St. Joseph Museums updating exhibits as Native American Gallery work continues
By Chris Fortune
As the final room of a new gallery in the St. Joseph Museums begins to take shape, other exhibits are receiving upgrades.
A new Native American Gallery opened in August, and the room which completes the exhibit, is expected to feature a replica of an Iowa Tribe Hut and provide an immersive experience with dim lighting and a replica fire pit, is under construction.
The Iowa Tribe, otherwise referred to as the “Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska”, is also known as the “Ioway or Báxoje” (Bah-Koh-Je) tribe. Its reservation straddles the Kansas-Nebraska border and takes up portions of Brown and Doniphan counties in Northeastern Kansas and Richardson County in Southeastern Nebraska.
Once the hut is finished, visitors will have the opportunity to hear stories shared by a member of the Iowa tribe named Lance Foster.
“He’s like one of the cultural leaders of the Iowa Tribe, so he came in, we filmed him, and he’s just recording a ton of folklore stories,” curator Max Morgan said.
Workers are currently cutting logs for the gallery, and then the wood will be treated to prevent insects from getting inside. The Iowa Tribe Hut is scheduled to be completed in 2025.
Morgan said the work on the new Native American and Archeology Galleries has raised the museum’s standards.
“We’re kind of taking everything we’ve learned from this experience, and we’re going to be applying it to the rest of the exhibits that are in our museum,” he said.
A couple of St. Joseph Museum board members are going to work on updating and installing new exhibits.
“We recently reestablished our exhibits committee board,” Morgan said. “For a long time, it was just sort of me and Director Sara Wilson kind of just chipping away at things, but now we’ve gotten a solidified actual board to come together and meet and discuss what our plans are moving forward.”
Board member Israel Alejandro Garcia-Garcia will work on an exhibit about the immigration experience in Missouri, and JD Soil is currently working on renovating the Civil Rights exhibit to highlight new stories and feature additional individuals.
“It’s going to be really fun, and then we also have three rooms opening up at the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion that we’re excited to show,” Morgan said.
For those interested in learning a bit more about the Báxoje tribe, visit their website at www.iowatribeofkansasandnebraska.com.
