National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
Oklahoma City, OK
405-478-2250
http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/
Legends of Our Times: Native Ranching and
Rodeo Life on the Plains and Plateau
"Legends of Our Times: Native Ranching and Rodeo Life on the Plains
and Plateau" is the first-ever exhibition to examine the history of
the native cowboy and the culture of native ranching and rodeo, past and
present. The traveling exhibition will open at the National Cowboy Hall
of Fame and Western Heritage Center on October 21, 2000. The exhibition,
a project of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, draws on that museum's
extraordinary collection of Native artifacts, paintings, sculpture, archival
and contemporary photographs, interviews and video recordings to depict
this largely unexplored tradition. (left: Dance Stick)
Legends of Our Times is the
culmination of intense research over five years by Morgan 
Baillargeon,
Curator of Plains Ethnology, and Leslie Tepper, Curator of Plateau Ethnology,
working with a Native advisory committee. Visitors learn of the supernatural
and natural forces underlying the relationships Native peoples have with
the horse, dog and buffalo and of the impact the transition from a hunting/gathering
lifestyle to the restrictions of reservation life had on First Peoples.
(left: Baby Bag)
Archival
photographs and more than 800 artifacts - authentic clothing, exquisitely
crafted saddles, decorated horse gear, tack, blankets, rodeo equipment,
memorabilia, hunting tools and pow wow regalia - trace the history of Aboriginal
peoples as buffalo hunters, horsemen, ranchers and cowboys, as entertainers
and as participants in the sport of rodeo. (left: Horse Effigies)
"The story of the Native cowboy has never been told
before," said Dr. George MacDonald, former President and CEO of the
CMC. "Now, after decades of collecting and study in close consultation
with Native partners from the Plains and Plateau, the Canadian Museum of
Civilization is proud to elucidate the heritage and achievement of the Horse
People with this ground breaking exhibition, Legends of Our Times."
Within
the spacious Grayce B. Kerr Gallery at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame,
sections will be devoted to rodeo, ranching, industries and entertainment,
museum-goers come to understand the important role ranching and rodeo have
played in Native peoples' lives and see how certain forms of entertainment
- from parades to pow-wows and Hollywood westerns - have evolved from ranching
and rodeo life. (left: bit)
The Museum's Curator of Ethnology, Mike Leslie, explains
that, "While the exhibition focuses on Native people of the northern
Plains and Plateau regions, it is an important exhibition for the National
Cowboy Hall of Fame because the story parallels the history of many of the
tribes of Oklahoma. An important aspect of this story is that it is told
about Native people by Native people." A Lakota beaded saddle cover
and Blackfeet horse mask from the Hall's private collection will be included
in the exhibit.
Read more about the National
Cowboy Hall of Fame in Resource Library
Magazine
Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line
to see enlargements.
This page was originally published in Resource
Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for
more information. rev. 4/4/11
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reserved.
"Legends of Our Times: Native Ranching and Rodeo Life on the Plains
and Plateau" is the first-ever exhibition to examine the history of
the native cowboy and the culture of native ranching and rodeo, past and
present. The traveling exhibition will open at the National Cowboy Hall
of Fame and Western Heritage Center on October 21, 2000. The exhibition,
a project of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, draws on that museum's
extraordinary collection of Native artifacts, paintings, sculpture, archival
and contemporary photographs, interviews and video recordings to depict
this largely unexplored tradition. (left: Dance Stick)
