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Publisher's description: Voices of a thousand people is the story of one Native community's struggle to regain control of its past and preserve their heritage for generations to come. The remote northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State is the homeland of the Makah Indian Nation, whose name in their own language translates to "the People Who Live by the Rocks and Seagulls." Rich in ceremony, art, and tradition and nationally known for their revival of whale hunting, the Makahs have devoted themselves to revitalizing their traditional language and culture. In rich detail this ethnography traces the Makahs' efforts as they gained momentum with the beginning of the Ozette excavation in 1970 and the opening of the Makah Cultural and Research Center in 1979. Weaving together oral testimonies, participant observation, and archival research, Voices of a Thousand People offers a vivid portrait of a cultural center that embodies the self-image of a Native American community in tension with the identity assigned to it by others. Patricia Pierce Erikson's analysis of the historical foundations of the Makahs' cultural revitalization will provoke readers to rethink the relationship between museums and colonialism and to consider the value of community museums and collaborative research in empowering indigenous peoples to represent themselves and their ways of seeing the world. Patricia Pierce Erikson is Dean of Academic Affairs at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. Her articles have appeared in Museum Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, and the American Indian Culture and Research Journal. Helma Ward is a Makah elder and one of the few remaining fluent speakers of the Makah language. She works as a cultural specialist for the Makah Cultural and Research Center. Kirk Wachendorf is a Makah tribal member and interpretive specialist who conducts archaeological surveys, laboratory analyses, and public programming. |
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