num_pages: 169
description: This dissertation begins by situating decolonization as a theoretical tool in examining the tribal museum model. It argues that individuals, institutions, and communities engaged in tribal museum projects can uphold and perpetuate past museum methods of exhibition which were and are colonialist in nature. Thus, utilizing the theory of decolonization is important in the examination of two tribal museums; the Osage Tribal Museum, in Pawhuska, Oklahoma and the Museum at Warm Springs in Warm Springs, Oregon. The development of a decolonized tribal museum model is complicated by the notion that to be truly decolonized a colonized community can not be engaged with the very same institutions which have had a hand in their colonization.;This dissertation is laid out in the following order: Chapter One examines the colonialist relationship between indigenous nations, museums, and the federal government in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; Chapter Two develops the theory of decolonization as it is understood within the U.S. context and underscores the various ways that two indigenous nations have negotiated these relationships and maintained their respective museums as sites of decolonization; Chapter Three, examines the early history of the Osage Tribal Museum which emerged in 1938 as the first tribal museum to be built by an indigenous nation; Chapter Four explores the Museum at Warm Springs and departs from the previous chapter by describing and analyzing the permanent exhibits and reading them through the lens of decolonization; finally, Chapter Five, draws upon the work of scholars employing the theory of decolonization to their reading of the NMAI. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the complex nature of decolonization. That is, that collaboration between the museum profession and indigenous communities is not decolonizing work; rather, it is the overarching goals of community empowerment, truth-telling, and privileging indigenous knowledge that are markers of decolonization. The dissertation concludes by asserting that decolonization as a theory and practice can be empowering to indigenous communities.
title: Indigenizing the museum: History, decolonization, and tribal museums.
publisher: ProQuest LLC