Native American fashion, artwork the focus of new Golden History Museum exhibit

“Native Americans are all extinct.”

It’s something people have told Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand, a Sicangu Lakota and Cherokee artist, when she’s explained her background.

Unfortunately, it’s an experience many others of Native American descent share.

So, Maldonado Bad Hand and fellow members of the Golden History Museum’s Native American Advisory Board put together an exhibit reminding everyone that, not only are Native American people still here, but they are active and thriving in the Denver area and beyond.

Golden History Museum patrons and staff celebrated a new exhibit “We Are Still Here: The Endurance of Native Jewels” at an Aug. 22 open house and reception. The four co-curators and contributor Lynette Grey Bull also hosted a panel describing their experiences putting the exhibit together, emphasizing how they wanted to share their cultures’ stories, traditions and artwork.

“Our story is yet to be told correctly,” Grey Bull said of Native American peoples.

‘We must live in harmony to move forward’

While there are 574 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States, the “We Are Still Here” exhibit focuses on plains tribes from the central United States, including Colorado.

The exhibit includes traditional regalia found among plains tribes, as well as more modern pieces of clothing, jewelry and artwork. Except for three pieces on loan from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, everything in the exhibit was made by or is on loan from the co-curators and their families.

The co-curators described how important the pieces are not only to their cultures but also to their individual families.

Erlidawn Roy, who grew up in Denver, recalled making the women’s traditional northern-style dress with her mom when she was a teenager.

“It taught me the patience of sitting down and creating legacy items,” Roy said.

Grey Bull loaned a traditional girl’s dress made from velvet, bone, elk teeth and silk ribbon that was likely made in the 1950’s. She recalled wearing it to dances when she was a girl, saying five people in her family have worn it over the generations and that it’s been mended several times.

Tara Deer-Gover, who’s originally from Oklahoma, said she made one of the breastplates in the exhibit when she was 16, and Raelene Whiteshield described how she made a pink skirt and wore it to an event to honor her grandpa. She said the woman depicted on the skirt represents “waiting for the warrior to come home.”

Whiteshield said the more modern pieces are items she and her colleagues might wear to special events or just in day-to-day life.

Deer-Gover also emphasized how colorful all the pieces were, describing how the co-curators wanted to move away from the bland, gray boarding schools their parents’ generation attended.

Along with the fashion pieces, Maldonado Bad Hand described the photo collage in the center of the exhibit, above the doorway to the museum’s large meeting room. The photos include many of the co-curators’ family members and friends, as all the photos were donated by Native American community members.

Overall, the panelists emphasized the need for “collaboration, harmony and togetherness” among community members of all backgrounds. They also encouraged people to support Native American artists and uplift Native American voices whenever possible.

Grey Bull added: “We must live in harmony to move forward.”

Executive Director Nathan Richie said the Golden History Museum is continuing its work in that regard through the Indigenous Connections Project. Upcoming events include dedicating its forthcoming Native American arbor in the history park this fall and the annual Autumn Fest from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 6.

“Indigenous people are not just a part of Golden’s past, but very much a part of its present and future,” Richie said.

The Golden History Museum is free and open from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information about the “We Are Still Here” exhibit, the Indigenous Connections Project and other efforts, visit GoldenHistory.org.

Click through additional photos from the Aug. 22 exhibit reception: