My experience looking for Native American was more difficult than I was expecting. There were a lot of Native American artifacts on the websites given but there was not a lot of information given about each artifact. I was also surprised that in more broad museums there were not specific sections for Native Americans. There were sections for other historical groups but it seemed that there were not organized sections for Native American pieces. I also noted above that there was not much information about each piece but there was the information on where the piece was collected from which tended to be very interesting. A lot of pieces were collected from non- Native American people that held the pieces for long periods of time. I thought back to the NAGPRA official website and the law enacted in order for Native American people to have the remains of their people returned to them as well as they should have the opportunity to have a conversation with museums who have the items that were once on their land.
When it comes to the digital version versus the physical version of artifacts I much rather either see the physical object. The physical object allows for a deeper connection that I believe is missing when it comes to the online version. Online versions of the artifacts allow for more people to see the exhibits but the amount of pictures of items restricts the view of the item itself. I was very interested in advertising and logos within the National Museum of the American Indian due to the change of the logos over time. Also, when I did my own research you can see how the brand has phased out of the use of Native Americans in their logos. The phase out process seems to always have a timeline in order to phase out the old logo all together. It was also very interesting that the use of Native Americans in the advertising logos did not always make sense. For example the Land-O-Lakes butter used a Native American woman but there is not direct correlation between her and the product.
Hi Brianna! Thank you so much for sharing these thoughts about your experience. Although search engines (and custom searches on collection sites) can be very useful, they are often imperfect tools. This is especially the case with Native history digital collections, which can often replicate colonial ways of preserving and presenting knowledge. In many instances, a non-Native “collector” is listed above the creator, who is often nameless. This ties in well with thinking about the utility of digital v. physical objects, and as you describe, working with physical objects has many benefits! I look forward to learning more about your project on the Land-O-Lakes butter advertisements!