November 2019: Native American Heritage Month

Celebrate Native American Heritage Month by participating in activities around the state:

Western Missouri

• The Kansas City Indian Center is hosting a silent auction on November at the Travois, Inc. In an effort to raise funds for roof repairs, this special event, beginning at 6 p.m. on November 8, will include many one-of-a-kind Native American items, a fifty-fifty raffle, and Native American foods. For more information, please visit the Kansas City Indian Center website or contact it by phone at 816-421-7608 or by email at information@kcindiancenter.org. 

• The Kansas City Public Library Main Branch is hosting a celebration of Native American heritage with two displays: A Timeline of Native American History and Remembrance of the Wyandotte Tribe. Both displays will be available throughout the month of November. For additional information, please visit the Kansas City Public Library Main Branch website or contact Laura Loveless at 913-295-8253.

• On November 1, Travois First Fridays hosts artist Yatika Starr Fields as he presents Playing with Fire. In his artist statement, Fields said, “I am motivated in my work fundamentally by the search for freedom in all forms. I seek to create a contemporary terrain in the juxtaposition of my living memories. Dissolving elements of space and time, I create a synthesis of symbolic forms and objects floating and bending on the canvas at all angles, negating the horizon and the rule of linear experience. The objects and forms represent the past and present from my perspective as a member of the Osage, Cherokee and Creek Nations of Oklahoma surrounded by beautiful colors and patterns joined by rhythm and dance from tradition. Fast paced cities and humble highways of the plains are defined by a historical layering of cultures, art and creativity that I seek to portray. In the essence of painting, my process has journeyed from abstract to most recently focusing on representational, landscapes and figurative. By removing what the eye perceives and knows and leaving what the body feels with hints of dialogue revealing truths and questions — sensation through color and movement — tied together with cultural affinity but provoked by general concerns of world differences. The creation mythology of this space is narrated in my work from inspirations of culture, travels abroad and life in Boston, New York City, the Pacific Northwest and now back in the state I was born, Oklahoma. Resulting in an explosion of current experience, in this suspended trichotomy between nature, urban experiences and traditions, a new world is made.” For more information or to preregister for this special event, please visit online. 

Central Missouri

• View Patriot Nations: Native Americans in Our Nation’s Armed Forces, a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian at Van Meter State Park from November 20 – December 27. Patriot Nations explores the ways in which Native men and women have served America’s Armed Forces in every major military encounter from the Revolutionary War to today’s conflicts in the Middle East. Visitors to Patriot Nations will learn through a series of engaging and historic photographs and narrative how Native American servicemen and women served to protect and defend the United States. For more information, please visit online or call 660-886-7537.

• Were your ancestors Native American? Research your family tree at the National Archives, Central Plains Region, Kansas City. For information regarding hours or scheduling, please contact (816) 268-8000 or email kansascity.archives@nara.gov. 

• Osage Indians were the first to discover a cavern they referred to as The Devil’s Den. Now called Marvel Cave, it contains the largest subterranean entry room in the United States and is the start to the cave’s hour-long tours that depart every half-hour from Silver Dollar City, Branson. For details, call 800-831-4386.

• Imagine 18th century life at Osage Village State Historic Site in what is now a peaceful hilltop spot that once was the home of up to 3,000 Native peoples and about 200 lodges. Print a site map and suggested walking tour to enhance your time at this state park located in Walker. Check out the site for directions or further information.

Eastern Missouri

• Come view Missouri’s Bicentennial Traveling Exhibit: Struggle for Statehood at the Vandalia Historical Society, located at 112 South Main Street, until November 4, 2019. Exhibit panels include: Missouri’s First Peoples, Colonial Missouri, The Americanization of Missouri, Slavery Along the Mississippi, Living on the Edge of Statehood, How to Join the Union, The Rise of “The North” and Antislavery Politics, The Crisis in Public Opinion, Crisis in Congress and Compromise, Missouri’s First Elected Leaders, Missouri Constitutional Convention, Aftermath: The State the Union Couldn’t Swallow. For more information, please visit online or contact Claire Bruntrager by phone at 314-781-9660 or by email at Claire@mohumanities.org.

• Explore Towosahgy State Historic Site in East Prairie, where visitors can view earthen mounds built by Mississippian peoples living in Missouri. Visit online for additional detail.

• Visit the only Illinois Indian Village site discovered in Missouri at Iliniwek Village State Historic Site. Visitors can pack a picnic and hike the short walking trial complete with an excavated Indian longhouse. Check out the site for directions to Wayland or further detail.

• Discover the Trail of Tears State Park, where thousands of Cherokee peoples crossed the Mississippi River in a forced migration from their native lands to the then newly created Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. For more information or directions to Jackson, visit the site.

Statewide

• The State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO) houses resources for those interested in Native American history. Collections may be accessed at the SHSMO Research Centers in Cape Girardeau, Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla, Springfield, and St. Louis.

• Pay tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans specific to Missouri, including the Chickasaw, Missouri, Osage, Otoe, and Quapaw communities.

• Missouri is a Siouan Indian word defined as town of the large canoes, wooden canoe people, or he of the big canoe. Set afloat in your own canoe on one of Missouri’s many scenic waterways throughout the state.