ORIGINS THEATER
The visitor first enters the centrally positioned Origins
Theater that presents a continually playing series of
short video presentations produced by the University of
Nevada Oral History Program. Tribal members, some
speaking their Native American language, chronicle
tribal history. Topics discussed include origins of
tribal people, fish, pinyon pine and juniper, and
Pyramid Lake. Presentations will change, but will
continue focusing on traditional origin stories
concerning tribal people, landscapes, and important
resources.
ARCHAEOLOGY GALLEY
Anthropological perspectives on Native American origins
in the Archaeology Gallery contrast with those presented
in the Origins Theater. This Archaeology Gallery is
physically separated from the flow through the other
galleries, and the visitor is warned that the gallery
contains materials recovered from archaeological sites.
Native American objections to archaeology are expressed
in the gallery’s introductory text. Objects are
displayed thematically, and include peopling of the
region, chronology, changing climate and culture change,
vandalism of archaeological sites, and ancient lifeways.
A
life-size diorama depicts a stratigraphic profile within
a typical, western Great Basin archaeological site
within a cave. Artifacts are displayed in both railing
cases and embedded within the various layers of
sediment. The central view for the profile, however, is
disturbed by a vandal’s “pot hole” with an aluminum
can. Text discusses the impact of this destruction to
the archaeologists’ reconstruction of the past and to
the loss of Native Americans’ cultural heritage.
Archaeologists’ divergent views concerning the region’s
prehistory are prominently featured in a pair of cases
and shared duratrans entitled “Culture Change vs.
Cultural Continuity.” This case ties in with a basic
public misconception that anthropologists have a single
view of Native American prehistory, and that this view
disproves some long-held tribal beliefs concerning their
tenure on the land.
TRADITIONAL LIFEWAYS GALLERY
The Traditional
Lifeways Gallery contains one of the exhibit’s key
elements, a life-size marsh diorama depicting sunrise
over the Stillwater Range in western Nevada. The
Stillwater Marsh is home to the Fallon Paiutes or
Toidikadi. The marsh railing case and
a central panel depicts the transhumant, seasonal
existence common to Great Basin tribes. A central theme
of this gallery is adaptation to seasonal extremes by
long-range planning, complete with contingency plans,
thus dispelling a portrayal of Great Basin people as
hungry nomads hoping to stumble upon their next meal.
There is a small, transitional video niche with seating
room for six adults between the Traditional Lifeways
Gallery and the History Gallery. The videos here will
also change during the exhibit, but they focus on
modified traditional lifeways, advice by elders to
younger people, and non-traditional stories.
HISTORY GALLERY
The History Gallery
contains seven displays, six of which were chosen by
Native American co-curators. The seventh display
explores Virginia City, Nevada’s Northern Paiute
population during the late-19th and early-20th
centuries. The Virginia City case represents historic
archaeological research conducted through the museum.
The other six topics chosen by the tribal co-curators
include: Native Americans and the Federal Government,
Water, Sports, Indian Buckaroos, the Stewart Indian
School, and Native Americans and the Future. These
themes, some of them controversial topics for Nevada
Native American communities, contain historic and modern
connotations that are seldom expressed to non-tribal
people. These areas represent and, some, showcase
Native American adaptation to loss of their land,
resources and, in some cases, loss of their cultural
identity.
The Nevada State Museum’s
Under One Sky: Nevada’s Native American Heritage exhibition
chronicles Native American adaptations to the Great
Basin’s changing environmental and cultural conditions
of the past 10,000 or more years. Under One Sky
presents alternative perspectives. Native American
voice is clearly a principal factor for the exhibits
popularity with tribal people and even the source of a
few complaints from archaeologists and others with a
bias towards traditional museum presentations. Opening
in June 2002, Under One Sky was initially
intended to be a temporary exhibition, but, in 2003, it
became the centerpiece of our long-term Native American
exhibition as a result of a major reorganization of all
of the museum’s exhibition galleries.
Co-curators from Washoe, Northern Paiute
and Western Shoshone tribes in Nevada and California
participated with museum co-curators and staff, the
University of Nevada-Reno, and the Bureau of Land
Management. The Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe was the
museum’s initial point of contact for the exhibition,
and they assumed a lead, tribal role throughout the
process. The combined efforts of all contributors
provide the visitor with a contemporary examination of
Native American culture from its very beginnings to the
present day and beyond.
Periodic, Native
American art exhibitions, with the emphasis on
contemporary art, are a part of the Under One Sky
exhibition.