This is Problematic‪!‬ Conner Prairie Museum

Ornithology is defined as “a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds.” The study, at least in America, is often tied to the amateur “father” of the study, John James Audubon. However, Audubon and many like him appropriated the knowledge of black and indigenous contributions and took the credit for themselves. Ornithology is filled with racist ideologies, with many slave-owners and/or white supremacists being rewarded with birds bearing their namesakes. Black naturalists may have been labeled as “amateur”, but their voices cannot remain silenced. Black Birder’s week is a celebration of black nature-lovers and a commitment to the larger cause of breaking the colonial ties to greenspaces where everyone should feel welcome and safe. Ms. Nicole Jackson- founder of N Her Nature LLC, nature enthusiast, park advocate, Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Education & Interpretation, and birder-joins us to relight the fire for what we all know is true; the outdoors are for everyone! 
 
Our Sources:
Audubon, John James. The Life of John James Audubon, the Naturalist. Edited by Lucy Green Bakewell Audubon. New York: G. P. Putman's sons, 1875. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Life_of_John_James_Audubon_the_Natur/TB2gs7v5se0C?hl=en&gbpv=0.
Ellison, Aaron M. et al. “Broadening the ecological mindset.” Ecological Applications, Vol. 31, no. 6, (September 2021): 1-3. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/27092162
Jacobs, Nancy J. “The Intimate Politics of Ornithology in Colonial Africa.” Cambridge University Press, Vol. 48, no. 3 (July 2006): 564-603. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3879437
Mirzoeff, Nicholas. “The Whiteness of Birds.”  liquid blackness, Vol 6, no.1 (April 2022): 120–137. https://read.dukeupress.edu/liquid-blackness/article/6/1/120/299559/The-Whiteness-of-Birds  
Mock, Jillian. “‘Black Birders Week’ Promotes Diversity and Takes on Racism in the Outdoors.” Audubon Magazine (June 1, 2020) https://www.audubon.org/news/black-birders-week-promotes-diversity-and-takes-racism-outdoors#:~:text=News-,'Black%20Birders%20Week'%20Promotes%20Diversity%20and%20Takes%20on%20Racism%20in,and%20studying%20the%20natural%20world.
Nobles, Gregory. “The Myth of John James Audubon.” Audubon Magazine (July 31, 2020) https://www.audubon.org/news/the-myth-john-james-audubon.  
Rhodes, Richard. John James Audubon: The Making of an American. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2006. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4j2FDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=John+James+Audubon&ots=GTGU7cI5Pk&sig=I0nBHyu6npig6HN8B0skVIF6aBE#v=onepage&q=John%20James%20Audubon&f=false
Southern, Keiran. “80 bird species will be renamed ‘to break links with ‘slavery and racism’.” the website for the National African American Reparations Commission. The Times, published on November 02, 2023. accessed on April 11, 2024. https://reparationscomm.org/reparations-news/80-bird-species-will-be-renamed-to-break-links-with-slavery-and-racism/.
the National Audubon Society, “Audubon Statement on Incident in Central Park’s Ramble,” National Audubon Society, May 2020, https://www.audubon.org/news/audubon-statement-incident-central-parks-ramble
the National Audubon Society, “National Audubon Society Announces Decision to Retain Current Name,” National Audubon Society, March 2023, https://www.audubon.org/news/national-audubon-society-announces-decision-retain-current-name
 
Additional Links:
https://people.com/the-true-story-behind-christian-cooper-and-amy-cooper-s-central-park-birdwatching-incident-7510993
https://academic.oup.com/condor/article/125/1/duac047/7026134
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349479882_Growing_a_Community_The_Inaugural_Blackbotanistsweek_Recap_and_Looking_Forward

Confederate monuments spawn controversy wherever they sit, and recently their removal has caused emotional uproar from all sides of the political spectrum. These ghostly shells of the past represent the myth of the Lost Cause, striking slavery from the list of reasons why the Civil War was fought and turning blame towards the North. Our special guests, Katie Bramell, a museum professional who tackled this subject at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and her former co-worker Jesse Kramer, the director of Exhibits and Collections at Conner Prairie join Zoë and Easton to unpack the issue; if our country almost split in half, what is there to celebrate? From the deep South to the heart of Indiana, these harmful celebrations still negatively impact people who simply want to live lives free of fear. How do we deal with issues beyond flags and statues? What role do museums have in all of this? Can a monument truly receive proper interpretation? We’ll try to answer these questions as best we can!
Description of and link to Through2Eyes: https://www.through2eyes.com/ 
 
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Website: https://freedomcenter.org/ 
 
Link to Kehende Wiley New Yorker article: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/kehinde-wileys-anti-confederate-memorial 
 
Description of and link to civic love questions: https://www.nphm.org/civiclove
 
Links to Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Confederate-States-of-America/The-Confederacy-at-war 
 
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2020/06/08/garfield-park-confederate-monument-history/5319718002/ 
 
https://www.indianaconnection.org/the-battle-of-corydon-memorial-park/ 
 
https://www.indyartsguide.org/public-art/confederate-soldiers-sailors-monument/ 
 
https://publichistory.iupui.edu/items/show/250?tour=30&index=0 
 
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/27/the-statue-graveyard-where-torn-down-confederate-monuments-lie 
 
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2018/stone-mountain-monumental-dilemma 
 
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/kehinde-wileys-anti-confederate-memorial&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1714674240156546&usg=AOvVaw25CmBjt9EKu9__2yCBThb_
 

Today Zoe and Easton are unraveling a complex yet fascinating story connecting a solar eclipse in 1806 to a future president, Chief Anderson's ascension to Chiefdom, and a pan-indigenous movement led by a Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa- the man that many remember as 'The prophet.' They won't be alone however. Our curator of Native American history and life, Sara Schumacher, is back with us, setting the historical stage and teaching us who the fascinating figures that make up this story are and how they got here. Later on, the former Assistant Chief of the Delaware Tribe of Indians in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and was a longtime cultural ambassador and Historical Interpreter here at Conner Prairie, Mike Pace, makes his podcast debut to recount his experiences as a member of the Lenape nation and explore the long-term impacts that the often overlooked indigenous population have on our state of Indiana as well as our nation.
 
Our sources:
 
Badger, Joseph and Day, Henry Noble. A Memoir of Rev. Joseph Badger. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, September 2009.
Drake, Benjamin. 1841. Life of Tecumseh. Cincinnati: Anderson, Gates & Wright.
 
Eggleston, Edward, and Lillie Eggleston Seelye. 1878. Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.
 
Mason, Augustus L. 1904. True Stories of Our Pioneers. E.A. Merriam.
 
McDonnell, Micheal A., 2015, Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America, New York: Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 
 
Kinietz, W. Vernon, and Erminie Voegelin. Shawnese Traditions: C. C. Trowbridge's Account. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, 1939. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11395092. PDF. *
 
* This is a work created by an unreliable author with a singular source to represent a vast nation of people. Black Hoof himself has biases that may leak into the work as well. He would have no reason not to mention the 1806 eclipse and the Prophet but since we can’t read Trowbridge’s notes we don’t know if Black Hoof mentioned it and Trowbridge left it out or if it was never mentioned at all. Also sensationalizes ritual cannibalism which rarely occurred amongst the Shawnee and even rarer post-contact.
 

Our yearly take on the controversy-filled legacies of former presidents brings us to the infamous ‘Old Hickory’, Andrew Jackson. Curatorial research associate Dylan Rawles visits Zoe and Easton to unravel an often overlooked aspect of Jackson's legacy; Populism, along with its rise in the United States. Jackson prided himself as the “People’s president”, which made him the “voice of the people” who stood against the “untrustworthy higher-ups.” This mentality would grow and expand far beyond his death, taking on many elaborate shapes and identities. Populism’s role in U.S. politics both past and present, factors that enable such movements to take shape, the voices left out of the conversation, and the nearly impossible task of nailing down just who “the people” are and what they want- we explore it all today. As always, thank you for stopping by!

36 Questions for Civic Love: https://www.nphm.org/civiclove
 
Our sources:



UC Santa Barbara. “Veto Message [of the Reauthorization of the Bank of the United States].” The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/veto-message-the-re-authorization-bank-the-united-states. 
 
Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.
 
Watson, Harry L. “Andrew Jackson’s Populism.” Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 3 (FALL 2017).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/2654029 
 
Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.
 
Further Reading/Viewing:
 
Image of one of the “coffin hand bills” and a description from the Library of congress
https://www.loc.gov/item/2008661734/

Conner Prairie's Director of Business Intelligence, Andrew Collins, joins us to discuss funding and oversight for K-12 education. When common school trailblazer Horace Mann began his campaign to establish universal education in the United States, he saw it as the only way to overcome disparities plaguing the country and give every child an equal opportunity and access to quality educational opportunities. However, with public schools faltering on this promise, the recent rise of private charter schools have claimed to offer a similar opportunity as an alternative. Some charter schools succeed at providing this opportunity with an 'atypical' education in an honest way while some fail. Easton, Zoe, and Andrew Collins dive into just how deep the issue has become, who the true victims are, and how we can begin to re-center those who have always deserved a fair shot at achieving their dreams.
Our sources:
 
Baines, Lawrence. “Does Horace Mann Still Matter?” Educational Horizons, Vol. 84, No. 4 (Summer 2006).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/42923671 
 
Burris and Cimarusti. “Chartered for Profit: The Hidden World of Charter Schools Operated for Financial Gain.” networkforpubliceducation.org (September 2020- February, 2021)
https://networkforpubliceducation.org/chartered-for-profit/ 
 
Burris and Cimarusti. “Chartered for Profit II: Pandemic Profiteering.” networkforpubliceducation.org (2021)
https://networkforpubliceducation.org/chartered-for-profit-ii-pandemic-profiteering/ 
 
Cremin, Lawrence A.“Horace Mann.” Encyclopedia Britannica. (Jul 20, 1998).
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hall-of-Fame-for-Great-Americans 
 
Jason, Zachary. “The Battle Over Charter Schools.” Harvard Graduate School of Education (May 20, 2017)
https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/ed-magazine/17/05/battle-over-charter-schools 
 
Newton, Derek. “20,000 More Reasons To Never Go To A For-Profit School.” forbes.com (Dec 9, 2018)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2018/12/09/20000-more-reasons-to-never-go-to-a-for-profit-school/?sh=310767bb30e5
 
Smith, Casey “Charter schools win in proposed Indiana budget amid public advocacy campaign.” indianacapitalchronicle.com (MARCH 8, 2023)
https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2023/03/08/charter-schools-win-in-proposed-indiana-budget-what-does-that-mean-for-other-public-schools/ 
 
TBS Staff. “Guide to For-Profit Colleges: How to Avoid Predatory Schools.” thebestschools.org (September 2, 2022)
https://thebestschools.org/resources/for-profit-colleges/#:~:text=For%2Dprofit%20colleges%20have%20earned,report%20much%20lower%20graduation%20rates




Further Reading:
 
https://tjrs.monticello.org/archive/search/quotes?keys=&sort_bef_combine=field_tjrs_date_value+ASC&field_tjrs_categorization_tid%5B%5D=2174&field_tjrs_date_value_1%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=&field_tjrs_date_value2_1%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=&_ga=2.75063957.660474691.1702336022-1751129134.1702336022 
 

Our Prairie’s Collections Manager, Rebekah Furey, Collections Assistant, Rina Sim, and Educational Curriculum Specialist, Zoe Morgan join Easton to talk about museums (which we love!). Museums are beautiful places where stories can be told from across the globe and inspire curiosity in guests of all ages. However, when we look back at the history of museums, we find that many began as wonder shows for the wealthy to share their plunder from their respective “Ages of Exploration.” Museums today have a choice to decolonize their halls. Increasing diversity at all levels of museum employment, repatriation of objects to the Native American Nations who rightfully own them, ensuring exhibitions that explore history’s silenced voices are integrated and not segregated- we talk about it all on this journey! 
More information about NAGPRA! 
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nagpra/index.htm 

Our sources:
Shoenberger, Elisa. “What does it mean to decolonize a museum?” MuseumNext (2023). 
https://www.museumnext.com/article/what-does-it-mean-to-decolonize-a-museum/  
 
Huff, Leah. “MUSEUM DECOLONIZATION: MOVING AWAY FROM NARRATIVES TOLD BY THE OPPRESSORS.” University of Washington (2022). 
https://smea.uw.edu/currents/museum-decolonization-moving-away-from-narratives-told-by-the-oppressors/