American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History. Hall of Eastern Woodlands Indians.; Woodlands Hall; Indians of the Woodlands; Hall of Woodland Indians; Eastern Woodlands Hall; Indians of the Eastern Woodlands; Woodland Indian Hall; Woodlands Indians; Woodland Indians Hall; Woodland Indians; Eastern Woodlands; Eastern Indians; Eastern Woodlands Indian Hall; Eastern Woodlands-Plain Indians Hall; Hall of Eastern Woodlands and Plains Indians; Hall of Eastern Woodlands Indians; Hall of Indians of the Woodlands and the Plains; Indians of the Eastern Woodlands/Indians of the Plains; Hall of Indians of the Eastern Woodlands; Eastern Woodlands and Plains Indians; Hall of Eastern Woodland Indians; Eastern Woodlands Indians
birth: 1908
death: 2024 January 27
Permanent exhibition. Opened approximately 1908. Located on Floor 1, Section 4 from 1908 to approximately 1960. Temporarily located on Floor 1, Section 11 in 1962-1963. Located on Floor 3, Section 4 from 1960 to 2024. On January 27, 2024 the hall was closed to allow the Museum to assess the impact of new federal regulations regarding the display of indigenous North Americans' cultural artifacts.
The Hall of Eastern Woodlands Indians at the American Museum of Natural History focuses on traditional Native American cultures of North America east of the Mississippi River, Ojibwe, Mohegan, Natchez, Seminole, and Cree, and features ethnological objects and exhibits on dwellings, farming, food, clothing, ceremonial practices, pottery, baskets, tools, metal jewelry, musical instruments, and textiles (1, 1913, p. 25-28; 1, 1964, p. 32; amnh website). Alongside the Hall of Plains Indians, the Hall of Eastern Woodlands Indians moved and was redesigned from approximately 1960 to 1966. The renovation was overseen by curator Stanley A. Freed and Joseph Guerry of the Exhibition Department (AR 1960 p. 25; AR 1966 p. 18).
The Hall of Eastern Woodlands Indians has featured exhibits on the Mohegans, Natchez, Seminole, Cherokee, Yuchi, Choctaw, Chitimacha, Cree, Delaware, Penobscot, Micmac, Maliseet (Malecite), Ojibwe, Menominee, Saulteaux, Winnebago, Sauk and Meskwaki (Fox), and the Iroquois, including the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk), Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Tuscarora (1, 1913, p. 25-28; 1, 1916, p. 27-30; 5).
Before its major renovation and move in the 1960s, the hall featured oil paintings by George Catlin (AR 1912 p. 66) presented by Ogden Mills, masks, including those of the Iroquois False Face Society (which are no longer on display), wampum, canoes, pottery, clothing, miniature groups depicting weaving and spinning of bark fiber and agricultural practices, and a to-scale Micmac family group. The hall also featured exhibits on local, present-day New York City area tribes from Manhattan, Long Island, Westchester, and New Jersey (1, 1916, p. 27-30; 1, 1927 p. 37; GG 1931 p. 40; 1, 1937, p. 17; 1, 1943, 127-9). The hall temporarily closed in 1958 during the construction of the Biology of Man Hall, and was temporarily exhibited in the School Service Building by 1962 while the new Hall of Eastern Woodlands Indians was being constructed as part of the centennial exhibition expansion program (2, 1961/62, p. 5-6; 1, 1958, p. 170). Its accompanying hall, the Hall of Plains Indians was also moved and redesigned at this time.
When the hall was reopened to the public on May 23, 1966, it featured musical accompaniments including a Winnebago song for a war party, an Ojibwe song for maple-sugar collecting season, and a chant for a moccasin game (2, 1965/66, p. 74; 3, 1967). The hall has changed little as of 2017 and is arranged with exhibits on housing, food, transportation, clothing with models, pipes, warfare, shamanism, wampum, music, and games, and featured miniature models of dwellings including an Iroquois longhouse and traditional homes of the Seminole, Natchez, and Fox (5). Also on view is a Menominee birch bark canoe (4, 1972, p. 147; 5).