The Impact of Native American Actnism and the Media On
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THE IMPACT OF NATIVE AMERICAN ACTNISM AND THE MEDIA ON MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: TWO CASE STUDIES by Patricia Fiorillo A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters In Partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL December 2015 Copyright 2015 by Patricia Fiorillo ii THE IMP ACT OF NATIVE AMERICAN ACTIVISM AND THE MEDIA ON MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: TWO CASE STUDIES by Patricia Fiorillo This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Arlene Fradkin, Department of Anthropology, and has been approved by the members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. SUPERVISORY COMMITIEE: G.o.ML ~. Arlene Fradkin, Ph.D. ~?~d~so~r ~ ~)~~-ttl 'susan£. Bro h. ~··Q~~~ ~~~Norman, Ph.D. MichaelS. Harris, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Anthropology ~g-- Heather Col~, DMA Dean, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters ~~.tJ~~oyd,Ed.D. Dean, Graduate College iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to acknowledge the members of my thesis committee-Or. Arlene Fradkin, Dr. Sandra Norman, and Dr. Susan Brown. Thank you Dr. Fradkin, for your patience and guidance throughout this process, particularly when I could not make up my mind on a thesis topic. Thank you for your endless support, advice, and help. Thank you Dr. Norman for your support, advice, and knowledge. Your insights into history and museology are invaluable contributions. Thank you for listening to my ideas and providing me with feedback and support. Thank you Dr. Brown for your advice and support. Our conversations have always been thought provoking. I would also like to acknowledge Florida Atlantic University's Anthropology Department as a whole. Thank you for providing me with the environment I needed to grow and learn as a person, not just as an intellectual. Thank you for challenging me. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the Milwaukee Public Museum and those who work there. In particular I would like to thank Dawn Scher Thomae for her patient replies to my inquiries about A Tribute to Survival. iv ABSTRACT Author: Patricia Fiorillo Title: The Impact of Native American Activism and the Media on Museum Exhibitions of Indigenous Peoples: Two Case Studies Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Arlene Fradkin Year: 2015 This thesis is a critical study of two exhibits, First Encounters Spanish Exploration in the Caribbean and A Tribute to Survival. The objective of the thesis was to understand if and how indigenous activists, using the media as tool, were able to change curatorial approaches to exhibition development. Chapter 1 is broken into three sections. The first section introduces the exhibits and succinctly discusses the theory that is applied to this thesis. The second section discusses the objectives of the project and the third provides a brief outline of the document. Chapter 2 discusses the historical background of American museums in an attempt to highlight changes in curatorial attitudes towards the public, display, interpretation, and authority. Chapter 3 gives a more in-depth overview of the methodology and materials utilized in the thesis. Chapter 4 is a critical analysis of the literature for both First Encounters and A Tribute to Survival. Chapter five is a summary of the thesis and offers a conclusion of the effectiveness of using the media as a tool. v DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my family and friends, both past and present. I would have been lost without all of your unending support, patience, and humor. vi THE IMPACT OF NATIVE AMERICAN ACTIVISM AND THE MEDIA ON MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: TWO CASE STUDIES CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 Objectives of Study ......................................................................................................... 3 Organization of Thesis .................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ................................................................ 5 Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries (1890-1930) .............................................................. 5 Role of Education (1940-1990) ....................................................................................... 8 Native American Self-determination and Protests, 1960-1980 ..................................... 10 Changing Perceptions among Museum Curators in the 1980s ..................................... 13 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990) ................................ 17 The Period of Collaboration (1990-Present) ................................................................. 20 Defining Ineffective vs. Effective ................................................................................. 23 CHAPTER 3: MATERIALS AND METHODS .............................................................. 25 Materials ........................................................................................................................ 25 Methods ......................................................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF EXHIBITS ...................................................................... 30 vii First Encounters: Spanish Exploration in the Caribbean and United States, 1492-1576 ....................................................................................................................................... 30 A Tribute to Survival ..................................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER 5: COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................ 49 Comparisons .................................................................................................................. 49 Concluding Remarks ..................................................................................................... 53 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 56 viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This thesis is a critical study of two museum exhibitions in their portrayal of indigenous peoples and the responses these exhibits received from activists and the media. The two exhibitions are First Encounters: Spanish Exploration in the Caribbean on display at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, from 1989-1993, and A Tribute to Survival on permanent display at the Milwaukee Public Museum since 1993. In the case of First Encounters, American Indian activist groups, dissatisfied with the content of the exhibit, maintained that the cultures and histories portrayed were misrepresented. In addition to activists carrying out protests, they used the media to publicly express their concerns. The museum, in tum, was not sensitive to these issues and did not take appropriate action to remedy the situation, as seen in the eyes of the activists. Based upon the reaction of indigenous people to First Encounters, as well as other negatively received exhibits during this time period, museums such as the Milwaukee Public Museum began to make changes by incorporating Native American input into the creation and development of future exhibitions. Native Americans were brought in to be active collaborators throughout the entire exhibition development process and thus had a significant voice in how they were portrayed. As a result, A Tribute to Survival is an example of the implementation of this approach to exhibit development. Social Cognition Theory explains how and why positive and negative media attention impacted the change in museum exhibitions that featured American Indians 1 between 1990 and 1993. Social Cognition Theory (SCT) provides a framework by which to understand how symbolic communication through the media can influence social change. Social Cognition Theory states that among other influences humans have the ability to learn behavior vicariously (Bandura 1989). An individual's (or rather in this case the museum professional's) ability to learn through other's actions helps reinforce or dissuade certain behaviors. The media facilitates this observational learning (Bandura 1986:286). The media is strategically placed in a position where it can create and then reinforce certain models of behavior which those controlling the media either approve or disprove. This is done by either painting a report in a positive or negative light. For example, in the case of First Encounters, the media created a story with the museum as the villain and the indigenous protestors as the victims, soliciting reactions from the public and others in the museum community. This further reinforced the idea that museums needed to change how they approached exhibitions featuring Native American culture and history. Bandura's theory strategically positioned the media as an important source of information and thus influencer to the general public. Essentially, Social Cognition Theory explains the role the media played in shifting attitudes among museum professionals and curators because protestors influenced the media, the media in turn influenced public opinion, and the public then influenced