Curating for a people

Renovating the Osage Nation Museum

The faces of The Osage Ten, replicas of the original busts commissioned by the Smithsonian in the early 20^th century, stare out from behind the glass in three side-by-side cases at the Osage Nation Museum (ONM) in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Their features are so intimately defined that the viewer instantly feels a connection to and familiarity with the men and women depicted. The faces look like many Oklahomans—it’s easy to imagine them standing next to you, telling you the story of the Osage people as you make your way through the museum. 

The ONM is the oldest tribe-owned museum in the United States, housed in a small stone building built by the WPA in 1938. When Hallie Winter took the position as curator in 2015 she did so in order to give back to her people. An Osage woman born in Oklahoma but raised in Buffalo, New York, Winter saw the opportunity to make the ONM a “premier destination to experience Osage art and culture.” With a vision and the support of her tribe, she set to work.

Winter began by using her expertise and experience as a museum professional to oversee a massive renovation in order to begin working towards becoming accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. These renovations include updates and redesigns of exhibit, gallery and work spaces, instituting a “best practices for object care” and developing various outreach programs designed to expand the impact of the museum within the larger community. 

The front gallery is open and bright, and home to the permanent collection, with objects changing periodically. 

“We wanted to tell the history of the Osage Nation, so we’ve tried to do that … through our objects and informational text panels,” Winter said. 

Beginning with The Osage Ten, and moving through the Osage origin story and through pre-history to present day, ONM objects have been carefully selected and displayed to tell the story of a vibrant people who were forced to adapt to Eurocentric ways of living, but who never lost their culture.

Moving around the gallery space, visitors encounter photos of and information about organized attempts to convert Osage children by sending them to Christian boarding schools, juxtaposed with objects telling the history and importance of Osage spiritualism to the Osage people; beautiful and intricate examples of traditional Osage art including fingerweaving, ribbonwork and beadwork and a case holding materials related to “the history of Osage warfare,” including a war shield, a War Mothers blanket and a World War II uniform worn by an Osage Veteran.

At the far end of the display cases lining the walls sits an easy chair and a shelf full of photo albums. Within the photo albums are photographs of the original allotees from the Osage Allotment Act of 1906, along with the name of each allotee, as well as the museum’s collections of photographs. Visitors are invited to sit and thumb through the photos, creating an intimate connection to the history of the Osage people. 

The second gallery, where temporary exhibits are displayed, rotates every four months. Ensuring present day Osage artists are recognized and celebrated is as much a priority to Winter as cataloging the past.

“We wanted to start highlighting our Osage artists and become an incubator for them,” Winter said. “We do have an open call for artists, it’s open year round and any Osage artist can submit … and we aren’t talking about art in just the fine arts sense, but also traditional arts … bead work, moccasins, regalia, all of that. We want to show the diversity of our artists.” 

Currently on display in the second gallery is the Carl Ponca retrospective. Carl Ponca was former curator of the ONM and an accomplished artist in his own right—a painter, sculptor, sketch artist, glass blower, arts advocate and educator, museum curator and inventor who spent his life creating art that was reflective of his life as an Osage and the “land his ancestors walked on.” Future planned temporary exhibitions include PHOTO/SYNTHESIS in the spring of 2017, which will feature portraits of Native Americans past and present by photographers Edward Curtis and Will Wilson.

Maintaining this connection to her ancestors, as well as celebrating the modern accomplishments of the Osage people is fundamental to what drives Winter. 

“We are not a vanishing people. We are current, we are thriving, we are important, and even though we’ve been historically forced to adapt to what some may say are European ways or colonization, we still hold our traditions and our customs dear to our heart and we try to promote our culture as much as possible.”

Osage Nation Museum 
819 Grandview Ave., Pawhuska, OK

For more from Amanda, read her article about women in Tulsa's music scene.