Tlingit canoe = natural history?

Tlingit canoe makes maiden voyage ... to the SmithsonianA traditional Tlingit dugout canoe made by contemporary Indians sailed grandly through gleaming Potomac waters in a ceremony celebrating its forthcoming inclusion in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

The June 19 event was attended by a group of Tlingit tribal members young and old who were overjoyed to explain the significance of their contribution.

"I just love it when people are able to learn about us," said Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, an organization devoted to recognizing Natives of southeast Alaska. Through her work at the institute, Worl was able to donate an old-growth red cedar tree for the creation of the canoe.

"This canoe will represent our people here in D.C., where so many things happen that affect our daily lives," said Worl, a founding board member of the National Museum of the American Indian. "And this will help people to know a little bit more about who we really are."And:Stephen Loring, an anthropologist with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, said that he and other anthropologists were adamant that the institute's soon-to-open Ocean Hall highlight the "incredible impact the world's oceans have had on human destiny."

"We wanted to get away from putting up just another old boat," he said. "I'm afraid too often people come to a museum and sort of see people frozen in time."

Loring said it was a top priority to illustrate via the canoe that Native cultures are "thriving and intact."

Worl said she's happy to see that more Smithsonian officials are opening their eyes to the fact that Natives are not a relic of the past. "I think that 'natural history' is trying to learn from the efforts at the National Museum of the American Indian."Comment:  Shouldn't this canoe be in the NMAI, not the National Museum of Natural History?

Does the Ocean Hall exhibit also include sailing ships, steamships, ocean liners, and supertankers? Or are Indian canoes the only human vessels to have interacted with the seas?

Putting a modern canoe in a museum dedicated to the planet's natural history and origin sounds like an inherent conflict. Exactly how will patrons learn that Indian cultures are "thriving and intact" and not "frozen in time"?

Museums have a long record of displaying Indians with the lions and tigers and bears. In other words, as part of Earth's natural backdrop...with no culture or innovation or impact on the world...and no relevance to today. I hope this exhibit is different.