spills
into New Mexico and Utah.
Shiprock, which is much easier to
pronounce than its Navajo name, Tsé Bitʼaʼí, is located in the northwest corner
of New Mexico. The "rock with wings" or "winged rock,"
which is said to have brought tribes here from the north, rises 1,583 feet from
the plain and looks every foot the sacred and mythological heavyweight it is in
Navajo culture.
The approach is practically a
religious experience. From Shiprock, it's two-and-a half-hour drive to Monument Valley,
on the Arizona-Utah border.
One of the world's most famous film
locations for its miles and miles of mesas, buttes and rock spires sculpted by
eons of water and wind, Monument Valley is also a tribal park of the Navajo
Nation.
The 17-mile scenic drive takes in
Mitten Buttes, Merrick Buttes and other iconic formations. Navajo guides (compulsory
if you want to get off the road) can take you into some of the park's 92,000
acres.
At the Navajo-staffed The View Hotel you can watch the sun
rise over the Mittens.
8. Phoenix
Arizona is home to 22 federally
recognized tribes, and Native history and landmarks are found throughout the
state, from "Sky Island" mountains and rock formations in Chiracahua National Monument to
urban centers like Phoenix, which is home to almost 45,000 indigenous people.
Haven't heard of The Heard? As in
the Heard Museum? It's only one of the
Phoenix area's earliest and best cultural attractions, and a terrific
destination for learning about American Indian arts and cultures.
"The Heard Museum offers a
unique and memorable visitor experience with 11 galleries that present the best
of American Indian traditional and contemporary art," says museum director
of curation and education Ann Marshall. "Within a year, six to eight new
exhibits are presented, so return visits always bring something new.
The museum's annual Indian Fair and Market in March
(Arizona's largest) features more than 700 Native artists.
Just outside of downtown Phoenix,
the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological
Park sits on a 1,500-year-old site, which includes a short trail through a
prehistoric Hohokam archaeological village complete with a partially excavated
platform mound, ball court and replicated prehistoric houses.
In December, an Indian Market features
music and dance performances, artist demonstrations, children's crafts and,
naturally, fry bread.
Arizona is home to a number of
highly regarded American Indian restaurants.
As a 2013 Boston
Globe story noted, "Talented [Native] chefs are returning to local,
old-fashioned ingredients (think tepary beans, Saguaro cactus seeds, sumac and
chollo buds) and adding creative twists to the traditional dishes of indigenous
peoples, spurring a hot, new culinary trend."
The Globe's three top
recommendations for American Indian dining in Phoenix: the Fry
Bread House, which, despite being "no-frills," was "one of
only five restaurants nationwide to win the 2012 James Beard American Classics
Award, and the only Native American restaurant ever to receive it"; the
"five-star, five diamond" KAI; and the
"health-focused" Desert Rain
Café.
9. Mesa Verde (Colorado)
The ancestral Puebloans who lived at
Mesa Verde from A.D. 600 to 1300 left behind some of the best-preserved sites
in the country.
An interpretive tour of their
ancient cliff dwellings and mesa-top sites is the way to get the most out of
this stunning setting. Afterward, you can get a nice meal with an incomparable
view at the lodge's Metate Room restaurant.
With rooms starting at $106, the Far
View Lodge inside the national park has spectacular vistas and stargazing
opportunities.
10. Denver, Colorado
The Denver Art Museum is internationally
known for its holdings of American Indian art, with permanent collections and
exhibitions showing everything from ancient ceramics to 19th-century Arapaho
beaded garments to contemporary glasswork.
The museum puts on the Friendship
Powwow and American Indian Cultural Celebration, which celebrates its 25th year
in September 2014.
There are American Indian dancers,
drum groups, artists, vendors, and, need we say it, fry bread.
The Mile High City is also home to
the Denver March Powwow --
second largest indoor powwow after Albuquerque's Gathering of Nations --
celebrating its 40th year March 20-22, 2015, at the Denver Coliseum.
Who cooks all the Indian tacos at
the Denver March Powwow?
It just might be Tocabe: An American Indian Eatery -- you can try
their tacos anytime at Tocabe's Denver restaurant.
Partners Ben Jacobs and Matt Chandra
call it "fast, casual," sort of the community-minded Chipotle of
Native American food. The shredded bison American Indian taco is a fan
favorite. Bison ribs is another signature dish.
"We're trying to showcase
American Indian cuisine in the 21st century," Chandra says. "This is
food that speaks to tradition but also shows that it can progress and have the
ability to adapt and become a part of mainstream cuisine."
11. Crow Fair (Montana)
Parade cars draped in serape
blankets and 1,500 tepees under Montana's Big Sky -- it could only be Crow
Fair.
Every third week of August, Crow
Agency (60 miles south of Billings off I-90) becomes the Tepee Capital of the
World when it hosts the largest modern-day American Indian encampment in the
nation, and the largest gathering of the year for the Apsaalooke Nation.
Daily parades, evening powwows, All
Indian rodeo, Indian relay horse races, the closing Dance Through Camp -- the Crow
Fair is a week of incredible displays of Native American culture.
Attractions in the area include Little Bighorn Battlefield National
Monument (where the Sioux and Cheyenne famously defeated the U.S. Army's
7th Cavalry); Custer Battlefield Museum;
and Bighorn Canyon National
Recreation Area (must-do: Devil's Canyon Overlook).
12. American Indian Film Festival
(San Francisco)
Seeing American Indian life through
the lens of Native filmmakers is one of the best ways to understand the modern
Native experience.
One of the best places to do that
(aside from the indie film category on Netflix) is the American Indian Film Festival in San
Francisco.
It's the mission of the American
Indian Film Institute to empower American Indian media artists, and the AIFI's
annual film festival has been bringing Native stories to a growing audience for
nearly 40 years.
"There are other American Indian
film festivals around the country," says festival founder and president
Michael Smith. "But the AIFI festival in San Francisco is the
longest-running and has the most content. Last year, there were more than 85
films."
The 39th annual American Indian Film
Festival takes place November 1-9, 2014.
If you're lucky, you might catch
filmmaker Chris Eyre (Cheyenne, Arapaho), an AIFI and Sundance favorite since
his debut film, "Smoke Signals," won honors at both festivals in
1998.
It's hard to imagine from modern
American Indian film subjects and the festival's Bay Area setting that the
lands south of the Golden Gate Bridge were once home to the Ohlone, or
Costanoan, tribe, and north of the bridge, especially in what's now Marin
County, to the Miwok tribe.
For a small taste of what the region
was like when American Indians inhabited it centuries before high-tech
modernity, you can visit the
Marin Museum of the American Indian in Novato's Miwok Park.
It's on the site of an actual Miwok
village, in a peaceful and pristine setting that's about as far from the
influence of Silicon Valley as you can get in these parts.
13. The Salish Sea (Pacific
Northwest)
As much as it might now be about
coffee and grunge culture, the Pacific Northwest is also formline art, totem
pole, longhouse and dugout canoe country.
Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de
Fuca and the Strait of Georgia are all part of the Salish Sea.
You could do all sorts of things in
the region to get a feel for the richness of its tribal past.
Blake Island has its Tillicum Village,
where you can take in a Northwest Coast Indian dance performance with a
traditional salmon bake dinner.
You can pay your respects at Chief Seattle's
gravesite and learn about the longhouse tradition in Suquamish, Washington,
on the Port Madison Indian Reservation, where the great chief lived and died.
And you can immerse yourself in the
history and culture of the Puget Sound Salish Tribes (particularly the Suquamish)
at the new and niftily designed
Suquamish Museum and Cultural Center.
Just across the water/border in
Vancouver, Canada, you can get intensely ethnographic at University of British
Columbia's Museum of Anthropology with its
a vast collection of Aboriginal art and artifacts, including traditional
canoes, masks, jewelry, carvings, longhouse replicas and totem poles.
Not to be outdone, the Royal BC Museum in Victoria on nearby
Vancouver Island has one of the most comprehensive collections of First Nations
cultural material, from ceremonial and utilitarian objects to artistic
masterworks.
Back in Vancouver's Stanley
Park, there are the much-visited totem poles, tribal dance performances,
Aboriginal foods and storytelling, a Spirit
Catcher Train through the forest and activities at the Klahowya Aboriginal
Village.
There's more to experience at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, where you
can top off First Nations cedar chiseling demonstrations, Totem Park, and the
displays and weaving and beadwork demonstrations at Kia'palano First Nations
cultural center with views of the Pacific Northwest rainforest from the bridge
over the Capilano River.
Dallas-based Dana Joseph is the
editorial director of Cowboys & Indians magazine.
Piqua Shawnee
www.piquashawnee.com
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