Overview

A close look at New England heritage sites and the narratives they tell about Native American communities Exploring museums and cultural centers in New England that hold important meanings for Native American communities today, this illuminating book offers a much-needed critique of collaborative efforts to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the region. Siobhan Hart examines the narratives told by and about Native American communities at heritage sites of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe on Martha’s Vineyard, the Pocumtuck in Deerfield, Massachusetts, the Mashantucket Pequot reservation in Connecticut, and Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts. Aimed largely at non-Native audiences, the interpretive signage, exhibits, events, and visitor-engagement strategies are intended to dispel the myth that Native peoples no longer live there. Hart investigates whether these tactics really do help topple the power structures of colonialism. She finds that in many cases, sites’ efforts reinforce the privilege of whiteness. The burden of decolonizing falls on Indigenous curators, interpreters, and collaborators, while visitors can leave the difficult places, stories, and experiences behind them. Hart’s analysis spotlights the persistence of racialization and structural inequalities in these landscapes, as well as the negative effects on current Native American sovereignty. While their messages are changing public perceptions of Indigenous-community persistence in New England, the broader goal of decolonization, she argues, remains unrealized. This book presents startling evidence of the ways even well-intentioned multiperspective approaches to heritage can undermine the social justice they seek. Hart asks the difficult question, What do we want heritage sites to do?

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9780813081410

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Reviews

“A substantive, fine-grained study with importance for wider dialogues about collaborative indigenizing and decolonizing projects.”—NAIS: Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association “Offers a toolset for archaeologists, anthropologists, and other heritage professionals to think critically about the ways histories are interpreted at heritage sites.”—Historical Archaeology “Hart invites us to consider how the past is referenced in the present-day, and how colonialism has shaped contemporary relationships and has potentially undermining influences in the democratization of heritage. [An] exceedingly well-written and accessible exploration of heritage-scapes and heritage making.”—Museum Anthropology “[Hart’s] call for further collaboration between scholars, museum and heritage-scape professionals, and Native Americans as individuals and communities is relevant, as is her close attention to the problem of representation and the continual influence and power that frustrates the ability of Native Americans to control their heritage stories and landscapes.”—Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History

Author Information

Siobhan M. Hart is associate professor of anthropology at Skidmore College.

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