Background Report - Arizona Town Hall

Dr. Charles C. Di Peso said that they were lucky to have had only two visitors to the Amerind
Museum that month, so there were few distractions to getting an important research project
written up!
In 1984 the Amerind opened its museum and fine art gallery to the walk-in public and visitation
steadily rose to the current level of 12-15,000 visitors a year. The Amerind is truly a rural
museum, and there are advantages and disadvantages to being in the “middle of nowhere.”
Other than the spectacular rock formations of Texas Canyon and the beautiful sunsets of
southeastern Arizona, visiting scholars and advanced seminar participants have few things to
distract them from their important work. On the other hand, the Amerind is an hour’s drive
from Tucson and Sierra Vista and twenty minutes to the nearest restaurant, grocery store, or
pharmacy. Moreover, Cochise County has very little wealth, few corporations, even fewer
non-profits, and almost no history of philanthropy. Without a solid community of support,
fund raising for new programs and capital improvements is difficult, to say the least. As the
Amerind approaches its 75th anniversary in 2012, its biggest challenge will be to transform a
closely kept secret into a household name and popular visitor destination. As a cultural attraction,
it will contribute to the economy of this remote location.
Tribal Museums: From Display Cases to Cultural Preservation
Manuelito Wheeler, Director, Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock
A current trend in museums nationally is to be more in tune with their communities and not
operate as empirical institutions. The Navajo Nation Museum, for example, operates by this
trend. The Museum opened in 1961 with the help of the Navajo Council, and initially and
for some decades it functioned as an anthropological museum having historical exhibits and
displaying artwork. Currently the Navajo Nation Museum’s mission statement is “Striving to
achieve hozho through contemporary and traditional exhibits, programs, and tours; To
promote our Diné culture, language, history, and sovereignty.” (hozho is a Navajo word
meaning harmony, balance, spiritual beauty).
Tribal museums throughout Arizona are evolving into cultural preservation centers. Topics of
language preservation, traditional religion retention, and public display appropriateness are
some issues at the forefront of tribal institutions. It was unforeseen that tribal museums would
be in positions of cultural preservation and salvation.
Supporting local artists is another obvious goal of museums, tribal or not. This task is a little
more complicated for tribal members because the definition of Native art is fuzzy and
sometimes controversial. Traditional art and contemporary art for Indian people carry with
them rules of what is appropriate. These issues are to be kept on the periphery but we must
not lose sight of supporting local artists. Many artists who live on the reservation have
little experience dealing with museums, assembling a portfolio, or even visiting museums
and galleries. Many of these talented reservation artists remain undiscovered.
At the Navajo Nation Museum, having Navajo staff members has the benefit of the inherent
understanding of Navajo culture, which is as diverse as its people with regional beliefs, politics,
and minor linguistic differences. Thus the staff can share common cultural knowledge as
well as defering to traditional specialists for more sacred knowledge.
Chapter 16 | 169