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| Consortium of American Indian Museums | |
|---|---|
| Name | Consortium of American Indian Museums |
| Formation | 1990s |
| Type | Membership organization |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Leader title | Executive Director |
Consortium of American Indian Museums
The Consortium of American Indian Museums is a United States-based membership organization linking tribal museums, university museums, federal institutions, and cultural centers such as the Smithsonian Institution, American Museum of Natural History, National Museum of the American Indian, Peabody Essex Museum and Autry Museum of the American West to promote Native American cultural heritage, repatriation dialogue, collaborative exhibitions, and museum best practices. It grew from collaborations among the National Congress of American Indians, Native American Rights Fund, Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and regional museums including the Heard Museum, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, and Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.
The Consortium began in the 1990s amid debates following enactments like the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and initiatives involving the National Museum of the American Indian Act, the Smithsonian Institution's repatriation cases, and partnerships with institutions such as the Field Museum, Denver Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. Early convenings included leaders from the National Indian Education Association, Native Hawaiian Cultural Education Program, Tohono O'odham Nation, Navajo Nation Museum, Choctaw Nation, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and addressed collections stewardship with input from figures affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation. Over subsequent decades the Consortium worked with the National Park Service, Library of Congress, Yale University Art Gallery, Columbia University, and tribal museums such as the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Sealaska Heritage Institute to expand protocols for curatorial practice, repatriation, and cultural property.
The Consortium's stated aims align with partners like the Institute of American Indian Arts, Arizona State Museum, Kanai Museum of Alaska Native Heritage, Museum of New Mexico, Autry Museum, and Seattle Art Museum to advance advocacy, professional development, and cross-institutional loans. Goals emphasize collaboration with the National Congress of American Indians, United South and Eastern Tribes, Native American Rights Fund, First Peoples Fund, and National Trust for Historic Preservation to protect ceremonial objects, archives, and oral histories while engaging major funders such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Consortium promotes protocols developed with the Smithsonian Institution, Peabody Museum', and tribal partners including the Cherokee Nation, Pueblo of Santa Clara, Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Lakota Sioux, and Blackfeet Nation.
Membership spans tribal museums, university museums, and national organizations, comprising institutions like the National Museum of the American Indian, Heard Museum, Autry Museum of the American West, Denver Art Museum, Field Museum, Peabody Museum (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology), Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Mashantucket Pequot Museum, Sealaska Heritage Institute, NMAI at the Smithsonian, Museum of Northern Arizona, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Newberry Library, American Philosophical Society, and tribal cultural centers from the Navajo Nation Museum, Choctaw Cultural Center, Osage Nation Museum, to regional entities such as the Kentucky Historical Society and Alaska State Museum.
Programs include repatriation coordination modeled on Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act processes, professional training co-sponsored with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and National Endowment for the Arts, collections care initiatives in partnership with the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts and Getty Conservation Institute, and youth engagement projects developed with the Institute of American Indian Arts, Smithsonian Folkways, Lincoln Center, and tribal schools. Initiatives feature traveling exhibitions circulated through networks including the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, residency programs with the MacArthur Foundation and Guggenheim Foundation, and digital archives collaborations with the Library of Congress and Digital Public Library of America.
Governance uses a board composed of representatives from the National Congress of American Indians, Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and member institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution and Heard Museum, alongside tribal appointees from the Navajo Nation, Cherokee Nation, Ho-Chunk Nation, and Tlingit and Haida. Funding sources include grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Humanities, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, corporate donors linked to the Bank of America and Target Corporation philanthropic arms, and membership dues from entities such as the Field Museum and Denver Art Museum.
Exhibitions organized or facilitated by the Consortium have appeared at venues including the National Museum of the American Indian, Field Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Autry Museum, Heard Museum, Museum of Northern Arizona, and university galleries at Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, and University of New Mexico. Collections partnerships address stewardship of artifacts held by institutions such as the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, British Museum (through collaborative dialogues), and regional repositories like the Minnesota Historical Society and New York Historical Society.
The Consortium has been credited by leaders at the National Museum of the American Indian, Heard Museum, Sealaska Heritage Institute, Institute of American Indian Arts, and National Endowment for the Humanities with improving repatriation practices, strengthening tribal-curatorial relations, and increasing Indigenous visibility in national narratives. Criticism raised by scholars affiliated with Rutgers University, University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, tribal activists from the American Indian Movement, and community advocates in the Navajo Nation and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has focused on power imbalances with large museums, resource disparities affecting tribal members, and tensions involving loans, intellectual property, and exhibition control. Debates continue involving legal frameworks like the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and policy forums convened by the National Congress of American Indians and the Smithsonian Institution.
Category:Native American museums in the United States