(The new) Museum of American Cultures, Spokane, WA

[Dave Robertson]

Klahowya,

On December 5th, the massively renovated and expanded Museum of American Cultures -- MAC -- opened its doors in Spokane, Washington.  It's a great joint!  The current display about "the peoples of the rivers" does a pretty neat job of presenting the history of the region's indigenous peoples from myth times through to the present.  There's a really illuminating focus on the history of cultural contact between Indians and the newcomers, and my favorite part, a multimedia narration of various myths in Spokane & Kalispel Salish and English.  You can read the myth in Salish & English as you hear it told by Pauline Flett or Francis Cullooyah, which affords a rare opportunity of practice for language learners.  There's plenty of signage in Salish around that section of the museum, too, and a mini-theater for watching video footage.

Chinook Jargon appears in a few places, including a nice presentation about the Hee-Hee Stone in Northeast Washington, which was unfortunately dynamited by vandals circa 1907.  There's also a small display of Skookum Dolls, which were made by the ?Skookum Doll Company of Montana in the early 20th century for sale to tourists and curio lovers.  I noticed, too, a section devoted to the controversial "opening of the North Half" of the Colville reservation (government-sanctioned robbery of Indians, in some folks' opinion), which includes an anecdote relating to Cultus Jim, a chief of the Lakes or Sanpoil Salish, I forget which.

You can also buy brand-new copies of Edward Harper Thomas' comprehensive Chinook Jargon book in the museum's bookstore.  The new archives building looks excellent, too, and I know of a number of good Jargon-related items I hope to research there in the next several weeks.  Top all this off with the newly added bistro and the retention of the Asa Campbell Mansion, a showcase of Victorian daily life, and you've got a very fine museum.

I heartily recommend a visit to the MAC when you're in Spokane!

Dave
--
"Asking a linguist how many languages she knows is like asking a doctor how many diseases he has!" -- anonymous



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