Visit to Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post
Working with Native American Communities
Exhibit Graphic for Ziibaaska’ iganagooday: The Jingle Dress at 100
On November 16, 2021 I attended an event Working with Native American Communities sponsored by the Minnesota Association of Museums and hosted by the Mille Lacs Indian Museum & Trading Post. Those of us who were able to venture to the shores of Lake Mille Lacs we were treated to a tour of the site, a wonderful lunch that included wild rice, and a panel discussion Working with Native American Communities.
Despite living in Minnesota for more than 30 years I had never ventured to the Mille Lacs Indian Museum & Trading Post, which is about an hour and a half north of Minneapolis. After reading about the collaboration between the Minnesota Historical Society and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe that resulted in the development of the current incarnation of the Museum in our Decolonizing Museums in Practice course the opportunity to visit the institution and participate in the event was an opportunity not to be missed. Joining me on this journey was a past participant in the course who recently moved to Minnesota, Matthew Villar Miranda, a Visual Arts Curatorial Fellow at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
We were hosted by Travis Zimmerman, a Grand Portage Band descendant, who for the last 13 years has been the Site Manager for the Minnesota Historical Society at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum & Trading Post. Travis gave us a history of the site, a tour, lunch, and led the panel discussion that also included Mike Wilson, from the Gojijiwininiwag and Makandwewininiwag Bands of Ojibwe and Franky Jackson an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate.
Jingle Dress on display at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum
In addition to seeing the exhibits that we read about in Amy Lonetree’s Decolonizing Museums we also got to see a temporary exhibit that will soon close, Ziibaaska’ iganagooday: The Jingle Dress at 100. This exhibit was installed in the Spring of 2019 before COVID. That timing is interesting because “The global influenza epidemic that killed millions of people worldwide in 1918-19, including thousands of North American Indians and Alaska Natives, was the tragic inspiration behind a revolutionary new tradition of healing that emerged in Ojibwe communities of the United States and Canada, the jingle dress dance.” (excerpt from the Mille Lacs Museum and Trading Post website)
Both Mike Wilson and Franky Jackson are Tribal Historic Preservation Officers and part of the discussion was about NAGPRA the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. They expressed cautious optimism that the current review of the Act would provide long needed enforcement mechanisms that have been lacking since the Act was passed 31 years ago. They told us something I had not previously been aware of that most tribes have a NAGPRA tribal contact who is the person you should contact about repatriations. We also learned that Tribal Historic Preservation Officers can help institutions with collection reviews.
All in all, it was a wonderful opportunity to build new relationships and learn and I plan to return to the Mille Lacs Indian Museum & Trading Post. Who wants to join me?
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