As a class we went to the Funk Heritage Museum to choose an exhibit to write about. I chose the exhibit showing details and paintings of the Native American time Periods. In choosing this exhibit I thought I could learn more about how the Native Americans grew throughout their early years of living in North America, and how different time periods came about because of the changes of culture and religions. In the museum, I thought the descriptions and paintings could have had more information around the displays. To me it felt like I was seeing an image of the time period and having to guess or imagine what else went on during that time. The museum had the history of the Native Americans broken up into five different time periods: the Paleo Period, Archaic Period, Woodland Period, Mississippian Period, and the Historic Period. Each time period display could have used more detail to help viewers understand how the society of the Native Americans change and differ from one another. I am going to provide the information in this essay that I thought should have been shown or have little description around the time period exhibit in the museum.
At the beginning, the Native Americans had very little ownership of anything. However, towards the end of the time periods they form small towns that are run by different Native American tribes. Not all of the Native Americans lived the same because their lifeway's were different from each other regionally based on the environment, access of resources, and their cultural traditions. The first time period of the Native Americans was the Paleo Period, which took place around 40,000 to 9,000 BP (Before Present). The name of the time period and the years in which it occurred were the only descriptions the exhibit displayed. In order to get a better understanding of that time period, I believe the exhibit needs more description or a small short story explaining how and what went on during that time period.
