A look at modern Native American culture opens Saturday at Romeoville museum

The Forest Preserve District of Will County has announced that it will host “Indige-Facts” from Sept. 21, to Dec. 8, at Isle a la Cache Museum in Romeoville.

Museum hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian in Evanston created the traveling exhibit, which is on loan to the Isle a la Cache Museum.

In conjunction with the exhibit, “No One Ever Sees Indians – Native Americans in Media” will be from 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday. The presentation will be given by Illinois Humanities Road Scholar Ernest M. Whiteman III is a Northern Arapaho filmmaker, artist, writer and media educator. Whiteman will discuss the many representations of Native Americans in media, how far back these depictions go and how these representations inform audiences’ perceptions of Native peoples and issues.

This presentation reflects the ideology of lived experience and ownership of culture versus the authorship of expertise of Native representation and its reductive constructs. Whiteman will show that what people know and see about Native Americans in the media has always been an illusion.

Are Native Americans U.S. citizens? How many Indigenous people live in this country? Do all American Indians live on reservations? What are the right words to describe the people who have always lived here? The traveling exhibit covers topics ranging from accepted terminology to population size to the sovereign rights of Native people.

“Potawatomi Beadwork for Beginners” will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14. Program registration is required at least two days in advance by calling 815-722-9301.

For information, visit reconnectwithnature.org.