Customer Reviews

Voices of a Thousand People: The Makah Cultural and Research Center

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Not knowing what to expect from this book, I began reading and couldn't stop. This is the best book I have read on post-colonial museology. It is clear that the Makah People of Neah Bay, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula are the ones driving the train to produce an important heritage vehicle for their community. The anthropologists in the book are only along for the ride as is clearly stated in the Preface written by Jane Bowechop, Director of the Makah Cultural Center. She writes, "Not all of the interaction with anthropologists has been bad. In fact, some research has proved very valuable, despite the bias and misconceptions you have to maneuver to get to cultural truths." Bowechop goes on to explain how Dr. Erikson complied with their requirements for research and how well she has been able to document their achievements in terms of the heritage center the Makah have developed. Indeed, her writing is excellent and she carries the story forward almost effortlessly. I was expecting a dry, academic tome; instead, it is a crackling good story with lots of lessons learned along the way. I used this book in my heritage studies course and students enjoyed it very much.

The collaborative nature of the work described in the text concerning the establishment of the resource center is a great example of how anthropologists, archaeologists and museologists need to work with descendant heritage communities to provide the assistance they want from them to fulfill their own heritage desires.

The book is divided into three parts: first, a theoretical and stage setting introductory chapter, followed by Part 1 that reviews the history of Makah - White interaction and the loss of heritage. Part 2 discusses the recovery of that heritage with the help with some archaeologists and museologists. A conclusion adds an interesting story of the conflict that arose between environmentalists and younger Makah who are re-juvenating their whale hunting heritage. The conflict illustrates the continuing negotiation among Non-Native and Native peoples about who they are and how they are to live.

The Makah story presented in Erikson's book shows the depths of the tragedy of that historical contact with Europeans, while simultaneously demonstrating the resiliency of the Makah People and their efforts to restore, preserve and share their heritage pride with their own people. Dr. Erikson does a wonderful job of presenting this story without getting in the way of it. It is not heavily theoretical, but has plenty of good lessons for anthropologists, archaeologists and museologists than need to be taken to heart.

The Makah Cultural and Research Center is a museum on the Makah Indian Reservation, near the northwest point of the lower 48 states. In this book, Erikson and her associates offer us a cultural anthropology of that museum.

That overview may make the book seem like the worst of academic navel-gazing on obscure topics. Fortunately, that isn't true at all. It is indeed an academic work of museology (the study of museums) but Erikson puts the MCRC into its full social and historical context. She tells the story of the Makah, the story of the Ozette excavation, the story of museums, and the story of how Native Americans have begun to transform museum practice. In short, the book transcends its subject even while remained centered on it.

Erikson writes well, and the museum comes alive. She also provides introductions to many connected topics that might send you off reading in other directions. There's some superfluous "theorizing" in the first chapter that unnecessarily references some authors (i.e., Foucault) or substitutes labels (colonialism) for analysis, but Erikson keeps the overall story moving well enough that I didn't mind.

[PS. This should be a four-star review but I made a clicking mistake and Amazon won't let me fix it.]