Native People To Have Major Input Into Revamped Field Museum Exhibit

By Daniel Tucker
Field Museum
A display of artifacts at the Native North America Hall at the Chicago Field Museum. Lauren Frost / WBEZ
Field Museum
A display of artifacts at the Native North America Hall at the Chicago Field Museum. Lauren Frost / WBEZ

Native People To Have Major Input Into Revamped Field Museum Exhibit

By Daniel Tucker
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Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History has announced that it is overhauling its Native North American Hall with key input from Native Americans.

An advisory committee of curators, artists, historians, anthropologists, and community leaders from Native tribes across the U.S. and Canada is helping shape the three-year renovation.

The existing exhibits were installed around 60 years ago and staff told WBEZ that they are “outdated,” “old-fashioned” and even “misrepresentative.”

Morning Shift checks in with an advisory committee member and Field Museum community engagement coordinator who often leads Native Americans on tours of the hall.

GUESTS: Doug Kiel, assistant professor in the Department of History at the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities at Northwestern University, member of the Field Museum’s advisory committee

Debra Yepa-Pappan, community engagement coordinator at the Native American Exhibit Hall