Long Ago: Stories Of The Choctaw People
On display from July 2021 to June 1, 2022 In the changing exhibition gallery, you will find the exhibit Long Ago: Stories of the Choctaw People. This temporary exhibit demonstrates the importance and the artistry of oral storytelling. Long ago, stories were the main source of history keeping among the Choctaw people. These traditional stories have been carried forward so we can remember the world as our ancestors knew it. This exhibit will take you on an adventure, allowing you to interact with traditional stories themselves. The Long Ago exhibit will be on display from July 2021 to June 2022.
Funding for this exhibit was provided in part by the Chahta Foundation.
Choctaw History And Culture
Indigenous community members and scholars have long critiqued the colonial origins of many collections and advocated for institutions to collaborate with Indigenous communities . U.S. laws like the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act have also raised awareness about items in collections and spurred such collaboration. Today, Choctaws are working to reconnect with the Choctaw items living outside of our community to reclaim and revitalize our ancestral knowledge and traditions.
Just as our ancestors, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma carries on the legacy of maintaining Choctaw culture and sharing our rich history with the world. The third largest tribe in the United States, Choctaw Nation has renewed its political and economic power and become a powerful presence and force in American life today. Despite removal from our ancestral homelands beginning in 1831 and massive changes to our political structure due to U.S. colonialism, Choctaw people have persevered and maintained our lifeways into the present. Today the Choctaw Nation Historic Preservation Department provides educational programming in arts and traditional lifeways like pottery, hide tanning, textiles, foodways, games, and language.
Mdah Awarded Nps Grant To Ensure Return Of Tribal Ancestors
The National Park Service has awarded $88,822 to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to support efforts to return the Native American human remains in its archaeological collections to present-day Tribes. MDAH will use the money to hire a new collections manager, provide paid internships for Tribal partners, purchase equipment, and provide staff training.
The Chickasaw Nation and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma supported the grant and will provide guidance as MDAH staff document the human remains and ceremonial objects from graves in northeast Mississippi. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act requires consultation with Tribes whose ancestors lived on the land where graves were located.
One of the departments highest priorities is the proper care of its significant archaeological collection, said MDAH director Katie Blount. In keeping with our standards of excellence, we are embarking on this project with renewed dedication to collaborating with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Chickasaw Nation while becoming fully compliant with NAGPRA.
For more information email .
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Who Is Redstick Gallery
Redstick Gallery is owned by Muscogee Nation, a federally recognized tribe based out of Okmulgee, Oklahoma and is operation by the Cultural Center & Archives Department.
All items on our site and in our store are made by enrolled Muscogee citizens or individuals enrolled in another federally recognized tribe with a Muscogee Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. We research each artist to ensure that you receive the highest quality work done by artists that represent the best of the best at the Muscogee Creek Nation.
In addition to our online store, we also operate a physical store, located at 105 S. Grand Avenue, Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Please stop in and visit us if you are nearby.
Your business is appreciated! Mvto!
The Choctaw Nation Of Oklahoma Capitol Museum
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The Choctaw Capitol Museum is located in the Choctaw CapitolBuilding on the Tvshka Homma grounds . This impressive red-brick structure was built in1884 and served as the Capitol of the Choctaw Nation until1907. Today, it is on the National Register of HistoricPlaces. Choctaw Nation Tribal Court is still held here. The Museum features displays on Choctaw history before Europeancontact, the Trail of Tears, Choctaw life in Oklahoma, theLighthorsemen, the Choctaw Code Talkers, Choctaw basketry, a giftshop selling Choctaw-made artwork, and much more. The Museum is open to the public Monday through Friday, from8:00 am to 4:30 pm closed on holidays. Admittance isfree. Please call to set up a tour.Phone: 569-4465 |
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Attractions & Culture Category Tuskahoma United States
Choctaw Nation Capitol Museum & Gift Shop
The Choctaw Nation Capitol Museum & Cultural Center is located at Tvshka Homma inside the Choctaw Capitol Building that once served as the Council House and is listed on the National Registrer of Historic Places. The museum features exhibits about the Trail of Tears, Choctaw History and Culture and the Choctaw Code Talkers. Surrounding the museum is a 5-acre lawn with aged shade trees where Choctaw stickball, social dancing and weddings take place each year during the Labor Day Festival. Come experience the culture of the Choctaw people and be sure to stop in the Museum Gift Shop for unique Choctaw art, jewelry, books and other gifts.
The Choctaw Collection Preserved In Paris
This research collaboration on the Choctaw collection held in Paris as well as the exhibition project at the Historic Library at Versailles between the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac are a testament to the historic relationship between Choctaws and France as well as the complex relationships between colonialism, museums and contemporary communities. The Choctaw items in the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac collection have had long, storied lives and served many purposes during their journey from the former Louisiana region of the 1700s to the present. These items embody the relationships between diverse peoples from the eighteenth century and the journeys made across thousands of miles and hundreds of years. They also serve as a bridge for us and those who shared the same world and time as these items and the relationships with the distant nations that took them to Paris.
On behalf of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, we are honored to be a part of the North American Royal collections research project and the exhibition titled A Princes Curiosity, a joint project involving the Historic Preservation Department and Choctaw Cultural Center.
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Choctaw Cultural Center Information
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahomas new Choctaw Cultural Center, which tells the 14,000-year-history of the Chahta people and represents more than a decade of research and work in creating the space, will officially open July 23 on the prairie land of southeastern Oklahoma in Durant. Featuring rich interactive and immersive exhibitions and engaging programs and activities, the Choctaw Cultural Center showcases the Nations treasured history and culture, and serves as a place to gather, learn, and preserve the Choctaw spirit and way of life.
The building is situated on 22-acres, is over 100,000 square feet and houses two exhibit halls, an art gallery, auditorium, childrens area, classrooms, offices, gift shop, café and more. Among its many features is a Permanent Exhibit Hall with a four-part story focusing on the history of the Choctaw tribe from ancestral times to current day Oklahoma. To help tell the story are live casts of living Choctaw tribal members created based on 3-D scans of their faces and bodies. Some of the life-like figures scattered throughout show how the tribe lived before contact while others display how they live in contemporary times.
Other items of note in the permanent exhibit are a giant Luksi in the childrens activity center with traditional Choctaw houses and a mini-forest to explore. Also featured throughout are hand-made items created by Choctaw tribal members including jewelry, baskets, beadwork, a cape of feathers, artwork, and more.
New Nagpra Website Launched
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has created a new website that prioritizes the repatriation of human remains and cultural items in the departments archaeological collection. The website will inform the public about the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and serve as a virtual platform for consultation with the departments federally-recognized Tribal partners.
The website features NAGPRA collections updates, policies and procedures, and links to more information about the departments Tribal partners. An interactive map shows the status of ongoing repatriations in Mississippi counties across the state. MDAH completed its first repatriation earlier this year.
The Choctaw Nation, Chickasaw Nation, and Muscogee Nation generously provided images featured on the website. The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana provided additional content.
Our goal is to engage the public in NAGPRA and to provide information about our collections in a way that hasnt been done before, says Meg Cook, director of archaeology collections. The most important part is remembering that these remains are people, and their families want to see that they are reburied.
The website will feature internship opportunities, Tribal stories, collections updates, and repatriation progress. For more information visit the website at .
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Orientation Gallery: Welcome To Our Story
From the welcome lobby, visitors will pass through a short corridor lined with murals of the Choctaw reservation that funnels into a welcome space. Featured in this area will be a grouping of 12 exhibit vignettes featuring a Choctaw community member and the 12 districts they are from. The area ends at the entrance to the Orientation Theater, where visitors will view a short video about Choctaw culture.
Choctaws And French In The Times Of New France
When Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto first met Choctaw warriors in 1540, Choctaws proved to be a powerful player in world politics. As Choctaws, other Indigenous nations, and Europeans increasingly interacted in North America, Choctaws established a trade relationship with the French. Throughout this era, French explorers brought back Choctaw items to elite French collections. While France was a respected ally that upheld treaty terms to a greater degree than their imperial counterparts, the taking of Indigenous nations items from their homelands and their placement into European royal collections and museums epitomizes the complicated relationship between Choctaws and France.
Acquiring knowledge about Indigenous communities was integral to European empire-making and Choctaws were no exception. This era of rapid imperial expansion also contributed to the early stages of what would become salvage anthropology in the 19th century such collecting sought to give testimony of Indigenous communities before the Euro-American civilizational project assimilated Indigenous peoples and their cultures. Across the globe, European empires collected items and featured them in curiosity cabinets and later in museums and universities.
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State Archives Collects Items Related To Covid
MDAH is continuing to fulfill its mission of empowering people through Mississippis many stories by collecting artifacts that document todays unprecedented times in our states history. Mississippi, like the nation, is currently in the midst of a global health pandemic, an economic recession, and a new movement for social justice. MDAH archivists and collections staff have taken on a new task to accumulate an assortment of memorabilia that will preserve the stories of this historic time in Mississippi.
This is really a crucial change in how we look at collecting, said Shane Keil, MDAH director of curatorial services. Much of what we traditionally do involves searching for objects that represent an era in the past. Now were looking at current events and searching for objects that will represent this period of pandemic and societal change.
Local industries have transitioned to manufacture vital safety items such as sanitizers, face coverings, and disinfectant cleaners. MDAH has added several of these limited items to its collections to depict adapting to a pandemic in the state.
The material weve collected from the ongoing racial equality and social justice movements is really a continuation of the civil rights story told in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, said Keil. Weve reached out to contacts in the social justice movement and collected I Cant Breathe face masks as well as various signs from protests at the State Capitol and Governors Mansion.
