A few years ago, Nat Silverman was reading a book to a group of students when he came across a Native American name he was not sure how to pronounce. So he looked up the number of the Navajo Nation Museum in Arizona — and simply asked.
When he told the kids, he was met with disbelief.
Standing in an exhibition hall of the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Silverman, who works for the museum, recalled that day, saying, “They were really surprised that you can actually telephone and speak to a Navajo.”
A lot of the children couldn’t believe that these people still exist. Not much has changed since then.
“This perception is still very prevalent,” said Kathleen McDonald, director and curator of the small two-story red brick Evanston museum founded in 1977 and moved to its current location in 1997. “A lot of people know very little about the American natives or have wrong pictures in their heads.” Part of that can be attributed to the fact that in a lot of states, including Illinois, the subject of Native Americans and their culture is not part of the official school curriculum.
That is why McDonald, who has been running the museum since 2009, has made it her mission to try and correct such misperceptions.
“Deconstructing Stereotypes” is one of the latest special exhibits at the Mitchell Museum, which interviewed native people in the U.S. and Canada in order to create a “Top 10” list of cliches.
The exhibit starts out with an attempt to deconstruct the idea that that Native Americans belong to the past — in fact, the Chicago area is home to about 35,000 natives from more than 100 tribes — and goes on to highlight the diversity of the more than 500 tribes in the U.S. All this aims to illustrate that the Native Americans can’t be seen as a homogenous group.
This widespread notion is impressively contradicted in a display case that shows apparel worn and donated by Native Americans: Here you see custom-made moccasins right next to sneakers, and baseball caps side by side with traditional headdresses.
Other parts of the exhibit, which occupies most of the upper level of the museum, present information about casinos (less than 10 percent of the legal gaming industry is operated by Native Americans), alcohol (shows how liquor was used as a weapon for colonization) and explores the issue of what many Native Americans regard as offensive athletic mascots.
This includes Chief Illiniwek of the University of Illinois, who after years of criticism was retired in 2007.
There are three special exhibits at the museum. “Cahokia: Rediscovering Archaeology” offers insight into archaeological methods and displays arrowheads and stone tools found at Cahokia near Collinsville, Ill., a major metropolis between 600 and 1300 C.E.
“Did You Know They’re Native?” presents pictures and biographies of celebrities with native heritage such as guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, actor James Earl Jones or humoristWill Rogers.
From there visitors can continue to the ground floor’s permanent exhibition about the everyday life of Native American tribes from the East Coast to the Southwest and Arctic regions, presenting dresses, jewelry, woven carpets and pottery — all in all, McDonald says, “to present the diversity of Native Americans today and yesterday.”
Much of the museum is child friendly, giving visitors the opportunity to touch instruments, clothing, toys and work materials such as stones or furs.
Over the years, the museum has more than tripled the number of its original 3,000 artifacts.
“There’s a lot to explore,” says Sandra Aranoff, a West Rogers Park resident, who came to the museum with Nenachem Reed, her 6-year-old neighbor, who said he liked the walk-in wigwam — complete with bark roof and artificial campfire — before diving back into merchandise on display in the museum shop.
Next year, the museum plans to renew its permanent exhibit to celebrate its 35th anniversary.
“But don’t worry, the wigwam stays,” McDonald promised.
Mitchell Museum of the American Indian
What: Exhibits about Native American life, past and present, featuring photos, video, text and lots of hands-on artifacts
Where: 3001 Central St., Evanston
When: “Cahokia” through Oct. 30; “Did You Know They’re Native” through Jan. 8; “Deconstructing Stereotypes” through March. A new exhibit, “Treasures of the Collection,” features a diverse array of native art spotlighting the major categories of the museum’s 10,000-piece collection; through May 27. The permanent exhibition is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Admission: $5 adults; $2.50 seniors, students, teachers, children
More information: 847-475-1030, mitchellmuseum.org
