Book Examines American Indian Protests of Museum Policies

Book Examines American Indian Protests of Museum Policies

TAHLEQUAH What began as a thesis project for Tahlequah author Karen Coody Cooper at the University of Oklahoma examining American Indian protests of museum policies and practices regarding historical artifacts has turned into a book, Spirited Encounters, American Indians Protest Museum Policies and Practices, garnering nationwide notice.

The Northeastern State University RiverHawk Shoppe will host an opportunity to meet Cooper on Monday, Nov. 3 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the University Center. Cooper, who retired from the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., recently began working a historical interpreter at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Park Hill and is teaching a course on American Indians and museums at NSU.

During the first part of the 20th century, major museum exhibitions were created from grave goods and war trophies taken from 19th-century battlefields and American Indian burial sites. In the 1970s the American Indian Movement, American Indians Against Desecration and other Native social action groups launched protests against the practice across the nation.

The book explores various protests by these American Indians groups that culminated with the passage of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which served to transform museums by requiring them to release information about their holdings to pertinent federally-recognized tribes and to return Native remains, burial goods and ceremonial objects to American Indian governments.

Cooper, a member of the Cherokee Nation, also explores the struggle American Indian artists experienced while placing their works in art museums.

Copies of the 232-page book will be available to purchase during the event. For more information or to reserve a copy of Spirited Encounters, American Indians Protest Museum Policies and Practices, contact the RiverHawk Shoppe at 918-444-2510.

10/21/2008

Published: 2008-10-21 00:00:00