Home » Travel » Washington State » Smithsonian Staff at Yakama Nation Museum in Toppenish

Smithsonian Staff at Yakama Nation Museum in Toppenish

© Jerri Brooker

Washington State’s Yakama Nation has been invited by the Smithsonian Institution to prepare an exhibit of the tribe’s peoples for a permanent exhibition in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. One of nine tribes chosen from North and South America, it will compile an exhibit of the tribe’s history for the museum now under construction and scheduled to open in 2003.

Smithsonian employees met with the Yakama Museum staff this past week in Toppenish. Yakama staff from the local museum in Toppenish will work with the tribe to formulate a plan for what they want to submit to the Smithsonian. Marilyn Malatare is curator of the Yakima Nation Museum.

The Smithsonian picked the Yakamas because the 9,000 members include 14 separate bands and tribes that were forced to live together after the signing of the 1855 treaty with the United States when they lost their reservation. Forced to give up 10 million acres to the Federal Government, they united as one at the central Washington site.

Smithsonian exhibit curator Cynthia Chavez is interested in how they define their community and what exactly a Yakama Indian is. She and other Smithsonian workers are just beginning to get started on the project with the Yakama tribe. One of the things she’s interested in is letting the native peoples tell their own stories. This work will be featured in the “Our Lives” section of the exhibit. Their history will be featured in “Our People” and “Our Universe” will include Indian worldviews and philosophies.

The Yakama Indian Nation Cultural Center at the Toppenish Reservation includes the museum, restaurant (anybody for buffalo and fry bread?), gift shop, library, theatre and RV resort. For more information on the Confederated Tribe visit their Economic Development site at http://www.wolfenet.com/~yingis - you may also find information there about their casino, their fruit and vegetable growing enterprise, etc.

While researching I found this great business site for Canyon Records Productions out of Phoenix, AZ, that specializes in the production and distribution of American Indian music. Go to http://www.canyonrecords.com/catcass.htm... to order music from the Yakamas and other tribes. The only sample of NW Indian music they have to listen to is from the Warm Springs Tribe in Oregon, but do listen to some of the music and gamble a bit - order the Yakama Singers tape for the real experience. I admit I spent quite a while here listening to music - it really brings the Native Indian culture, which I love, home to me.

The copyright of the article Smithsonian Staff at Yakama Nation Museum in Toppenish in Washington State is owned by . Permission to republish Smithsonian Staff at Yakama Nation Museum in Toppenish in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.