The Kansas Aviation Museum has found a new director — Lon Smith, formerly sales and marketing director of the Museum of World Treasures. Smith’s promotions background is needed at the museum, which enjoys a loyal base of volunteer support but still struggles to attract broader public interest or corporate support.
Among other ideas, Smith hopes to pursue accreditation through the American Association of Museums, which could give the museum more credibility and access to resources.
It’s good to learn that the Mid-America All-Indian Center museum, which reopens June 27 after months of renovation, also may seek AAM accreditation.
In the city’s crowded museum field, both museums are wisely taking steps to stand out.
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About the Mid America All Indian Center, I noticed a comment somewhere by the curator that it features history of the “Plains Indians.” In my opinion, it actually features history of the Plains and Eastern Emigrant Indians who moved to Kansas in the 1830’s. And this is not just a play on semantics.
In Kansas Indian history, the main Plains Indian tribes were the Kansa, Osage, Pawnee and Wichita. Of course, other Plains Indian tribes roamed across the plains on hunting expeditions.
In the 1830’s, the Eastern Woodland tribes began emigrating to eastern Kansas, including the Shawnee, Delaware, Wyandotte, Ottawa, Sac and Fox, Iowa and other tribes. Most of these tribes acculturated with their anglo-European (white folks) and lived relatively peacefully, with disruptions by the the Civil War violence in the early 1860’s.
By the 1870’s, both the Plains and former Eastern Woodland Indian tribes generally moved on to “Indian territory” which eventually became the State of Oklahoma in about 1907.
Incidentally, the term “Indian Nation” which generally refered to Indian nations existing within the nation of U.S. (remember Indian treaties?) became obsolete when all American Indians were made U.S. citizens in the late 1800’s.
Today, the Cherokee Indian tribe is the largest Indian tribal organization in the U.S. headquartered in Talaquah, Oklahoma. I believe Chad Smith, an Oklahoma attorney, remains the Chief of the Cherokees.
Back to Wichita’s Mid-America All Indian Center, tribal flags are displayed by perhaps a couple hundred Indian tribes. My guess is without counting far more “Emigrant” Indian tribes are represented than mid-western Plains Indian tribes but today the line between them has largely evaporated.
Best wishes to the Wichita Indian center’s future success.
‘refugee’ would probably be a better term than ‘emigrant’ for the eastern Nations. Especially after the US passed a federal law prohibiting us from living east of the Mississippi.
Ben: If someone tries to sell you a membership in an “Indian nation,” just say NO! There ain’t no such thing as an Indian nation and hasn’t been for some 100 years when American Indians were made citizens of the U.S.
So you don’t need your supply of war paint any longer.
Wichita had a tremendous air history in the 1920’s and 1930’s that is only partially known. It was intertwined with accumulation of Kansas ranch lands, oil exploration, Wichita city building history and even Oklahoma history. A novel could be written about it and but probably wouldn’t do it justice.
The Mid-American Indian Center is nice. Too bad some museum employees got caught sneaking artifacts out of the museum for their own collections. Spoils the cake, so to speak.
The Air Museum, is that the one in the back of McConnell? That’s probably appropriate, but a terrible location for drawing visitors.
The City museum is nice and well-maintained, the Curator and the board do a fine job with it.
The row along the river of museums and other places (botanical gardens) is a prime spot and has huge potential in becoming a world class location to visit. It will take vision though and long term investment.
JWink - there is still the Tennessee band of Cherokee who have never signed a treaty. While we may not officially be considered a ‘nation’ by the US government we still use the term.
To the best on my knowledge the Federal Law prohibiting us from living east of the Mississippi has never been officially repealed.
Ben: I guess I’m not familiar with the law prohibiting Indians from living east of the Mississippi River. I do know there are small groups of Indians still living back east which never moved west. Another example is a small group of Shawnee Indians still living in Ohio.
But, by and large, most moved west to Kansas or directly to Oklahoma. Most of the tribes which emigrated to Kansas in the 1830’s later moved on to Oklahoma about 1870. In some cases, the Cherokees who had southern sympathies during the Civil War had to give up part of their land to other tribes such as the Shawnees and Delawares.
However, I believe the luckiest Indians to get land in Oklahoma were the Osages. They got land which contained huge amounts of oil. Many Osages became instant millionaires early in the 20th century.