SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE E7artBY PEGGY MCGLONEC
ynthia Chavez Lamar be-
gins her tenure Monday
as the third director of
the National Museum of
the American Indian
(NMAI) and the first Native Amer-
ican woman to lead a Smithsonian
museum.
Chavez Lamar is member of the
San Felipe Pueblo in New Mexico,
and her ancestry includes Hopi,
Tewa and Navajo. She will oversee
the museum’s three facilities: its
D.C. site, the George Gustav Heye
Center in Manhattan and the Cul-
tural Resources Center in Suit-
land, Md. She earned a doctorate
from the University of New Mexi-
co and started her career as a
museum intern a nd then associate
curator at the NMAI. In New Mexi-
co, she served as director of the
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in
Albuquerque and the Indian Arts
Research Center in Santa Fe be-
fore returning to the Smithsonian,
where she has focused on the mu-
seum’s collection of more than 1
million objects and photographs.
Chavez Lamar, 51, sat down
with The Washington Post to talk
about her career, the changing
museum field and her role as the
country’s newest Native American
cultural leader. This interview has
been edited for clarity and length.Q: Announcing your
appointment, Smithsonian
Secretary Lonnie Bunch
mentioned “a new phase of
service to the Native American
peoples and communities.” What
is your vision?
A: NMAI has a long history of
collaboration and partnership
with Indigenous people of the
Western Hemisphere. When I
first started as a curator in the
early 2000s that was very much
instilled in my practices of
working with Indigenous people
on the inaugural exhibition, “Our
Lives.” In addition to that, I’ve
come to be very fond of the
collection that we have, over 1
million items in the collection, so
it is two things moving forward:
continued emphasis and
engagement with Indigenous
people and an increased
emphasis on the collection to
really make it a visible presence in
a lot of the things that we do.Q: Tell us about what it was like
being part of the opening in 2004
and if that experience will inform
your work as director.
A: That time was very special in
not just my career experience, but
my life experience. I was just one
curator out of many, and we
collaborated with 24 Indigenous
communities throughout the
Western Hemisphere on these
inaugural exhibitions. I don’t
know of any other time thus far
that a museum has engaged in
collaboration at that level. It was
a big celebration and it was so
important to so many Indigenous
people. I remember going to, it’s
still in D.C., the restaurant
Oyamel, with my parents for
lunch and we’re all dressed in our
cultural clothing from our Pueblo
and we walked into the
restaurant and there were other
Indigenous people in the
restaurant also dressed in their
regalia, and it was just like the
most mind-boggling but
wonderful experience. And it just
made you think about, well, what
if this was more commonplace?Q: The museum world is very
different today than 15, 20 years
ago. At the time, did you think
you were creating a new model?
A: I don’t know that we actually
really felt that way because it
almost seemed very natural, the
right thing to do. Then we had all
of the aftermath. The museum
didn’t get the best reviews, and
the exhibitions didn’t get the best
reviews. It’s really not been until
maybe the last, gosh, I’d say
maybe 10 years or so that it has
really felt like, “Wow, that really
was a great thing that we did.”
I like to ponder this every once
in a while: If the inaugural
exhibitions at NMAI opened up
today, what would be the
response? It might be completely
different. It would be more
welcoming, definitely more
welcoming.Q: Your interest in collaboration
extends to the collection, too, and
under your leadership the
museum has worked with Native
nations and tribes to fill in gaps in
information, especially the names
of the Indigenous people.
A: When we look at the museum
catalogue records, because it’s
written down or it’s in the
collections information system, it
might be considered a fact. Butfrom my perspective, it’s an
interpretation and there can be
other interpretations that can
add to the story of those
collection items. The existing
record shouldn’t be thrown away
even if there’s misinformation in
there because it tells us
something about history.
What we want to see is curators
directly engaged with Indigenous
people around collections that
they’re knowledgeable about so
that you are sharing knowledge.
I mean, just including names
on records is very important. The
more that we can talk to
Indigenous people that can help
us fill out those empty spaces and
records where people’s names are
missing or the context is missing
or they can share more
information about materials or
processes, all of that is really
valuable, and not only to
Indigenous people themselves
but to future researchers.Q: This job makes you a leader of
Native American culture and
gives you a megaphone to talk
about the prejudice and racism
against Native Americans. The
Washington Football Team just
released its new name [the
Commanders], the Cleveland
Indians recently became the
Guardians, but fans at Kansas
City Chiefs and Atlanta Braves
games are still doing that chant
and chopping motion. How do
you respond to those behaviors?
How does it still continue?
A: One of the roles of NMAI is to
provide perspectives and
interpretations that come directly
from Indigenous people, and I
think that when there is a
diversity of perspectives
presented and that information is
made more widely available,
there comes an understanding
that this isn’t just about a
monolith perspective. I think it’s
really significant when you hear
directly from Indigenous people
who are able to convey how
hurtful this might be and for what
reasons. I can be sort of the voice,
and I have opinions, of course,but I think part of the job of
NMAI is to share those diverse
perspectives.Q: How do you amplify those
different voices?
A: We have had a symposium on
the whole mascot issue in the
past, so that was certainly one
way. Through publications is
another way, through our exhibits
is another way. You know of
course about the “Americans”
exhibit, which looks directly at
stereotypes and also how imagery
of native and Indigenous people
has been used on commercial
products. So there’s different
ways to approach it.Q: Can you share your opinion
about whether the names or
mascots are hurtful or racist?
Have you been hurt?
A: I grew up in San Felipe Pueblo,
New Mexico, and went to the
Pueblo’s elementary school until
the fourth grade and then to apublic school in a local town. But
even in the local public school,
native kids were my schoolmates.
New Mexico’s native population is
also close to 11 percent. I didn’t
fully experience the feeling of
invisibility because native people
were all around me in my
everyday existence. Today, I don’t
have that experience living in
Alexandria. I see representations
of Indigenous people as symbols
or images, but they don’t resonate
because they don’t match what I
know about Indigenous people,
who they are, what they are like in
all their complexity.
Seeing real Indigenous people,
whether it’s on TV, social media or
in person, is affirming and
sometimes emotional. During the
pandemic in 2020, like many
others, my husband and I stayed
close to home, we streamed a lot
of shows, and one evening while
watching an episode of “Top
Chef” [Season 18, shot in
Portland, Ore.], it surprisingly
featured the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla IndianReservation. It was heartening to
see Indigenous people on a major,
mainstream TV show being
themselves and sharing
knowledge about their people
and culture. We both got a bit
choked up.Q: Do the name changes, and
recent decisions like the removal
of the Teddy Roosevelt statue
outside the American Museum of
Natural History in New York,
suggest the tide has shifted, that
change is coming?
A: I see any change like that as
positive, but I also am aware that
history is complex and that we
certainly don’t want to try to
simplify history by any means. I
also don’t want to lose the
historical narrative that led up to
those changes. Again, there’s a
diversity of perspectives on that
statue. What is the history that
actually led up to that removal?
People might feel a certain
negative way about this, but then
it is also telling a story about our
history, our past. So how do we
preserve that in some shape or
form?Q: You are the first Native
American woman to be appointed
a director of a Smithsonian
museum. What significance does
that have for you?
A: I’ve been asked this question
before, and I still don’t really
know how to answer it exactly. I
don’t feel particularly special in
any way. There have been many
before me that have been in
prominent positions, maybe not
at a Smithsonian museum, but
something quite similar. I am
thankful, grateful for the fact that
there have been others before me
that have served as role models.Q: How is the museum different
today than when it opened? And
what do you think of that
difference?
A: We’ve grown up in terms of the
way that we handle the business
of being a museum internally.
And we’ve been more cognizant of
our audiences. Who are we
creating content for? What is the
educational purpose of that
content? I’m not saying we’ve lost
this, but in the beginning it was
all about heart. It was all about
feeling and just being very driven
by our feelings. And over time we
realized it’s good that we have
that, but then we also need the
structure to go along with that.Q: Covid has been especially
difficult for Native Americans,
and there have been published
reports about how data hasn’t
been collected and activists have
pushed to fix these inequities. Is
there a role for the museum in
addressing this?
A: In one of our current online
exhibits, “Developing Stories,”
there is one photo essay series
that focuses on covid and the
Navajo Nation. Those
photographs were taken by a
Diné photographer [Donovan
Quintero, a photojournalist for
the Navajo Times — Diné bi
Naaltsoos]. That is one way that
we are getting information out
there about how covid has
impacted Indigenous
communities and it’s very much
coming from an Indigenous
perspective.Q: Your undergraduate degree
was in studio art.
A: I come from a family of artists.
My dad [Richard I. Chavez] is a
well-known jeweler, so art was
always a part of my life growing
up. When I went to college, I
really got into printmaking,
particularly clay lithography.
Halfway through my junior year, I
started getting worried about
making a living. I decided then to
apply to graduate school and I
ended up getting into the
American Indian studies program
at UCLA and it was during
graduate school that my interest
in museums really developed.Q: How did growing up with
artists influence you and your
work as a curator?
A: The idea that art is more than
just pretty things. Part of the
experience when I was growing
up was that art was also about
relationships. When I go to visit
my mom and dad, I remember
when they got this piece, when
they traded with this artist or I
remember the market [where
they bought and traded] because
this happened, or because so-and-
so came by and told this joke. It’s
about relationship-building. That
was a part of an artist’s life, and I
really liked those relationships.Museum’s new leader emphasizes Indigenous perspectivesMARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POSTTHOMAS SIMONETTI/THE WASHINGTON POSTABOVE: Cynthia Chavez
Lamar, with sculptor
Roxanne Swentzell’s
“For Life in All
Directions” at the
National Museum of
the American Indian,
becomes director of the
Smithsonian museum on
Monday.BELOW: The museum’s
“Americans” exhibit
examines stereotypes
about native and
Indigenous people and
how their likenesses
have been used for
commercial purposes.