Verdant jungles and dusty villages await your arrival! Travel at your own pace as you stroll through the markets of Guatemala, to see how the Maya Indian villagers of the southern highlands visited the market for staple items such as beans, corn, chili peppers, rice, and bananas.
Trinidad, one of the islands forming the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the southern Caribbean, has been ruled by several previous European powers, the last being Great Britain. On this small island, people from the various cultures of Asia, Europe, Africa, and native groups live and interact. This rare collection is from the East Indian peoples on the island and was collected by Milwaukee Public Museum Curator of Anthropology Dr. Arthur Niehoff in 1957. The East Indians were brought to the island by the British as indentured servants. The collection, one of only a few in the United States, is important since it shows the cultural exchange and influence that has occurred between the East Indians and the other groups inhabiting the island.
These playing cards are from the Apache, an American Indian tribe living in Arizona. Apache playing cards are thought to be influenced by the Spanish, however the cards' decorations are distinctly of the traditional Apache artistic style. Made of rawhide and decorated with a variety of pictorial designs, the cards represent numbers or face card values. Playing cards had widespread use by the Apache during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and were even traded for by non-Apache groups. There are not many complete card sets, such as this one, that exist today. These cards a part of a larger collection donated by G. E. Copeland of Milwaukee in 1922.
Enjoy the delicious Indigenous cuisine of Ketapanen Kitchen, Chicago's first Native American pop-up kitchen and catering company.
Anderson, Lee
The History of American Indian Jewelry. http://www.americana.net/jewelry_history_article.html
Fabila, Alfonso
1945La Tribu Kickapoo de Coahuila. Biblioteca Enciclopedia Popular, no. 50. Secretaria de Educacion Popular, Mexico.
The Navajo rug collection is the largest museum-held collection of its type in the state of Wisconsin, comprising over 200 rugs representing all major types, ages, and styles. As early as the 1800s, the Navajo were recognized for their high quality of weaving by both neighboring American Indian groups and the Spanish. The changing designs of the rugs have been influenced by trade and later, tourism. Several examples of these rugs can be seen in the Southwest exhibit on the Second Floor.
Anderson, Amy Elizabeth
1996. “Ethnic Tourism in the Sierra Tarahumara: a Comparison of Two Rarámuri Ejidos”
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/mexico/chihuahua/anderson/anderson.html
This specimen is part of the Huron Smith Ethnobotanical collections. It was gathered during the 1920s when Smith was doing fieldwork among the Indian tribes of Wisconsin. He recorded the native name and use for the 1,600 plants he collected. This important collection was recently conserved using archival materials and rehoused in new cabinets, thanks to an IMLS grant. Smith's specimens, field notes and publications can now be viewed on the Museum's website here.
