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In
this March 19, 2009 file photo, a Caddo buffalo
hide bag once used for drying food, is displayed
in a new exhibit at the Historic Arkansas Museum
in Little Rock, Ark. The museum will open a
permanent exhibit called "We Walk in Two
Worlds" to pass along the history and culture
of the three Native American nations that were
once settled in Arkansas.
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Their
names mark rivers, valleys, schools and communities across
the state, recalling the people who were settled in
Arkansas when Europeans first arrived in the 1500s.
But while the names may be
familiar to many, the history of the Quapaw, Osage and
Caddo American Indian tribes might not.
To help change that, the
Historic Arkansas Museum has opened a permanent exhibit
called "We Walk in Two Worlds" to pass along the
history and culture of the three Native American nations
that were once settled in Arkansas.
To mark the event, Gov.
Mike Beebe sent each tribal council the state's first
formal invitation to come back to Arkansas since the
tribes were forced from the land in the early 1800s, said
Swannee Bennett, the museum's chief curator and deputy
director.
Representatives from each
of the three nations attended the opening, along with a
drum circle, singing dancing and other demonstrations by
tribal members.
The exhibit — which was
three years in the making — is divided into six chapters
that form a cycle, each one flowing into the next until
the circle is completed. By the end, a display shows
visitors where the tribes started and where they find
themselves now.
The exhibit was set up to
describe the history of the tribes through Native American
voices, beginning just before European contact, moving
through their forced relocations to Oklahoma around 1830
and into the cultural revival that has defined recent
decades. It includes more than 160 artifacts from the
tribes.
"We try to make sure
that the words you read are from Native Americans,"
Bennett said. "We wanted to have a Native American
interpretation."
To do that, the museum
sought tribal advisers from each nation who helped mold
the exhibit into a reflection of their historical and
contemporary experiences, as passed down in the tribes.
Ardina Moore is a Quapaw
tribal historian and a teacher of the Quapaw language, but
is also part Osage. She said the name Arkansas comes from
early French explorers who were told by an Illinois tribe
that the people who inhabited what is now the state were
the "Akansea," which means "People of the
South Wind."
The museum also was able to
display items from the Smithsonian Institution — ranging
from buffalo hides to traditional weapons — that are on
loan from the National Museum of the American Indian.
Those artifacts supplement items from the Arkansas
museum's own growing collection and some provided by the
tribes. Moore even donated the cradle board made for her
by her grandfather, the last hereditary chief of the
Quapaw nation, Victor Griffin.
The space was blessed
before the opening with a cedar wood smoke ceremony — a
traditional Native American ceremony for new beginnings.
"What pleases us the
most is the idea that people are going to recognize our
heritage and our culture, which to this point has been
kind of ignored," Moore said. "It helps to be
appreciated."
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If You Go...
HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM:
200 E. Third St., Little Rock, Ark.; http://www.arkansashistory.com/
or 501-324-9351. Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays 1
p.m.-5 p.m. Adults, $2.50; children under 18, $1. The new
"We Walk in Two Worlds" exhibit is a permanent
gallery.
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