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DIRECTOR’S LETTER
Ribbon-cutting ceremony in honor of the exhibition, Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics. L-R: Tim Johnson (Mohawk), associate director of the National Museum of the American Indian, musicians Stevie Salas (Apache) and Bernie Fowler, and Paul LaRoche (Lakota/Lower Brule Sioux) from the performance group, Brule. In the middle, Museum director Kevin Gover.
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riting in the afterglow of the wonderful London Olympics, I congratulate the indigenous athletes, who, al- though still under-represent-
ed, participated at a higher rate than in the past, and even shared a gold medal. The first place women’s water polo team included Tumua Anae (Pacific Islander), the alternate goalten- der, who was featured in our recent exhibit Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics. Also finishing well was Mary Killman (Citizen Potowatomie) who, with her partner Mary Ko- roleva, placed 11th
Although Killman didn’t win a medal, she re- ceived a great deal of ink, in a front-page New York Times article on the great athleticism of her highly demanding sport. Three-time World Champion Mary Spencer (Anishinaabe) made history as one of the first contestants in the new Olympic sport of women’s boxing. Although she didn’t advance to the final rounds, she is
a hero in our book for her courage and her very active role as an inspirational speaker for Canada’s aboriginal youth. As we expected we would, we learned
about new indigenous athletes as the games progressed. We are told that a member of the U.S. dressage team – that incredible display of horsemanship – a farm girl from Washington State named Adrienne Lyle, is Cherokee. The Taino community took great pride in Raul Lall, a judoka from Guyana, who is Lokono Arawak. We greatly appreciated the appeal of Erik
in synchronized swimming.
Barrondo of Guatemala, silver medal winner in the race walk, for peace in his country, where the indigenous Maya have suffered so greatly. And we also appreciated the homage paid by decathlon winner Ashton Eaton on the 100th anniversary of that event, to its first winner, possibly the greatest American athlete ever, Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox). The glorious career of Thorpe, who over- came so much adversity, has been a great
concern of our Museum and this magazine. We were proud to display his Olympic med- als and tell their troubled story. And we are hopeful that a final chapter in his saga is soon to be written. We understand that the long controversy over his final resting place is now being approached in a spirit of goodwill both by the town of Jim Thorpe, Penn., which now holds his remains, and those of his family and supporters who want to honor the desire of the Sac and Fox tribe to have him reinterred on tribal land. We hope that a compromise can be reached that will honor the great service of the town in preserving Thorpe’s memory while returning his remains to the land of his ancestors. Just as the Olympics have showed us that so much is possible, we hope that this too can be achieved. X
Kevin Gover (Pawnee) is director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. You can email Kevin at
NMAI-Director@si.edu.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 13
PHOTO BY ROGER WHITESIDE
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