‘Reframing Our Stories’: A box of old photos led to the History Center’s recent Native American exhibit

A box of old photos has led to a brand new exhibit opening Saturday on the Minnesota History Center.

Listed here are a number of things to learn about “Reframing Our Stories.”

A box of photos

Photos of Native American dancers are displayed in an exhibition on the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The Minnesota Historical Society’s collections include many donated photos taken by local journalists from mainstream media through the years.

“We received a box of photos,” said Jacob Bernier, program and outreach specialist with the Native American Initiatives Department on the Minnesota Historical Society and a Red River Metis and French descendant.

“Inside that box are a number of folders just labeled ‘Indians.’ ”

The contact sheets and prints inside those folders included photos taken by local journalists from the Nineteen Fifties through the Nineteen Nineties, part of a bigger donation from the Star Tribune (the Pioneer Press also donates photos and other materials).

“One in all the parents in Archives said, ‘Hey, take a have a look at these.’ So we did, and there’s roughly 160-ish photos of various events happening across the Twin Cities with Native people. And so what we decided to do was reframe those stories and the way they were depicted.”

This time, Native individuals are leading the storytelling.

“It was a collaborative effort with my whole department, and community members, and naturally the exhibits team here at MNHS,” Bernier said.

Stories, reframed

A vintage photo of a woman tending to a young dancer, with a text panel explaining the background. — The caption of a 1963 photo has been updated to remove outdated cultural stereotypes in a photograph exhibition on the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. The exhibit features photos of Native Americans taken by Twin Cities photojournalists from the Nineteen Fifties through the Nineteen Nineties. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The photos were enlarged and displayed in a room that could be a recent addition to a bigger exhibit: “Our Home: Native Minnesota.”

Displayed on the partitions, the photos illustrate people living their lives: spending time with family and friends; working and community organizing, playing sports and going to highschool.

In a photograph taken in 1971, for example, students from Vineland Elementary School on the Mille Lacs Reservation seem like on a field trip in Minneapolis, talking and laughing with students from a city elementary school as they ride together in a vehicle, on their option to Dairy Queen.

The image documents a seemingly lighthearted moment for the youngsters, however the text panel, quoting from the accompanying article, illustrates one other story:

“A bunch of about 20 students,” the article stated, “came upon Wednesday that reservation Indians should not just something to examine in books or to stare at while on a field trip.”

“Plenty of the language used and rhetoric should not what we might use today,” Bernier said.

The text panel reframes that Nineteen Seventies messaging:

“The harmful stereotype reported here still persists. All of us have stories about those that perpetually consider that Native individuals are a forgotten spectacle, fairly than a vibrant community.”

Then and now

Three black and white photos featuring a woman, along with an updated photos and a text panel. — An update on Bonnie Wallace, at right, accompanies photos of her published within the late Nineteen Seventies, as a part of a photograph exhibition on the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

In some cases, staff was capable of reach the photo subjects. That features Bonnie Wallace, who was photographed in her office at Augsburg University, and in her home in South Minneapolis, for an article on “Urban Indians” in 1979.

Wallace created American Indian Student Services at Augsburg University and served as program director from 1978 to 1996, in line with the exhibit; she was also involved with the American Indian Movement and lots of community organizing activities for Native rights.

Now living back home on the Fond du Lac Reservation, Wallace — who was photographed for this exhibit — was asked how she endured.

Her response is recorded on the text panel: “She said she didn’t have a alternative. She needed to do all she did, so other Native women wouldn’t face the barriers she encountered.”

The ability of a circle

A man sits in a chair in front of a low-slung wooden table. Behind him are photos displayed on a wall, as well as graphics that include greetings in different languages. — Jacob Bernier, Program and Outreach Specialist with the Native American Initiatives Department on the Minnesota History Center, talks in regards to the recent Native American photo exhibition he helped curate on the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

In the middle of the room, the focus is a low-slung circular picket table and a number of other chairs. It looks like a snug place to take a seat and talk, but its meaning goes deeper than comfort.

“These are powwow chairs,” Bernier said. “In most Native communities, a circle represents equity — that way, nobody’s back is facing one another.”

The table, designed by Shelly Campbell, complements other key elements within the room.

“We worked with a Native artist, Lucie Skjefte, who did all of our graphics for us — the motifs on the partitions but in addition on the text panels themselves,” Bernier said.

Opening celebration

The exhibit kicks off with a gap celebration from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21.

Hosted by the Native American Initiatives department of the Minnesota Historical Society, it’ll feature community speakers, music and a reception.

Beyond opening weekend, Bernier says, the plan is to make use of the space for gatherings and events. Staff can be hoping the general public can assist discover more people featured in these photos.

For those who think you can assist, please email the Native American Initiatives Team at nai@mnhs.org.