Mitchell Museum of the American Indian
Encyclopedia
The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian is a museum in Evanston, Illinois
that focuses exclusively on the history
, culture
and arts
of North American native
peoples. Its a Core Member of the Chicago Cultural Alliance
, a consortium of 25 ethnic museums and cultural centres in Chicago
.
The Museum's collections range from the Paleo-Indian period through the present day. Permanent exhibitions depict the Native American cultures of the Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Northwest Coast and Arctic. Two temporary exhibit galleries have special thematic shows that change two times a year.
, including the Northeast, Southeast and Great Lakes areas. A full-size birchbark canoe
is the centerpiece of the exhibit with individual cases exploring fishing, hunting and gathering, wood splint and birchbark containers, and various forms of personal ornament, including glass beads, quillwork
and moosehair embroidery. A separate case shows the clothing and crafts of the Southeastern Woodlands peoples, including the Seminole
, Cherokee
and Choctaw
tribes, and features a rare late 19th century velvet patchwork Seminole man's Big Shirt. The gallery also includes a model Long House and photographic essays on canoe making and wild rice harvesting.
, blanket strips and a variety of carrying bags show the distinctive beadwork designs typical of the Crow
, Cheyenne
, Blackfoot
and Lakota (Sioux). Dolls, including two made by contemporary Lakota artists Charlene and Rhonda Holy Bear provide detailed examples of men and women's dress. The Plains hunting and warrior traditions are represented by an eagle feather war bonnet, weapons and a shield, as well as a number of carved catlinite pipe bowls.
, Navajo
and southern Arizona Papago
and Tohono O'odham
(Pima) peoples. Cases are devoted to Pueblo pottery, ranging from thousand year-old Anasazi bowls to contemporary works, including several pieces by the famed San Ildefonso
potter Maria Martinez, and the silver and turquoise jewelry of Zuni, Navajo, Hopi
and Santo Domingo
artists. Over 40 different Kachina
dolls including several turn of the century carvings from Acoma
and Laguna Pueblo
s are also on exhibit, as are Navajo rugs from many of the different early 20th century trading posts.
and British Columbia
and in the northern reaches of Canada
. Prints, baskets, masks and other wooden carvings demonstrate the way Northwest Coast art incorporates family history in its imagery. A full size dance screen, painted by a contemporary Tlingit artist for the Museum, a Button Robe, and a woven goat hair and cedar bark Chilkat blanket are also on view. The wide variety of materials used by the Inuit
and Athapascan peoples of the Arctic is shown by the everyday items on exhibit, including several pairs of snow goggles made from caribou hoof, bone and wood. A full-size early 20th century walrus intestine parka from western Alaska and contemporary dolls from Kotzebue
and St. Lawrence Island
illustrate different types of traditional dress.
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
that focuses exclusively on the history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
of North American native
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
peoples. Its a Core Member of the Chicago Cultural Alliance
Chicago Cultural Alliance
The Chicago Cultural Alliance is a consortium of community-based ethnic museums, cultural centers, and historical societies in the Chicago metropolitan area....
, a consortium of 25 ethnic museums and cultural centres in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
The Museum's collections range from the Paleo-Indian period through the present day. Permanent exhibitions depict the Native American cultures of the Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Northwest Coast and Arctic. Two temporary exhibit galleries have special thematic shows that change two times a year.
Woodlands Gallery
The Woodlands Gallery focuses on the native peoples living east of the Mississippi RiverMississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, including the Northeast, Southeast and Great Lakes areas. A full-size birchbark canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
is the centerpiece of the exhibit with individual cases exploring fishing, hunting and gathering, wood splint and birchbark containers, and various forms of personal ornament, including glass beads, quillwork
Quillwork
Quillwork is a form of textile embellishment traditionally practiced by Native Americans that employs the quills of porcupines as a decorative element.-History:...
and moosehair embroidery. A separate case shows the clothing and crafts of the Southeastern Woodlands peoples, including the Seminole
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...
, Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
and Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
tribes, and features a rare late 19th century velvet patchwork Seminole man's Big Shirt. The gallery also includes a model Long House and photographic essays on canoe making and wild rice harvesting.
Plains Gallery
The Plains Gallery explores the lifeways of the Native American tribes living in the central part of North America. MoccasinsMoccasin (footwear)
A moccasin is a slipper made of deerskin or other soft leather, consisting of a sole and sides made of one piece of leather, stitched together at the top, and sometimes with a vamp . Though sometimes worn inside, it is chiefly intended for outdoor use, as in exploring wildernesses and running from...
, blanket strips and a variety of carrying bags show the distinctive beadwork designs typical of the Crow
Crow Nation
The Crow, also called the Absaroka or Apsáalooke, are a Siouan people of Native Americans who historically lived in the Yellowstone River valley, which extends from present-day Wyoming, through Montana and into North Dakota. They now live on a reservation south of Billings, Montana and in several...
, Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
, Blackfoot
Blackfoot
The Blackfoot Confederacy or Niitsítapi is the collective name of three First Nations in Alberta and one Native American tribe in Montana....
and Lakota (Sioux). Dolls, including two made by contemporary Lakota artists Charlene and Rhonda Holy Bear provide detailed examples of men and women's dress. The Plains hunting and warrior traditions are represented by an eagle feather war bonnet, weapons and a shield, as well as a number of carved catlinite pipe bowls.
Southwest Gallery
The Southwest Gallery illustrates the culture and art of the PuebloPueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
, Navajo
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
and southern Arizona Papago
Papago
Papago may refer to:* An archaic term for Tohono O'odham people* Papago , a genus of geometer moths* Papago Freeway, I-10 through Phoenix, Arizona* Papago Freeway Tunnel, a tunnel in Arizona* Papago Park, a park in Arizona...
and Tohono O'odham
Tohono O'odham
The Tohono O'odham are a group of Native American people who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of the southeastern Arizona and northwest Mexico...
(Pima) peoples. Cases are devoted to Pueblo pottery, ranging from thousand year-old Anasazi bowls to contemporary works, including several pieces by the famed San Ildefonso
San Ildefonso
San Ildefonso, or La Granja, or La Granja de San Ildefonso, is a town and municipality in the province of Segovia, Spain, situated some 54 km northwest of Madrid.-History:...
potter Maria Martinez, and the silver and turquoise jewelry of Zuni, Navajo, Hopi
Hopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
and Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
artists. Over 40 different Kachina
Kachina
A kachina is a spirit being in western Pueblo cosmology and religious practices. The western Pueblo, Native American cultures located in the southwestern United States, include Hopi, Zuni, Tewa Village , Acoma Pueblo, and Laguna Pueblo. The kachina cult has spread to more eastern Pueblos, e.g....
dolls including several turn of the century carvings from Acoma
Acoma Pueblo
Acoma Pueblo is a Native American pueblo approximately 60 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico in the United States. Three reservations make up Acoma Pueblo: Sky City , Acomita, and McCartys. The Acoma Pueblo tribe is a federally recognized tribal entity...
and Laguna Pueblo
Laguna Pueblo
Laguna is a Native American tribe of the Pueblo people in west-central New Mexico, USA. The name, Laguna, is Spanish and derives from the lake located on their reservation. The real Keresan name of the tribe is Kawaik. The population of the tribe exceeds 7,000 , making it the largest Keresan...
s are also on exhibit, as are Navajo rugs from many of the different early 20th century trading posts.
Northwest Coast and Arctic Gallery
The Northwest Coast and Arctic Gallery provides insight into the people living along the Pacific Coast of Washington, AlaskaAlaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
and in the northern reaches of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Prints, baskets, masks and other wooden carvings demonstrate the way Northwest Coast art incorporates family history in its imagery. A full size dance screen, painted by a contemporary Tlingit artist for the Museum, a Button Robe, and a woven goat hair and cedar bark Chilkat blanket are also on view. The wide variety of materials used by the Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
and Athapascan peoples of the Arctic is shown by the everyday items on exhibit, including several pairs of snow goggles made from caribou hoof, bone and wood. A full-size early 20th century walrus intestine parka from western Alaska and contemporary dolls from Kotzebue
Kotzebue
Kotzebue is the name of the following people:*August von Kotzebue, dramatist*Otto von Kotzebue, navigatorKotzebue is also the name of a place:*Kotzebue, Alaska*Kotzebue Sound...
and St. Lawrence Island
St. Lawrence Island
St. Lawrence Island is located west of mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea, just south of the Bering Strait, at about 63°30' North 173°20' West. The village of Gambell is located on the northwest cape, from the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The island is part of Alaska, but closer to...
illustrate different types of traditional dress.
Collections
The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian holds over 9,000 objects dating from the Paleo-Indian period through the present day. The collection covers all areas of North America, including the Woodlands, Plains, Plateau, Southwest, Northwest Coast and Arctic peoples. The Museum's areas of strength include:- Great Lakes ice fishing decoys
- Traditional and contemporary dolls from throughout North America
- 19th and 20th century Beadwork from the Northern Plains and Great Lakes regions
- Baskets from the Great Lakes, Southwest, California and Northwest Coast
- Navajo weavings
- Late 19th and early 20th century Kachinas
- Cape Dorset prints
- Arctic stone, ivory and bone carvings dating from prehistoric through modern times