Unlikely Ambassadors: Tribal Cultural Heritage in Foreign Museums

In this session, April Counceller, Executive Director, Alutiiq Heritage Foundation/Alutiiq Museum; Chris Zellner, Registrar, Chickasaw Cultural Center; Melanie O'Brien, Program Manager, National NAGPRA Program, National Park Service, discuss how tribal cultural heritage can be found all over the world, and how many tribes have collaborated with foreign museums to study ancestral collections. Two case studies will provide ideas for developing a mutually beneficial exchange with foreign museums. The Alutiiq Museum will describe its work on a large collection of ceremonial masks in a French museum, and the Chickasaw Cultural Center will describe its collaboration on a collection of bead-work in Scotland. This session was part of the ATALM annual conference held in Prior Lake, Minnesota, on October 8-11, 2018.