Response 5 of 5
by Anna
National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC
The Museum of the American Indian is one among many of Washington DC’s expansive, in-depth national museums. The architecture of the building is made with reference to the natural world: the exterior is a textured brown stone, the shape is meant to look like an weather-worn formation, the entrance is east to face the sunrise. Like any Smithsonian, it is nearly impossible to take in all the available information. My focus is smaller, but nearly as integral to human life as nature itself: food. Through celebrating Indigenous food, the museum is celebrating Indigenous culture.
On the first floor of the museum, a display detailed how foods native to the Americas continues to impact food culture all over the world. Common modern foods are split into categories (grains & flours, root vegetables & tubers, vegetables, fruits & nuts, meat & seafood, spices, flavorings & sweeteners), and linked to their Indigenous origins. It is an effective way of illustrating the culinary links of past to present. A box of Orville microwave popcorn is followed by the information that maize (corn) was domesticated 9,000 years ago in Mexico; a packet of chewing gum is accompanied by the fact that it originated from a Central American tree called chicle.
The museum provides an opportunity to do more than just look at food. Mitsitam Cafe, the name coming from the phrase “let’s eat,” offers traditional and Indigenous-inspired cuisine to visitors. The menu is based region, from Great Plains to South America. The indigenous people in current-day New York City would fall into the “Northern Woodlands” category. The food from that region includes woodland mushroom soup, north Atlantic clam soup, chocolate seared wild boar, walleye perch, orange and fennel salad, and wild rice.
The Cafe seems to be largely a celebration of Indigenous American food and culture. But does the museum address food in the context of colonialism? Perhaps not directly, but it certainly does not shy away from the ugly side of history in other exhibits. On the second floor, offensive caricatures and depictions were displayed, to examine past media and narratives about Indigenous American people. The cover of The Country Gentleman from 1924 is shown, depicting an Indigenous man letting a white baby play with his hatchet. Elsewhere in the exhibit, the wall reads “Sacagawea didn’t save Lewis and Clark — she saved America.” Smithsonian museums are reputed for displaying history truthfully, with accurate and thoughtful presentation.
The Cafe did not include any information about colonization or other historical traumas faced by Indigenous American people, but it didn’t have to. It was made clear in other parts of the museum, and so the Cafe serves as a space of cultural celebration, as well as a source of revenue to support the museum. The food exhibit clearly linked Indigenous culinary tradition with current day food culture, and so when a visitor eats at Mitsitam Cafe, they are experiencing cultural history.
Questions:
How does museum curation affect the presentation of history when our country has committed travesties? Does the authority of a name (Smithsonian) override any doubts about curation?
Is there an awareness in modern culture of how influential Indigenous foods are on present day cuisine? If not, does it have to do with cultural erasure?
