A RANGE OF C R IT IC A L P ER SP ECTI VE S

The Problematics of Collecting and Display, Part 1

Our (Museum) World Turn ed Upside Down: anthropology. Th e mann er in which we have framed the pr eceding statement s, however , indi cates key discursive con ­Re-presenting Native Ame rican Arts venti on s that need to be int err ogated at the start of thi s di scussion . Th e par adi gms of art and art ifact, spawned J an et Catherine Berlo and Ruth B. Phillips respectively by art history and anthropolo gy, have stru ctu red

O ur aim is the complete u 'mista or re patriation of every­ mos t past discu ssion s of collecting and displa y. Th ey have thin g we lost when our world was turn ed upside down.­ been constructed as a binary pair of opposites compri sing a Glor ia Cranmer Webster! closed system. Discussion s of th eir problematics have ten ded

to begin and end with th e evaluation of their respective Th e vast majority of Nativ e American objects in privat e and meritsas representati on ." publi c collections are the legacy of the high perio d of The tendency of poststru ctur alist and post coloni al cri­colon ialism that lasted from abo u t 1830 to 1930 .2 In the tiqu es of the museum (a notabl e featur e of which has been a subfield of art history devoted to the arts of Native No rt h focus on the represen tation of non-Western cu ltu re s) has Am eri ca. the most ur gent issues su rrou nd ing the collect ing been to flatten out th e distinction between art and art ifact. and displ ay of these objec ts arise d irec tly fro m the imperi alist Recent cri tiques pri vilege the impo rtance of the systemic and histor ies of their form ation. Prodd ed by Native Ameri can int erte xtu al relati on ship s be tween ethnography and art hi s­activists and academi c theorists, hi storian s and cura tors of tory, both of which wer e engage d by the imperialist proj ect of Na tive American art are tod ay re thinking the most fund am en ­ inscrib ing relationship s of power." Th e "relic room" of the tal qu estions : ~o has th e right to control American Indi an ama teur collector of Native American archaeology, with its objec ts, many of which are thou ght by their makers not to be quiltlike arrangements of "frames " of arrowheads, the spa ­ar t obje cts but instrument s of power? Who has access to cious, evenly lit installati on of the art gallery, the exhibiti on knowledge (even simply th e knowled ge gained from gazin g hall of a world's fair, and an thropo logy halls of the ea rly up on an object of power), only th ose who have been initiat ed , twenti eth cen tury are increasingly seen as intersectin g spaces or a ll who p ass through the doors of a cu ltu ral instituti on ? for the displa y of objec ts. All invoke form al, aesthe tic, and lNh.n· h."U5b ~.!"j<!h' J.'£I.Ein j · l!h~'~h8. {\b U>6u bUA"'-,",-,'lM.·/ 'SBl.h"l) \nlR llar 'b.·"' \ mm .,I .t8f,' h?"--~'C8. .f!n, t1-\.y.3b~; ' r..,.sn ; '3.r'tl?!;~'a.,1j'

up on an object of power), only th ose who have been initiat ed , twenti eth cen tury are increasingly seen as intersectin g spaces or a ll who p ass through the doo rs of a cu ltu ral instituti on ? for the displa y of objec ts. All invoke form al, aesthe tic, and Who has the right to say wha t the objec ts mean , and whe the r int ellectu al templ at es that ar e equa lly ar bitra ry in relation to and how they are di splayed ? And how will Native American s, other cultural systems of p riority and prerog ative; all pri vi­as they assume incr easingly authori ta tive ro les in mu seum lege the sense of sight over other mod es of knowing ; all make re prese n tation , rem ake the mu seum as an institution ? cap ture d objects available to our surveillance."

Na tive American art s are still rad ically underrepres ent ed T o a postcolonial sen sibility, the difference between the in art s institutions, both acade mic and museological," per­ j eweler 's case and the specime n case seems, ultimately, of hap s because they are less eas ily aligned with Western less significance than th e wholesale historical appropriati on s fine-art media and genr es than African, Oceanic, or Pre­ of patrimonies and of voice th at have led to the presen ce of Colum bian objects. Even more tha n othe r "tribal" objects, th ese objec ts in Western colle ction s. Both art-historical and Nat ive Ame rican arts have largely fallen within the domain of ant hropo logical pra ctices of collecting and display have

1. G. C. Webs te r, "From Co loniza tion to Rep atr ia­ 3. Native American art is included in only a small Cultures: The Poetics and Poluus of Museum Display, tion, " in G. McMaste r and L. Martin , eds., Ind igena: nu mber of uni versity art -history curr icula, despit e Washingto n, D.C., 199 1. Coiuemporary Native Perspectives, ex h. cat., Cana­ th e fact th at it is th e ind igenous cultural pa tr imo ny 6. See S. Alpers , 'T he Museum as a Way of Seeing ," d ian Museum of Civilization , Hull , Que ., 1992, 37. of our continent. It is also less often included, or in Karp and Lavine, eds . (as in n. 5), 25- 32. 2. Th ese dates not on ly enc omp ass the most int en ­ includ ed in much sma ller num bers, in Nort h Ameri­ 7. See Sturt evant (as in n . 2). sive period of collecting, but also correspo nd to two can art museums than other "tribal" arts .

8. I. Petroff, Report on the Population, Industries,and signi fican t events in official U .S. po licy toward 4. See R. B. Phillips, "Fielding Cu ltur e: Dialogues Resources ofAlaska. U.S. Departm ent of the Interior , Native Ame ricans, underlining the connect ion be­ between Art History and Anth ropology," Museum Tenth Cen sus ( 1880), Washington, D.C , 1884, tween the officia l adoption of assirnilat ionist pol i­ Anthropology, XVlIt, no . I , 1994, 39-4 6; and idem, 133. cies and th e process of collectin g. T he year 1830 "Ho w Museums Mar gin alise : Naming Domain s of

9.J. Barkin , Pottery of the Pueblos of New Mexico, mark s the date of the American Indian Removals Inclu sion and Exclusion, " Cambridge Review, c xrv, 1700-/ 940, ex h , car., T aylor Museu m of the Colo­Act, whose inte nt was to rem ove all Na tive Ame ri­ no . 232 0, 1993, 6-10 . T he bibliogra ph ies of the ra do Fine Arts Cent er , Colorado Springs , 1987, 16. cans from the eas te rn h alf of the cont inent. In two art icles include man y of the recen t commen tar­10. A. J on aiti s, From the Land of the Totem Poles:The 1933 ,J oh n Co llier was appoi nted Commissioner of ies on these issues. Northwest Coast Indian Art Collection at theAmerican Ind ian Affairs, and beg an to rever se many key 5.J am es Clifford models the system ic natur e of Museum of Natural History, exh. cat., New York ! eleme nt s of assimilation ist po licy, including pro­ objec t circulation in "On Co llect ing Art and Cul­Seattl e , 1988 , 87, 97 . See also D. Cole, Captured scr ipt ion s on th e observance of Native rel igions tu re," The Predicament of Culture, Cam hr idg e, 1988,

which require the use of objec ts. W. Stu rteva nt Heritage: The Scramblefor Northwest Coast Artifacts, chap . JO.See also G. Stocking, ed ., Objectsand Others: Seattl e, 1985. ("Does Ant hropo logy Ne ed Museu ms?" Proceedings Essays art Museums and Material Culture, Madison,

of the Biological Society, L"""II, 1969, 6 19-50) has Wise., 1985; Susan M. Pearce , Museums, Objects and II. D. Fane , I.J acknis, and L Bree n, ObjectsofMyth te rmed th e peri od 1840-1940 "Th e Museum Age." and Memory: Ameri.can Indian A,t at the Brooklyn Collections:A Cultural Study, Washington , D.C , 1992;

Museum, exh. cat., Seat tle, 1991, 23. and I. Karp and S. D. Lavine, eds., Exhibiting

T HE PROB LE MATfCS OF CO LL EC TING AND DI SPL AY. PA R.T I 7

p roceede d from the same tragicall y miscon ceived se t of assu mp tions about th e nature of progr ess and the inevitabil­ity of assimila tion . They have both been form s of mo rtu ary practice, laying out the corp( u )ses of th e Vanish ing Ame rica n for post-mort em dissection in the labo ratory, for burial in th e stora ge ro om , and for commemor ation in the ex hibition .

On Collecting

Dollar bills cause the mem ory to vanish , and even fear can be cu shione d by the ap plica tion of governm ent cash. I closed my eyes. ... and I saw th is: leaves coverin g the pla ce where I buried Pillag ers, mo sses softening the board s of their grave hous es, once so ge ntly weed ed and tended .. . . I saw the clan markers [Fleur] had oiled with the swea t of her hand s, blown over by wind, curi osities now , a white child's toys.-Loui se Erdri ch, Tracks

Durin g th e centu ry from abou t 1830 to 1930 , an extrao rd i­nary quantity of obj ects became "t oys of the whit e ch ild," to be rearranged according to the tax ono mies of science, or ad mire d as object s of the aes the ticizing gaze .? On e ex p lore r,

-re por ting in 1880 to the Dep artm ent of th e Interi or about a Yup'ik Eskim o gr aveyard in sou thwest Alaska, announced that he had fou nd "a remark abl e collect ion of grot esqu ely carved monum ent s and mortu ary po sts [which] would afford a rich harvest of specimen s to any mu seum .t"

A few figures, chosen alm ost at rando m, indic ate the as tonishing scale and rapidit y o f th is "h arv est ," as it occu rr ed inexor ably acr oss the cont inen t. Between 1879 and 1885 the Smith soni an collected over 6,500 p otte ry vessels made by as tonishing scale and rapidit y o f thi s "h arvest ," as it occurre d inexorably acro ss the con tinen t. Between 1879 and 1885 the Smith soni an collected over 6,500 potte ry vessels made by Pueblo wom en from Acoma and Zuni , villages of just a few hundr ed inh abit ant s." Between 1888 and 1893 Georg e Emm ons sold over 4,000 pie ces of Tlingit art to the Ameri­can Museum of Natural Hi story , includ ing "hu ndre ds of superna tura lly potent artworks" belongin g to Tlingit sh a­mans .!?The num ber s grew more stag gerin g and more wild ly dispr oportion ate in relati on to the dem ogr aphy of Native American communiti es. By 1911 Stu art Culin returned from his co llecting expe ditions to th e West with over 9,000 artifa cts for the Brooklyn Museum , including Zuni kachina masks and War God figures from sacre d shr ines. I I

Th e vacuum sweep of Native Ameri can objec ts into pu blic and priv ate collections was pr osecuted with a systema tic thoro ugh ness th at routinize d what amou nted to the rap e of entir e cultur al patrim oni es . In shee r volu me, the gr eate st collector of all was George Heye, founde r of the Museum of the American In dian , th e lar gest single repo sitory of aborig i­nal objec ts from the Amer icas, with holdin gs num berin g over a million iterns .U' A journali st , describing Heye's mod e of collecting, reported (only slightly tongue in cheek) that "wha t Georg e enj oyed mo st on his aut om obile tr ips was hunting up Indi an reserv ation s." He was so obsessive that "he felt that he cou ldn 't con scientiously leave a res erva tion until its entire p opul ation was pr acti cally naked. " 13

Gre at violence has be en done to Native Ameri can com mu-' niti es in th e nam es of salvage anth ropol ogy and, since the early twentieth century, primiti vist art collectin g. During campai gns against Plain s Indian s in th e seco nd hal f of th e nin et eenth cen tury, milit ary officers had their India n scou ts strip th e corpse s of the men , women , and childr en they had j ust killed. Moccasin s, drawings, an d weapon s became per­sona l trophie s, some o f which were later sen t to the Smith so­nian In stitution and other mu seum s.!" In an (in)fam ous incident in British Colum bia in 1922, Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiu tl) parti cipants in a bann ed p otla tch were black­mailed with the thr eat of impri sonment int o surrender ing mo st of their cer em onial reg alia to governm ent officials. I S

Although the history of Native Ameri can art collecting is marked by man y suc h epis od es of plunder and seizure , cash tran saction s were most common . Th ey cloak ed the pro cess of appr opri ation in a normalizin g fiction .!" Acts of purch ase not only en sur ed peac eful surre nde rs : the y also reassu red trans action s were most common . Th ey cloak ed the pro cess of appropri ation in a normalizing fiction .!" Acts of purch ase not only en sured peaceful surre nde rs ; the y also reassur ed buyers of the p ro gress Nati ve Americ an s wer e making toward assimila tion through their participati on in th e ritu als of comm odit y exchange .

In the late twentieth centu ry an official e thos of multi cultur­alism and plur alism has repl aced as similationisrn . It is cultural evolu tionist ideol ogy , not Native Americ ans, that has vanished. We ar e left, however, with vast hoard s of obj ects acquir ed und er wha t can be cons ide red, at be st, mistak en assum p tions and , at worst, ou tr ight coercion. The conse­quences of the wholes ale rem oval of objec ts have been particul arl y serious in North Ameri ca. The to talizing con-

12. Th e Museum of the American Indian beca me multipl e exchanges of objects between cultur es: a hundr ed objects, which were cra ted and ship ped to

part of the Smithsonian in 1989, and was re name d sma ll noteb ook kept by a mem ber of the 7th Ottawa. T he re, what came to be known as the the Nat ion al Museum of the American Ind ian. It is Cavalry in th e 1870s was cap tured by a Cheye nne Potlatch Collec tion, was divided betwee n th e Vicro­now d irec ted by a Na tive Ame rican staff and is warrio r nam ed High Bull who pulled it from its ria Memo rial Museum (later th e Na tional Museum formul atin g policy on rep at ria tion, and ne w ap­ owner's dead bod y at th e Battle of Lill ie Big Hor n o f Man and now the Canad ian Museum ofC iviliza­proaches to resear ch and displ ay. For a brie f in 1876 . High Bull turn ed it into a dr awing book . A tion) and the Royal Ontar io Museum . Th irty-three statem ent of such policies, see W. R. West, Jr., few month s lat er, High Bull was killed in battl e by art ifac ts were pur chased by George Heye ." "Resea rch and Scholars h ip at th e Nati onal Mu ­ U.S. soldier s, who re claime d the notebook . It came 16. Native American art ists were also en gag ed in seum of th e American Indi an: The New Inclusive­ to rest in Georg e Heye's co llect ion, which eventu­ the lar ge-scale produc tion of obje cts for sa le to ness," Museum An thropology, XVII, no . I , 1993, 5- 8; ally became a nat ion al mu seum run by Native outside rs. The se obj ects have often be en re gard ed and idem, "Cultural Resou rces Cen ter to House Americans. See P. Powell, "High Bull's Victory as "ina uthen tic" by both art and ant h ro pology NMAI Co llection," Nativ e Peoples, VII, no. 3, Sp ring Roster." Montana : The Magazine of Western H istory, collec tors. See R. B. Phillips, "Why Not T ourist 1994, 66. XXV, no . I, 1975, 14--2 J. Art?: Sign ificant Silences in Native America n Mu­13. K. Wallace, "A Report e r a t Large : Slim-Shin 's 15. Kwakwaka 'wakw ant hrop ologist Gloria Cran­ seum Collections ," in G. Praka sh, ed ., After Colonial­Monu ment ," New Yorker, Nov. 19, 1960, 106. Th e mer Webster ([as in n .I J, 35) da ughter of one of the ism: Imperial H istories and Post-Colonial Displace­Jines cited are voiced by an unnamed "emi nen t chiefs involved , writes: "T hose who were charged ments, Princet on , N.J., 1994, 98-12 5. Market professor of anthro pology , once associa ted with the und er th e po tlatch law d id no t have to serve their pro duction of Na tive American art is a comp lex Heye Found ation ." gao l sente nces if th eir entire villages agreed to give top ic tha t raises d iffere nt issues in relati on to

14. Thi s tr affic in pe rson al items was not entire ly lip thei r ceremo nial ge ar , includi ng masks, rall ies, museu m re prese ntation , ownership, and rep atria ­one-way, however . To cite jus t one exa mp le of the whistles, and copp ers. T he fed eral govern me nt tion, a full d iscussion of which is beyond the scope

paid the owne rs a tot al of $ I ,450.50 for severa l of th is pap er.

struct of "primitive art" ob scures difference s among colo­ co llecting .s? Th e paradigm of "primitive a rt," no less th an nized peoples th at are worth rememberin g . The demo­ that of th e scient ific spec ime n, train s the gaze on the obje ct; graphi c and politi caJ imbal ances affecting int ern ally coloni zed the mu seum, as Svetlana Alpers has argued , is first and minoritie s such as Native American s aJlow the institutions of forem ost a way of seein g ."! Yet pluralism invokes emic the domin ant culture to exert even mor e effective hege­ (ind igeno us) p erspectiv es on objects .. For many aboriginal monic con tro l th an is the case in "th ird-world" countries of people s the most important thing ab out an obj ect may be the Africa and other regions . Extensive missioni zation, th e resi­ way in which it re stricts the ga ze. Th e vision-in spired paint­dential schooling system, and the pervasive reach of the ings on Plains shi eld s, am ong the most visuall y att rac tive and media of mass communication inscrib ed ster eotypes of "lndi­ tautly designed ex amples of Plains graphic art, were sacred anness" and led many aboriginal people to accept the myth to their owners; though displayed on stand s, they were that their very existence constituted an anachr onism . normall y hidden by a painted cover. Man y Pueblo figural

Man y individual Native pe ople wer e led by this pro cess to paintin gs and sculptures wer e seque stered in th e sernisubt er­collabora te in the process of colle cting, believing that the ranean kiva, a spa ce often restricted to initiat ed males . museum was the on ly pla ce in which a record of aboriginal Part of the post colonial Nat ive American agenda has been cultu res would even tually be preserved . Yet , as Edward Said the outri ght remo val of cer tain classes of obj ects from the has point ed out, in the imperial enc ounter, "there was always kind of democratic exposur e enjoin ed by th e art gallery or some form of active resistance, and in the overwhelming museum . The most well-known case is the rep atriation of majori ty of cases, the resist an ce finall y won out ." !? Althou gh Zuni Ahayu:da (war -god imag es).Thes e simpl e, abstrac t male the coll ab orations of Native Americ an s facilitated anthr opo­ figures have a visual eloquence that has appeal ed to many logical collecting projects, th ey can also be considered a form twentieth- century artistsY more imp ortant, the y are am ong of resis tan ce to th e nihili sm that thre aten ed . There were the most sacred of Zuni reli giou s icons , and th eir plac e is in more overt acts of resistance as well . During Culin 's 190 2 trip remote op en-air hill side shrin es wher e they are sup posed to to Zuni, for example, a village crier circulated through the weather and return to the elements . (There, th e Zuni say, town, warning people , upon pain of de ath , not to sell sacred th eir power work s for all hum ankind .j'f Since the hist oric objects to him. III moment in 1978 when the Zuni Tribal Coun cil prevented

Sotheby Parke Bern et from auctioning one of th ese sacred figures, more than fiftyAhayu:da have been rep atri ated to the

On Display Zuni pe ople from collections as diver se as th e Denver Art Museum , the Smith sonian, the Univer sity of Maine, som e

The hand that collects th e basket, display s th e cloth and private collections, and the Brookl yn Museum .s" The idea of photogr aphs the weapon is rem oved from the hand that the rem oval of significan t art obj ects from museums, wher e wove th e basket , wore the cloth or wielded the weapon .- th ey hav e resided for perh ap s a century, strik es terror into

l 9 Lorett a Todd • , the hp51t:tcof s.omP, LlJ r:>to r <.::Io d "rt b isj or ia n« YpI ::1<Zuni photogr aphs the weapon is rem oved from the hand that the rem oval of significan t art obj ects from museums, wher e wove th e basket , wore the cloth or wielded the weapon .­ th ey hav e resided for perhap s a century, strik es terror into Lorett a Todd!? the heart s of some cur a tors and art historians. Yet , as Zuni

councilma n Barton Martza has observ ed , "wh ite soc iety mu st The interv ention s of art hi story and art cnu cisrn in the learn that some of ou r traditi onal cultur e is for Zu nis only. "25

represent ation of Native American obj ects occurred several Although this is perh aps the hardest lesson for th e domin ant decades lat er than those of anthropol ogy , and their imp act cultur e to accept, it is by no me ans an isolated exa mp le. The has been more evident in pr actices of display than in tho se of same mes sage emer ges from the interv entions of a number

17. E. Said , Cultu re and Imperialism , New York , Africa and Oceani a, in pan becau se works exec u ted by Culin (Diana Fane, curato r, Brookl yn Museu m, 1993, xii. in the fine-an form at s of painting and monumental pe rsonal com mun ication, Nov. 1991 ). 18. Fane, J acknis, and Breen (as in n . 11),60. Th e sculptur e are relatively less common in Native 25. Fergu son and Martz a (as in n. 23). II. mo re rec ent and highl y successfu l cam paign o f Ame rican traditi on s. See W. Rubin, ed ., "Pn miuu­ 26. The pr imacy of th e mask in trib al art has, Zuni acti vists lo recl aim the sacred obj ects th ai ism" in Ttoentieth.Cenlury A rt: Affinity of the Tribal and undoubt edl y, mu ch to do both with the primiti vist co llecto rs like Culin succee ded in acquiring (dis­ the M odem , exh . cat. , Museum of Mod ern Art, New del ight in African masks and th e ease with which cussed below), or th e recent return o f wampu m York, )985; and W.]. Rushin g, Native American Art such carvings can be hun g on the wall. belts from th e Nation al Museum of the Ameri can and Culture and the New York Auaru-Carde, 1910­

27 . Iroqu ois have empl oyed a numb er of strat egies Indian to the Six Nation s Iroquois , or reclamati on s 1950, Austin, Te x., 1995.

to co ntro l the displa y of False Face masks over the of numerou s medi cin e bu ndl es by memb er s of 2 1. Alpers (as in n . 6). years . Initi ally, arran gem ents wer e ma de for pro per many Plain s Ind ian communities can be reg ard ed 22 . See Rubin , ed. (as in n. 20), 29- 32. r itua l car e of masks held in storag e, but obje ctions as exam pies of the eventu al winning out of ind i­ 23. T.]. Fergus on and B. Mart za, "The Repatria­ to the display of th e masks steadil y grew. During vidual and collective memory. For a di scussion of tion of Zuni Ahay u.da ," Museum Anthropology, XIV , the Calgary showing of "T he Spirit Sings: Artist ic th e wamp um-b elt inc ide nt, see W. Fento n, "Return no . 2, 1990,7 - 15. See also W. L. Merr ill, E.]. Ladd , Tr aditi on s o f Ca nada's First Peopl es," an Iroqu ois o f Eleven Wampum Belts to the Six Nation s Iro ­ and T . J . Fergu son , 'T he Return of th e A hasu.da : group brou ght a lawsuit ag ainst the Glenbow Mu ­quois Conf ederacy on Gra nd River , Ca nada," Ethno­ Lesson s for Rep atriation from Zuni Pueblo and the seum to force it to rem ove a False Face mask from history, XX XVl , 1989, 392-410. Smith sonian In st itution," Curre n t Anth ropology, the exhibi tion . Alth ou gh the court rejected th e 19. L. Tod d , "T hree Moment s afte r 'Sav age XXXIV, no. 5, 1993, 523-67 . request, the mask was voluntarily remo ved at the Grac es,''' Harbour , Ill , no . I , 1993, 57- 62 . exhibition's second venue. Th e mu seum at the 24. It is noteworth y that th e process of co llabo ra­20. See J . C. Berl o, "In troduction : Th e Form ative Woodland s Cu ltura l Cent re at th e Six Nation s tion with Zuni trib al elders during the pr ep aration Years of Native Ameri can Art History. " in ]. C. reserve at Brantford , Ont ario, displ ays a mask still for th e L99 1 Brooklyn show "O bj ects of Myth and

Mem ory" laid th e gro undwork for the rep atri ation Berlo , ed ., The Early Years of Nati ve Ameri can Art a ttached to the tree trunk fro m which it was being' H istory, Seatt le, 1992, 1- 21 ; and W. ]. Rushin g, carve d- the reas oning being th ai , frozen in the of Brooklyn 's war -god sta tuary . Stua rt Cu tin's own "Marke ting the Affinity of the Primi tive and th e pr ocess of carving, it has not yet becom e an aut ono­fieldn ot es from 1902 and 1903 suppo rte d the

Zuni s' legal claim tha t these thir teen sacred figures Modern: Ren e d'Harn on court and 'Ind ian Art of mous power object. the United States,' '' in ibid., 191- 236. Nativ e (mor e th an exi sted in any ot he r instituti on ) had 28. Todd (as in n. 19), 57 . American objects were "d iscovered" aft er those o f been re moved from re ligious shrines for purchas e

T H E PROB LEM AT I CS OF CO L LE CT IN G AND D ISPLAY . PA RT I 9

of Iroquoi s faith keep ers and political leader s in re lation to Hadui (False Face) masks worn by traditi on al Iroquoi s heal­ers. Th ese masks, regard ed as the most imp ort ant sculp tura l produ cts of Iroqu ois carvers, have lon g been identi fied by scholars as canonical object s of Iroqu ois "a rt. "26 Many con temp or ary Iroquoi s object stre nuously to thei r pr esen ce in public mu seum displays and have successfuJIy ca lled for their remov al to re stricted storag e areas. V

On Addressing the Problema tics

But the y can 't fool me . In thos e basem ent ro oms with out wind ows or in spacious labs with bright light s, when no one is looki ng, they throw their head s back, eyes close and finge rs tou ch ; fragile th read s, polished stone and massive ma sks. For a mom ent their hand s-the collector , the cataloger , the curat or, the an thro po logist- have become the han ds before, the han ds that sha pe d and pr ayed .­Lor etta Todd'"

Michael Baxand all has de scribed the mu seum ex hibition as a field in which at lea st th ree agents are ind ependently in play-mak ers of objec ts, exhibitors of made object s, an d viewer s of exhibited mad e objec ts . He observes th at each of the th ree age nts is p laying a differen t game in the field .29Yet an observant ethnog ra phe r of Native American ar t hist ory and muse ology tod ay, trying to track the rules of repr esent a­tion as we move toward the en d of the cen tury, would cert ainl y discover tha t there are, in fact , m an y more p layers than this, and the number of rule books has proliferat ed well beyond Baxand all 's estimate . In Native Ame rican art ­certa inly discover that the re are, in fact , m an y more players than thi s, and the number of rule book s has pr oliferat ed well beyond Baxa ndall 's estimate. In Native Amer ican art ­historical pra ctice , the maker s of objec ts and the ex hibitors of objec ts increasingl y will find them selves at odds if lon g­term and me anin gful collaborati on on every level of the cur ato rial pro cess does not take place, and if they canno t red efine the ir legitim a te common int erest in obje cts. This has been occurr ing in many pla ces with results that may disturb the comfort able routin es of the mu seum but that will

ultimat ely offer new and stimul ating perspectives on obj ects that mu seum s hold .P?

The history of violen ce done to Native Ameri can commu­niti es by the collect ing proj ects of our forebears, wheth er in the name of scien ce, art, or sentime ntal commemo ra tion, infor ms almos t th e en tire corpus of Native American object s on which art-h istorical study has depe nde d . Far-rea chin g new polici es and legi slative acts that regulate mu seum pr actice and allow Native American s to recla im or otherw ise gain access to much th at was remov ed from their communi­ties are now in force in the United State s and Canada.t ' At this moment it is urg ent that we consider the bene fits of empower ment and of collabora tion as mu ch as the di fficul­ties, for thi s hist orical unfoldin g, unless scho lars can addre ss it hone stly and constru ctively, has the pot enti al to silen ce ar t-h istorical work . We have to accep t, first of all, th at scho lars and aborig ina l pe ople will not always ag ree in thei r read ings of obje cts, th at differ ent form s of au thority will be recognized , an d differ ent facts privileged . Access to obje cts will also change, not always in conform ity with late twentie th­century Western stand ard s of equity.V But, as the retu rn of co llections and individual obj ects proc eeds , a different kind of access will becom e available . When art -historical res earch­ers revisit objects in Native American communities, th ey will find them differ entl y pr esented, embedded in differe nt text s from which mu ch can be learn ed. T he community per spec­tive may well be mor e continu ous with the historical and cu ltura l truths that or igina lly sha ped the objeets.33

Obje cts matte r in cultural pr ocess, especially amo ng pe ople s who have not relied on written texts for the recor d­ing of knowledge . Strip ped bar e of thei r traditi on al objec ts of

Obje cts matte r in cultural pr ocess, espe cially amon g peoples who have no t relied on written texts for the record ­ing of knowled ge. Strip ped bare of thei r traditi on al objec ts of use, beaut y, and power , Native American communities have suffered int errupti ons of historical memo ry, paralysing fail­ures in th e gener ation al tran sfer of politic al and sacre d power, and the cessa tion of orga nic growth in many ancient stylistic and icon ographic tradition s.P"Glor ia Cranmer Web ­ster's word s, with which we op ened thi s essay, link the p ast with the future :

29. M. Baxa ndall, "Ex hibiting Int enti on : Some Pre­cond itions of the Visua l Display of Culturally Pur­po seful Obje cts," in Karp an d Lavine , eds. (as in n. 5), 33-4 J. 30. Recent major exh ibitions which have involved collaboration between museum cu rators an d Na­tive scholars and art ists includ e "Chi efly Feas ts: Th e End urin g Kwakiutl Potlat ch," cura ted by AI· don aJo naitis for th e Ameri can Museum of Nat ural Histo ry, New York ( 199 1), with the section on th e modem potl at ch curaied by G. C. Webster ; "Art of th e American Ind ian Fronuer," cura ted by David Penne y for th e Nation al Gallery of Art, Wash ing­ton , D.C. ( 1992) , in consu lta tion with Geor ge P. Horse Cap ture; "Vision s of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life," cura ted by Evan M. Maurer for th e Minne apolis Institute of Arts (1992) , in consultation with Geo rge P. Hor se Capt ure; and "A T ime of Gather ing : Native Herit age in Washing­ton State ," cura ted by Robin Wrig ht for th e Burke Muse um, Unive rsity of Washing ton, Sea ul e ( 1989) , in conj unc tion with co-curat or Robe rta Haine s, as well as Vi Hilbert and a host of Native advisers; and "Reflections of th e Weaver 's World" cura red by Ann Lane Hedlun d for the Denver Art Museu m (1992) , in consultation with Navajo weavers . 3 1. In th e U.S., the Native America n Graves an d

1990 as Public Law 101- 601 , prov ides for the carry ing out o f invent ories , the d isclosure of hold­ings to the descend an ts of th e makers of Native American objects, the re turn of all human skeleta l remai ns, and th e re pa tria tion of obj ects of a sacred or mo rtuary na ture. Debates on the ramifi catio ns of thi s law appe ar in M useum Anlhrc;polog), xv, 199 J, pass im .

In Canad a , a policy ra the r than a law has been fo rm ulated , by the Ta sk Force on Museu ms and First People s, ap point ed by the Canadian Museums Association and th e Assembly of First Nati on s in 1989. Its report, T urni ng the Page: Forging New Partnerships between Museum s and First Peoples, Ot­tawa, 1992, was ra tified by both org anizations . It es tab lishes a mod el of partn ersh ip be tween abor igi­nal peop le and mu seu ms, an d makes recommen da­tions in thr ee maj or a reas , rep atri ation , access and int erpr et ation , an d implem entat ion. See T Nicks, "Pa rtne rships in Develo ping Cultu ral Resour ces: Le sson s from the Ta sk For ce on Museums an d First Peopl es, ., Cultur e. XII, no. I , 1992, 87- 94. 32. At the Makah-run museum built to house t he import ant finds fro m Ozelle, a Nort hwest Coas t site destroyed by a mu dslide in t he 16th cent ury , access to cert ain objec ts is barr ed to women, in accor da nce with Makah custom. Plains Indi an s

visiting the Canadia n Museum of Civilization have request ed th at menstru atin g women not come into contac t with certain med icine objec ts, a re qu ire ­ment virtually imp ossible to meet und er the con tem­porary gu ide lines of gen de r equ ity and pr ot ecti on of pr ivacy. 33 . See J. Clifford, "Fou r Nor thwest Coas t Muse­um s: T ravel Reflect ions," in Karp and Lavine. eds . (as in n. 5), 2 12-54 . For a recent , pe netr a ting ana lysis of th e comp lexi ties of th e history of Nati ve­made obj ects in museum collections and th eir relati on ships to contemporary Native peop les, see A. J onai tis and R. Inglis, " Power, Histo ry, and Authentic ity: Th e Mowachat Whalers' Wash ing Shr ine ," in M. T orgovnick, ed ., Eloquent Obsessions: Wri/ing Cultura l Criticism, Winsto n-Salem, N .C:, 1994, 157- 84. 34 . Neverth e less, the pas t thirt y years have wit­nessed a stun ning resurgen ce of art istic creativity, exp ressed both in th e revival of nea rly lost art form s an d th e emp loyme nt of hybrid fine-art styles th at are a so phisticated mix of Euro-Ame rican and indigen ous Ameri can form s and genr es. Discus sion of thi s is beyond the scope of th is brief essay. See McMa ster and Marlin , ed s. (as in n. I) , and the works cited in th eir bibliogr apb y.

We do not have a word for repatriation in the Kwak'wala language. The closest we come to it is the word u 'mista, which describes the return of people taken captiv e in raids. It also means th e return of something impo rtant. We are working towards the u'm ista of much that was almost lost to us. Th e return of the potlatch collection is on e u 'mista. The ren ewed inter est among youn ger peopl e in learning about their cultural history is a kind of u 'mista. The creation of new cer em onial gear to replace that held by museums is yet ano the r u'mista. We are takin g back, from many sources, information about our cultur e and our history, to help us rebuild our world which was almost shattered during the bad times. Our aim is the complete u 'mista or repatriation of everything we lost when our world was turned upsid e down , as our old peopl e say.35

The u 'mista of confi scated Kwakwaka 'wakw art rem ain s one of th e most important conte mporary examples of the re­emplacement in a Nativ e American community of objects displaced earlier in the century. In their new location s at the U'rnista Centre at Alert Bay, British Columbia, and at the Cape Mudge Museum on nearby Vancouver Island, the y are pres ented in ways that differ not only from standard, non­Nativ e museums but also from the way they would have been seen in these communiti es in the 1920s .36 (In othe r words, toda y aboriginal peopl e often "museumize" their obje cts too .) At the Cape Mudg e Museum , masks and o the r obj ects are p eriodically remov ed and refurbished so that the y can be worn in potlatches. T he increm ental changing of th e obj ects that occurs as a result of use-anathema to Western conser­vation practices-ar e accept able because Kwakwaka 'wakw beliefs locate ownership primarily in the mental conce p t behind the object and in rig-hts of reproduction, and only vat ion practices-ar e accept able because Kwakwaka 'wakw beliefs locate ownership primarily in the mental conce p t behind the object and in rights of reproduction, and only

secondarily in the object itself. Nevertheless , the re patriation of historical objects has been an essential step in permitting the rearticulation of such principles of indig enous knowl­edge, many of which are in danger of being for gott en . It has also set in motion a new cycle of artistic produ ction and reproduction .F Th e insights gained from this pr ocess, both by Native and non-N ative parti es to it, have alr eady re sulted in the re-pres ent ation of Kwakwaka'wakw objects in urb an museums serving larg ely non-Native audi en ces that more accurately refl ect the ways in which cont emp orary Native Americans und er stand th eir own heritag e. V T he disman­tling of the imp erialist legacy of collecting and display has only just begun, but it is already clear that the old illusion of ideal panopti cal vision has been shattered . T he partial views that replace it offer insights into the meaning s of obje cts that more accuratel y refle ct the multiple ways of knowing that are emerging in the late twenti eth century .

Janet Catherine Berlo, projessor of art history at the Umversity of Missouri-St . Louis, is a specialist in Pre-Columbian and Native North American art history. The recipient of an N EH f ellowshipfor 1994-95 and a Getty Senior Research Grant for 1994-96, she is a member of the Art Bulletin editorial board [Department of Art and Art History, Univ ersity of Missouri-St . Lou is, St. Louis, Mo. 63121).

Ruth B. Phill ips, professor of art history at Carleton University, has done curatorial work and written on Af rican and Nati veAm encan art. She is currently completing Trading Identities: Native American Souvenir Arts from the North east, 1700-1900 for the University of Washington Press [Division of Art History, Carleton Uniuersits , Ottauiq; Oni. K1 S 5B6J Canada l. American Souvenir Arts from the North east, 1700-1900 for the University of Washington Press [Division of Art History, Carleton University, Ottawa, Onto K1 S 5B6, Canada).

35. Webs ter (as in n. 1), 37 . Northw est Coas t." Columbia Uni ver sity. addr esses Natural History . New York. New York /Seattle. 36. For example, they are not in glass cases . and thi s rich and subtle cycle of the use and reu se of 1991. esp . chaps. 1.5 . Not only did Gloria Cranmer th ey are grouped accordi ng to th e ord er in which obje cts and ideas in Kwakiutl cultur e . See also Webst er cura te the section of the potlatch show that th ey appe ar in a potlatch . rather than accord ing to idem . 'T railblazers and Ancestral Her oes : Collabo­ was con cern ed with th e 20th century (see n . 30). she Western taxonomies . rati on in th e Repr esent at ion of a Native Past," was a lso adviser to the Canad ian Museum of Civili­

Curator, XXXV I, no. I . 1993,50--65. zation' s Grand Hall , so that her vision of a Kwakiutl 37. J. Ostrowitz's dissertati on in progr ess. " Privileg­ing the Past: An, History. and Historicism on the 38 . See A. J on aiti s. ed .. Chiefly Feasts: The Endurin g community hous e and its potl atch furnishings is

KwakiuL/Potlatch, exh . cat., American Museu m of presented there as well.

The Art Museum as Ritual

Carol Duncan

The literature about ar t museums tends to repres ent them eithe r as collections of things or as distinctive works of architecture . Museum ca ta logues, for exampl e , itemize the holdings of particular institutions; the museum is treat ed not as a place but as an accumulation of distinctiv e and unique obj ects. Meanwhile, archit ectural writing concentrat es on the kind of artistic statem ent a museum building itself makes or the way it solves practi cal pr oblems such as lightin g or tr affic flow. But art museum s ar e neither neutral shelt ering spac es for objects nor simpl e archit ectural product s; rath er , they ar e complex totalities that include everything from th e building to th e selection and ord ering of collections and th e det ails of th eir instaJJation and lighting . In my view, this totalit y is best

und ersto od as a ritual setting , a cer em onial monument in its own right and not just a contain er for o ther monuments . By approa chin g art museums in this way, we can, I believe , mor e fully grasp not only the meanings that art museums impose on the objects th ey display but also th ose they project onto the social and political world outsid e th e mus eum's walls.

Since their appearance in the late eightee nth century, art museums have regularly been compar ed to older ceremonial monum ent s such as palaces or templ es . Indeed, through most of their history the y were delib er ately designed to resembl e them . On e might object that this borrowing from the ar chite ctur al past is onl y metaphor ic; after all, mu seum s are secular institutions, and in the secular /religious terms of