Eiteljorg Museum will show Native American art in new way

Working with its national Native American Advisory Council, the Eiteljorg developed a new vision for the galleries that is organized into the themes of Relation, Continuation and Innovation, which are important across Native cultures.

Artworks — which include jewelry, pottery, prints, portraits, ribbonwork and beadwork — will be displayed in glass cases that greatly open up the space.

“One of the biggest changes from the old exhibit to the reinstallation is looking at the art through these three major themes because previously, we took — as did many other museums — an anthropological look at the art and the people and the cultures and really categorizing people by geographic area. So you had people of the plains, people of the southwest,” said Elisa Phelps, who is the vice president and chief curatorial officer.

“That really is a non-Native perspective on looking at the art and the cultures and the peoples.”

The theme of Relation explores the connections to spirits, animals, plants, families, communities and nations. Red Cloud said that Native peoples’ creation, or origin, stories will be part of this section. Mesa Verde national park in Colorado and Cahokia Mounds, which is just east of St. Louis, are among places that are ancestral to today’s tribes but not properly recognized as such, she said.