Amerind Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 3
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Amerind quarterly The Newsletter of the Amerind Foundation summer 2004 (vol. 1, no.3) Summers at the Amerind Museum 1913. We think you will fi nd it a moving MISSION are a time of below average visitation and narrative of an incredibly resilient people Established in 1937, the abbreviated museum hours, which gives whose story needs to be told in this, their Amerind Foundation and staff some breathing room between our traditional homeland. Museum seeks to foster and promote knowledge busy spring and fall schedules when we Amerind’s permanent* exhibit, and understanding of can concentrate on long-term projects Images in Time, requires a facelift, and the Native Peoples of such as exhibition design and installation. the operation is scheduled for this summer the Americas through research, education, and Amerind staff is working this summer and early fall. With minimal interpretive conservation. putting the fi nal touches on our Apache text and virtually no discussion of context, exhibit before its public Images in Time is more opening in October. art than anthropology, and BOARD OF DIRECTORS We are also sprucing our curatorial staff will be Peter L. Formo, Tucson (Emeritus) up our Images in Time redoing interpretive labels, Marilyn F. Fulton, San Diego exhibition, in the main adding contextual images, Wm. Duncan Fulton, San Diego gallery, and planning such as maps and historic George J. Gumerman, Santa Fe, some major changes to photographs, and moving [email protected] our ongoing archae- objects around, into, Michael W. Hard, Tucson, [email protected] ology exhibits. and out of the exhibition Michael B. Husband, Pennsylvania, The Apache in order to enhance [email protected] exhibit tells the story of Apachean the content, scope, and clarity of the Peter Johnson, Tucson, [email protected] migrations to the Southwest from western presentation. Down the hall from Images J. William Moore, Phoenix, Canada, the diversifi cation of Apachean in Time, exhibitions in the Archaeology [email protected] tribal groups in the Southwest, and Hall are also in need of renovation. The Lawrence Schiever, Tucson, the impacts of Spanish and American archaeology exhibits tell the story of the [email protected] conquest of Apacheria in the historic Amerind’s excavations in the Southwest period. The centerpiece of the exhibit and northern Mexico, including W.S. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR John A. Ware, Dragoon, is the story of the Chiricahua Apaches Fulton’s early excavations in southeastern [email protected] who occupied much of Cochise County Arizona and on the Navajo Reservation, and adjacent regions of New Mexico, and Charlie Di Peso’s work at Terrenate, Letters to the director and the Chihuahua, and Sonora. Included in the Paloparado, and Casas Grandes. Important board members can be sent Chiricahua section are superb examples of excavations need to be added to this story care of the Amerind, Box 400, 19th Century clothing, horse regalia, and and the storyline needs to be enhanced with Dragoon, AZ 85609. other artifacts, including a bow and arrow maps and other graphics. We also want to set made by famed war leader Geronimo. say more about the archaeologists behind The Amerind Quarterly is produced Photographs and text describe the fi nal the excavations—especially Drs. Fulton and seasonally by staff and volunteers years of the Chiricahua’s war against Di Peso, who guided the Amerind during its of the Amerind. Maureen O’Neill, American encroachment, their deportation fi rst fi fty years. technical editor; C. Charnley, design and layout; Barbara Hanson, art. to Florida, Alabama, and then Oklahoma th * In the museum world, permanent usually means in the late 19 Century, and their eventual fi ve to ten years, which coincides approximately www.amerind.org release from prisoner of war status in with the tenure of most museum directors! VIEW FROM COATI CANYOn... …Nature sightings at the Amerind Summer has arrived at the Amerind and my porch. I watched in fascination as they education in the ways of the local fl ora and fauna each located their own “doorway” and continues. Recently I picked up my walking stick made climbed back in. Without knowing it I from a saguaro rib to go view the landscape from my had been carrying around their whole favorite rock perch. My main reason for using the apartment building! walking stick is to avoid being surprised by snakes, as Getting out my reference I was last summer when a well-camoufl aged Sonoran books I learned that the female bee is Mountain whipsnake shot its head out from the grass the one who burrows into the wood, and warningly slapped my foot with its head. So as I buzzing as she works. Inside, she came to each patch of tall grass I tapped ahead with will lay eggs in separate cells, each the stick. Every time I did this I heard a loud buzzing. supplied with pollen and nectar. The young Puzzled, I stopped and tapped the stick several times in will emerge from the wood the following spring. My a row and realized that the buzzing was coming from stick must be unusual because typically only one female my stick! Examining the stick I saw several perfectly will nest in each site, with a male bee guarding it. round holes, 3/8” in diameter, and quickly removed I’m happy to use a different walking stick for my hand from covering one of them. Out stumbled a the summer but I better plug up the holes in the agave large black bee that I recognized as a “carpenter” bee. stalk I use for my Christmas tree before I bring it into the Suddenly all the mysterious piles of sawdust on my back house, or I may have young carpenter bees as ornaments porch made sense! Several more bees tumbled out and next December. followed me as I returned the stick to its “home” on the by Barbara Hanson APACHE ! APACHE ! - THE ATHAPASKAN EXHIBIT “They hurl themselves at danger like a people who know no God nor that there is any hell” (Spanish missionary, ca. 1660). “The most rascally Indian on the continent. Treacherous, bloodthirsty, brutal with an irresistible propensity to steal” (Indian Agent George Bailey, 1858). The reputation of the Apaches as fi erce and and culture that avoids both old and new stereotypes. determined warriors was justifi ed, but the negative If there is a bias in our representation, it is a bias of stereotypes of bloodthirsty killers gradually moderated seeing things from the Apache perspective, a side not after 1886, when all the Apaches were either imprisoned usually represented in popular histories of the Southwest. or confi ned to reservations. As memories of the Apache Informed by 20th Century scholarship on the Apaches by wars faded and as fears subsided, it was no longer Grenville Goodwin, Morris Opler, and Eve Ball, we are necessary for the military—and the people who made hopeful that some of the Chiricahuas, now at Mescalaro, money supplying them—to keep emotions stirred up New Mexico and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, will respond to over the “Apache problem.” Today, over a our invitation to visit with us and provide feedback and century since the last armed confl ict with suggestions from their side. The exhibit will include the Apaches, stereotypes persist, but they objects from all of the southern Athapaskan groups; the are just as likely to adopt a positive Navajo as well as the people we call Apache. Looking spin. A popular t-shirt design shows outside the Amerind’s windows to Texas Canyon and Geronimo and three other warriors beyond, it is easy to imagine the Chiricahua moving from the 1880s under the caption: silently across the landscape of their homeland. The “Homeland Security…Fighting Amerind’s location, in the heart of Chiricahua Apache Terrorism since 1492.” country, provides us with extra incentive to tell the Here at the Amerind we Apache story from the inside out; to represent Apache are trying to present our visitors history and culture with the accuracy and dignity it with a view of Apache life deserves. 2 the back page Amerind started its first membership program last Mata Ortiz, the Mimbres area, Chaco, and possibly August and as we approach the first anniversary of that Copper Canyon, and hold a membership banquet and program our membership rolls have swelled to over 430 art auction for members of our higher giving categories. people! The membership program has not only brought We will be starting a lecture series on Southwestern many people into the Amerind family, giving old and Archaeology that will go through next spring and move new friends of the Amerind an opportunity to support around neighboring communities in Cochise and Pima our mission, but there have also been some unanticipated Counties. In October we’ll begin our second round of outcomes of membership that have fundamentally Native Arts events that will bring Native artists, scholars, changed the way we go about our work at the foundation. and interpreters to the Amerind to tell their own stories In the past year we’ve learned that creating a and present the products of their own artistic traditions. family of members instills a new sense of pride and In short, next year promises to be busier than ever. responsibility in our mission that didn’t exist before. By Just before your membership anniversary date attaching names to faces, membership programs provide you will be receiving a renewal form in the mail, and incredible motivation for staff to develop high quality we hope you take a moment to renew your support and exhibits and programs, because now we’re doing that commitment to Amerind’s mission.