The Heard Museum

One of the highlights of Phoenix is supposed to be the Heard Museum in central Phoenix. My mom and I visited it a few days before I left Arizona. The museum is dedicated to Native American peoples and their cultures, particularly those of the southwestern United States (actually, it really focuses on peoples located in what is now Arizona. The museum definitely has a lot of interesting artefacts, especially for people who don't come from Arizona and aren't familiar with them, but even then you don't necessarily learn the history behind them. What was interesting for me was that patriotism played such a prominent role for the museum, but that might also be because of the statue and plaques dedicated to Native American soldiers being basically the first thing you see.

But besides that, it did seem like a lot of the conflict between various native peoples and the United States was sort of defused in the museum. Maybe the aim was to psychologically integrate Native Americans, their history and their culture into the grand narrative of the United States. Although I'm not necessarily opposed to that aim in and of itself, I do think that something is lost when conflictivity in a relationship is negated, and that this does not necessarily serve the purpose of this integration. That's not to say that conflict was completely absent, but it definitely could have played a larger role in the museums narrative if the creators of the exhibits wanted that.

In any case, I am glad I went to see the museum. It gave me a chance to learn more about my country's native peoples and cultures. There's really too much to be able to fit in a blog, but just a few interesting points.

The canals created by the Hohokam are still in use today because they were so well done. Now they're covered with concrete.

Buffalo was an important source of food for the Apaches, which was one of the reasons that American settlers shot them down. They wanted to get rid of the Apaches by getting rid of their source of food. An interesting sculpture by the renowned artist symbolizes this. The holes were actually made with a shotgun.

 

Cochineal is a dye produced by an insect with the same name. It is used in textiles, but also in things like lipstick. There was even a scandal because Starbucks used the dye in its strawberry frappachino and claimed it was vegetarian. Below there is a blanket (I believe) dyed with cochineal. You can buy these in the gift shop, if you have a few thousand dollars to spare!

The infamous "Indian Schools" which were supposed to civilize Native Americans have survived until today. Students had their hair cut, were forced to learn English and were also forcibly evangelized. Many children died there due to diseases they were not immune to. According to the exhibit, not all of the students had such a horrible experience there, and in fact some have fond memories of them, which of course doesn't justify their civilizing mision. Sometimes parents sent their kids their to get an education. In any case, I think they slowly changed over time and I guess now they're run by Native Americans themselves.