ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR’S LETTER ............................. ................


SCHOLARSHIP FOR LEADERSHIP


BY DAV ID W. PENNEY


pursuit of the most accurate and up-to-date information about and interpretations of Native culture and history. And our scope is not just limited to North America. Museum historian Jose Barreiro recently


David W. Penney V


isitors to our Museum, we have felt at the National Museum of the American Indian, too often see American Indians as pe- ripheral to the mainstream of


American history, instead of essential and fundamental to it. Many of our Smithson- ian colleagues have come to the same con- clusion. The practice of offering different “perspectives” to historic events has proved inadequate to the task of showing our real common ground when accounting for the historical experiences of all United States citizens (and how they became citizens). As the newest Museum of the Smithson-


ian family, soon to be joined by the newer-still National Museum of African American His- tory and Culture, we are uniquely positioned to help lead the Smithsonian through these kinds of questions and issues. And the Smith- sonian, one of America’s most trusted sources for information and learning, influences the nation and the world. Our efforts to change perceptions about American history have re- sulted in the opening of our groundbreaking exhibition, Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations.


12 AMERICAN INDIAN SPRING 2015


Longer term, the future will see new galleries at our Museum addressing American Indians in American history and American imagina- tion and the creation of new curriculum con- tent available online as part of our National Education Initiative. Museum scholars, working closely with


community and scholarly consultants from throughout the Northeast, are also currently conducting research and consultations for an exhibition treatment of the Native nations of New York State. All of these public, and we hope, influential programs depend upon and are preceded by years of firmly grounded scholarship. Scholarship at our Museum is collaborative and participatory, privileging not only the best thinking coming out of uni- versities and fellow institutions of learning, but also from our constituent communities and their leadership. Knowledge creation is a collective en-


deavor benefitting from the broadest range of input, which is one of the ways we at the Museum define research. On any given day, our scholars are partnered with dozens if not hundreds of colleagues and communi- ties across the United States and beyond in


initiated a broad multi-discipline project to explore the persistence of Taino indigeneity in the Caribbean. In collaboration with the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Smithso- nian Consortia for World Culture, Barreiro assembled an international team of histori- ans, ethnographers, archaeologists, commu- nity leaders, anthropologists, demographers and geneticists for a series of seminars and workshops in Washington, New York, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Many of these scholars had been working in relative isolation in their home countries, but with the Smithsonian’s help, they came together to share data and insights. Popular perception, supported by standard textbooks, assumes a dearth of indigeneity in Caribbean countries and the extinction of Taino, the people who greeted Columbus. The Museum’s Taino initiative has assembled evidence that sub- stantially questions that assertion, and also explores a remarkable growth of Taino indi- geneity and identity – both in the islands and in their North American diasporas – that is impacting the national character of Carib- bean nations today. These questions of scholarship are not


merely academic. They help inform social justice and advocacy for crucial issues fac- ing Indian Country and the broader world today. Generations of Americans have grown up informed about American Indians only through popular media and often false and misleading educational curricula. But today, with the help of the best research and think- ing the Museum can muster, we work to offer in our exhibitions and programs educational materials and experiences that are relevant, useful and true. X


David W. Penney is associate director for museum scholarship at the National Museum of the American Indian – Smithsonian.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68