Sam Noble Museum receives grant for Centennial Exhibition

A new exhibit will be developed at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History after receiving a grant from two Oklahoma tribes, a museum spokesman says.

The museum received a $30,000 grant from the Wyandotte Nation and $7,500 from the Seneca-Cayuga community, said Dan Swan, curator of the exhibition.

The exhibit, "The Gathering of Traditions — A Centennial Celebration of Dr. Charles Marius Barbeau in Oklahoma," is scheduled to open Sept. 6, according to a press release.

“This is an important exhibition based on its focus on two tribal communities from Oklahoma that most people are unaware of — The Wyandotte Nation and the Seneca Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma,” Swan said.

The exhibit will celebrate the centennial fieldwork of Charles Marius Barbeau, a Canadian ethnographer who traveled to Oklahoma to research Native Americans, he said.

The tribes have interesting histories and the exhibit celebrates the work of a Canadian ethnologist who worked among the tribes in 1911 through 1912, Swan said. Today, these tribes are using the material he collected in their language and heritage programs.

In 1911, Barbeau traveled from the National Museum of Canada to Oklahoma to study the Wyandotte Nation and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, according to the release. He stayed in Oklahoma through 1912 studying the traditions of the tribes, recording their languages, incorporating their songs and stories in his research and taking many photographs.

He also purchased many items belonging to the tribes to take back to the National Museum of Canada.

The exhibition will feature 51 objects and 29 photographs collected by Barbeau from the collections of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Owatta, Swan said.

There will be sound recordings that Barbeau made of vocabulary, stories and songs that are critical to the modern language and cultural revitalization programs of these communities, he said.

Also, exhibit will feature a video program comprised of interviews with tribal officials and descendants of the individuals interviewed by Barbeau and who made and used the objects that he collected.

Jenna Bielman

Jenna is a former staff member of The Oklahoma Daily who worked as Campus Reporter and Campus Reporter.