November is recognized as National American Indian Heritage Month! The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans.
This year, Moundville Archaeological Park is celebrating Native American Heritage Month with an exhibit titled Cultures, Not Costumes at the Intercultural Diversity Center, located inside The University of Alabama Student Center that will run from November 1st-16th.
Exhibit
The University of Alabama’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, in partnership with Moundville Archaeological Park, The University of Alabama Museums’ Department of Museum Research and Collections, with contributions by The Fashion Archive, presents Cultures, Not Costumes. The exhibition explores regalia, including clothing, adornments, and jewelry, with historic and modern examples of Southeastern Native American peoples such as the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek. Visitors will learn about the rich and lasting history of the first peoples of our region with text panels, audiovisual elements, artifacts, and reproductions. In addition to the rich history and continued cultural contributions of our affiliated tribes, the exhibition will explore themes of cultural appropriation. It will demonstrate that the regalia of the Southeastern tribes is part of a thriving cultural tradition and rich regional heritage that endures today.
Regalia on Display:
- Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas piece made by Anita Flanagan (Eastern Band of Cherokee) and donated by Hoop Dancer Lyndon Alec
- Yellow Chickasaw ribbon dress donated by Mary Williams of the Choctaw Nation
- Southern Cloth Buckskin with matching jewelry and adornments created and loaned by Laretta Weaver of the Cherokee
- 15 pieces of beadwork, which are 3 sets of regalia created and loaned by Debbie Damron from the Choctaw Cultural Center
- 1904 World’s Fair poster and 1904 Native American Medicine pouch on loan from The Fashion Archive (UA College of Human and Environmental Sciences).