This is me and Darlene discussing the issues (grin) at my daughter's place. Darlene is my best friend from Mississippi. I've moved a number of times and have a best friend from almost every place I ever lived. Multiple best friends are a bonus - they live all over and I can visit just about any direction and run into one!
This is my favorite cousin, Eileen, with me. Again, I have multiple favorite cousins all over, too. Keeps the peace in the family! LOL
We decided we had to do the usual thing in DC - visit the Smithsonian...and the Aerospace Museum is always on our list of fun things to do there. Richard played with his camera and took photos of the various planes, rockets and space ships.
Part of the Aerospace Museum has been commandeered by the Museum of American History while it is undergoing renovations. The museum staff selected several famous exhibits to place in this new small space. One was the signpost from the television series "MASH." I lvoed the show so had my picture taken by it.
Our real goal was to go see the new Museum Of History Of Native Americans. This dance dress was one of the featured displays. Although the museum was very interesting we didn't enjoy it as much as we had hoped. The bottom two floors were a museum store - and many of the items were made in China or by non-Native artists. There was some new jewelry by Native artists which I loved. However, nowhere in the museum was a display of any of the wonderful silver/turquoise/shell/stone jewelry of times gone by. There was a restaurant on the bottom floor, too. It sold food that the Native Americans used for cooking. That was pretty unique and the food was good.
The remaining two floors had some displays but a lot of them were on an interactive television wherein you touched the screen and it would show a picture of what was on display in drawers locked below the displays. If I wanted to see TV I'd have stayed home and watched the specials on PBS and the History Channels.
My other issue was that about half the displays were about South American Natives...and except for a reference concerning kinship, one of the largest tribes in America was pretty much under-represented - the Navajo. There was no active display of anything Navajo that we could find. Also - Zuni, Hopi and the Cherokee had little or no representation. The only Cherokee with a small display concerned the North Carolina survivors. No mention of the Oklahoma Cherokee at all. A lot of Native American history - the Five Civilized Tribes, The Trail Of Tears, the famous men and women (where were Sarah Winnemucca and Elaine Miles?) weren't mentioned or represented at all.
That said - It was interesting to see the various tribes represented. Just wish there'd been more representation from our United States of America tribes.
And of course, outside the Smithsonian...Richard calls this the "VOTE FOR MERRY STAHEL FOR PRESIDENT!" picture. All you voters...you know what to do. LOL
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