Illinois Indians Exhibit At Dickson Mounds Museum

The exhibit presents views of the Illinois Indians through the focus of their relationships with the land, other Indian tribes, the French, the British, and the Americans.

The exhibit includes images of an Illinois Indian family in their native dress, some hands-on examples of bison and deer hides, an open-roofed model of an Illinois longhouse, and a cattail mat used for making wigwams. One of the dominant images of the exhibition will be a reproduction of the Illinois thunderbird shown on a painted hide that is in the collection of Musee de l'Homme in Paris, France.

The exhibit was created by Dan Hechenberger, a Doctoral Student in Curriculum and Instruction Social Sciences at SIU-Carbondale, in conjunction with the educational nonprofit Nipwaantiikaani ("lodge where we learn from each other," in the Miami-Illinois language). Dan Hechenberger is also the volunteer director of Nipwaantiikaani. -- www.museum.state.il.us