The Changing Presentation of the American Indian: Museums and Native Cultures [Hardcover]

W. Richard West (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2000

Museums - along with books, newspapers, and Wild West shows in the 19th century, movies and television in the 20th - have shaped our perceptions of American Indians. This book brings together six prominent museum professionals - Native and non-Native - to examine the ways in which Indians and their cultures have been represented by museums in North America and to present new directions museums are already taking. Traditional museum exhibitions of Native American art and culture often represented only the past, ignoring the living Native voice. Today, museums have begun to incorporate Native perspectives in their displays. Even more dramatic is the growth in the number of Indian-run museums. These essays explore the relationships being forged between museums and Native communities to create new techniques for presenting Native American culture. This publication will serve to stimulate the discussions and analyses that can lead to new partnerships and collaborations. W. Richard West is the founding director of the National Museum of the American Indian. Other contributors include: Richard Hill, Sr., Michael M. Ames, Janice Clements, Evan M. Maurer, James D. Nason, David W. Penney, and Jocelyn Wedll.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: University of Washington Press (March 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295977817
• ISBN-13: 978-0295977812
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,980,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Great material but can get dry, August 20, 2009

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Joanna Marcia (Fargo, ND) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Changing Presentation of the American Indian: Museums and Native Cultures (Hardcover)

I bought this book for a museum exhibition I was curating, entitled "Changing Perceptions of the American Indian." I had checked this book out from my local college library and found, while reading the library copy, I wanted to highlight and write little notes for myself in the margin. So I bought my own copy. The book is filled with great and thorough insight and was incredibly helpful, however some of the articles (each written by a different authority in Native American art/artifact display) can get a little dry sometimes. I found it hard to stay interested in what was being said at times. This sort of off-and-on readability is to be expected when you have many contributors to the same book, however, and I would still definitely recommend this text to anyone interested in this subject. The authors encompass a range of experts, all of whom provide very interesting perspectives. I would highly recommend this book to mature readers (not in the sense of mature content, but mature sentence structure and word choice).