Stella Blum Grant Research Article

Abstract

The Iroquois Indian Groups, a series of six life-size dioramas intended to represent different aspects of Hodinǫhsǫ́:nih (Haudenosaunee, formerly referred to as Iroquois in previous literature) lifeways, were installed at the New York State Museum (NYSM) from 1906 to 1917. The museum’s chief archaeologist and Hodinǫhsǫ́:nih descendant, Arthur C. Parker, supervised the development of the dioramas, but they were in actuality the result of a collaborative effort between the museum’s staff, non-Native artists, and Hodinǫhsǫ́:nih intellectuals. Hodinǫhsǫ́:nih women spent more than one thousand hours designing fashion and textile-related accessories for plaster casts from 1909 to 1915. The published record has, to date, erased these voices and contributions. The archival and material records, on the other hand, reveal the integral role Hodinǫhsǫ́:nih female designers had on the development of the Iroquois Indian Groups amid the museum’s attempts to regulate production.