“I hope that other museums and repositories who keep Indigenous peoples from things that are inherently ours, including ancestral remains, follow the example of First Americans Museum and allow the reclamation and healing much needed and deserved by Indigenous people.” – MCN Oral Historian Midge Dellinger
OKMULGEE – On Sep. 27 The First American Museum (FAM) will be hosting a free screening of the film “WINIKO: Reunions” at the College of the Muscogee Nation Lecture Hall from 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
“In 2024, First Americans Museum worked with 32 tribal nations in Oklahoma, including the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, to support a research project called ‘WINIKO: Reunions.’ During this research FAM reunited 76 ancestral items with 32 descendant communities and families in Oklahoma,” wrote FAM. “These items are currently on loan to FAM from the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian for the exhibition, WINIKO: Life of an Object.”
The documentary, filmed by the Tulsa area Native production team Pursuit Films, focuses on the stories of seven descendant groups and the items that belonged to their ancestors. Of those seven, the McIntosh family is highlighted, reuniting the descendants of Principal Chief William McIntosh with a finger woven sash.
FAM’s Assistant Curator John Hamilton (Kiowa/Caddo/Cheyenee/Wichita) spoke to Mvskoke Media about the film, working with the MCN and tribal communities in Oklahoma on the project.
The start
While overseeing the loan transfer of items for display from the Smithsonian to FAM in 2019, Director of Curatorial Affairs of FAM Heather Ahtone and curatorial team member Welana Queton were tasked with tribal consultation that included obtaining information on each tribal object. Items came with notes from the Smithsonian and field notes taken by the original collectors, but FAM wanted more background on the objects.
“All these items were collected around the early 1900s, around 1905 to 1912 or so, and these items originally belonged to tribal families and tribes within the early 1900s era and with these items came along these notes from the Smithsonian,” Hamilton explained. “While looking at the notes and information of each item, the person who collected these items around the 1900s period took field notes of what tribe he was visiting, what tribe he was purchasing items from and also names of individuals who he was buying these items from.”
During preparation work on the display for the FAM opening, Queton began recognizing the names associated with the items.
According to Hamiliton, that recognition sparked an idea, “So it was just the idea of ‘could we maybe connect these items back to these original families that these items belong to?’ and this is well over 110 years later here in Oklahoma City.”
Reunions
When the FAM opened in 2021 the reunion project hadn’t begun due to funding, although the items were displayed on the second floor. In 2023, Ahtone was able to expand the department so the project could begin. The team could then start asking tribes for help with identifying families mentioned in the notes to make connections between items and people.
From 2023 to 2024, FAM was able to connect with 33 of the 39 Tribes affiliated with the items. According to Hamilton, out of the 33 tribes half of those had family members that were able to connect back to those items. The team didn’t want descendants and families to view the items through the display case or have to pay to see their ancestors’ items at the museum.
“This is just a maturation, not a repatriation, where we couldn’t give the item back, but as a museum, a Native based museum, we wanted to at least let these family members know that these items once belonged to their ancestor,” Hamilton said.
In the fall of 2024 they planned two months of reunions, bringing families in one at a time to view items out of the case. The team brought family members to a private classroom to view the items up close and personal- that’s when families were able to give FAM the history of the item.
Hamilton was able to witness the expressions on the faces of descendants while seeing the items up close. Some had known the item existed, others did not, and the experience was moving and fulfilling for him.
“Museums don’t always have the greatest positive response from the Native communities, of course with museums there’s always been mistrust between museums and tribal communities because museums have always made money off of displaying cultural items and kind of distorting tribal history without consulting first and letting the tribes know what the museums want to do in the first place,” Hamilton said.
“So there’s always been a mistrust with museums, but knowing that as a Native American museum, we’re trying to do the right thing.”
While working with Tribal Nations, including the MCN, Hamilton had a positive experience. However, it took time to get to know tribal representatives and it also took time for representatives to be on board with the concept and with the project. Any reluctance that he received was understood, and the whole team worked to make assurances that respect for the communities and descendants came first and foremost.
“Working with the tribes, it wasn’t easy at first and that’s expected but we wanted to just gradually continue and pursue this project because we knew it would be something good for the community and not just good for the museum,” Hamilton said. “I was very happy to work with the Muscogee Nation and just do something good for them, and not just for this museum,” Hamilton said.
The very first step was respecting Tribal sovereignty, so the team went to leadership to get their blessings. For the MCN, Hamilton presented the project to Principal Chief David Hill, and from there the team connected with MCN Historic and Cultural Preservation Department Director Robin Soweka, Jr.
Soweka was able to determine three items in the collection were Mvskoke, but only one item had a family connection- a sash belt belonging to Principal Chief William McIntosh.
Soweka then connected the team with a Chief McIntosh descendant working within his department, MCN Oral Historian Midge Dellinger (Mvskoke). Dellinger, along with former MCN Principal Chief James Floyd, worked with Hamilton to get the reunion going.
Dellinger shared with Mvskoke Media that while she viewed the project as groundbreaking it brought up mixed emotions, “I believe that the staff at First Americans Museum, those involved in this specific project, have done a fantastic job by doing something unprecedented in the museum world, which is to allow lost connections between Indigenous artifacts kept in bondage, some for centuries, and away from the families from which they originated, to be found,” Dellinger wrote. “As a McIntosh descendant, discovering that the Smithsonian has kept since the 1960s a beautiful finger-woven sash belt, over two-hundred years old, worn by Chief William McIntosh, Jr., and made by his oldest daughter, Jane, was exciting, but also very upsetting.”
“To be a part of FAM’s Winiko: Reunions project has been a life-changing experience,” Dellinger shared. “As patrons of museum spaces, we expect to view artifacts through glass enclosures, but to have the opportunity to spend private family time with the sash and to be able to touch it, and closely observe the fine intricacies of its beautiful design, and through this process to feel not only a physical, but spiritual connection to my ancestors William and Jane, is an experience I will never forget.”
“I can’t put into words the emotional and spiritual impact this experience has had on me.”
Hamilton hopes that after citizens watch the film they will appreciate that MCN was involved and hopes that they have a positive experience. Moving forward with anything that the citizens want done or displayed on behalf of the MCN, FAM will always go to them and never go behind the Nation’s back.
“We will always try to get the Nations blessing and that we want to be as transparent with everything that we do and it’s always community first before it’s a museum first,” Hamilton said.
There are plans to show the documentary at FAM, in addition to an early-August screening attended by some of the McIntosh family, but their efforts are focused on the Tribes. The team wants to make sure that every tribe that was represented in the film will be able to watch it at their own tribal headquarters.
Anyone can visit the First American’s Museum, there are different traditional items, cultural pieces and so forth.
