27 Memorable Moments with the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum – Part 1

Today marks the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum’s 27^th Anniversary! The Museum opened on August 21, 1997, after considerable planning, effort, and guidance from a number of Tribal Leaders, community members, and employees. This week, Florida Seminole Tourism would like to look back on 27 Memorable Moments at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum. Follow along with us below to explore some of the most memorable, impactful, and exciting moments from the last 27 years! Check back in on Friday for the rest of the list.

For the purposes of this blog post, we asked leaders and employees (present and past) who have helped guide and build the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum over the last 27 years for their input. We would like to thank the many, many people who have worked so hard to make the Museum what it is today! Special thanks to the following individuals for their contributions to this post:

 

Gordon Wareham, Museum Director

Tara Backhouse, Curator, Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum

Melissa Tommie, Visitor Services & Development Manager

Kate Macuen, Museum Director (2019-2021), Assistant Director (2016-2019)

Carrie Dilley, Visitor Services & Development Manager (2013-2021)

1. The Museum Opens

Conceptualized in 1989, the Museum opened its doors on August 21, 1997. The grand opening coincided with the 40^th Anniversary of federal recognition of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Instrumental in its opening and development was former Executive Director Billy L. Cypress (Bear Clan). He served on several museum planning and advisory boards including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). At the 2019 dedication and opening of the Billy L. Cypress Building (next to the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum), Chairman Marcellus W. Osceola Jr. shared that “Everyone has a story about what Billy did and what he gave. He dedicated himself to telling our story. His legacy lives on because we continue to tell our own story today.”

2. Accreditation in 2009

The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) awarded the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum full accreditation in April 2009. This incredibly significant milestone placed the Museum in the history books as the first tribally governed museum to receive accreditation. Accreditation is based on AAM’s Core Standards for Museums. The rigorous process is “centered on self-study and peer review.” Below, you can see an image from a press conference in 2009 celebrating the Museum’s accreditation.

 

3. Camera-Man: the Seminole through the lens of Julian Dimock Exhibit, 2012

This striking photography exhibit, featuring two dozen duotone images from Julian Dimock’s 1910 excursion through the Everglades, debuted at the Museum in 2012. The images depicted daily Seminole camp life: Seminoles canoeing through the grass, women grinding corn, and children playing. In a 2012 Seminole Tribune article, Wanda Zepeda shared how the images made her feel. She said “When I saw the canoes, so many memories came flooding back. We used to ride them all the time; we’d go to Corn Dances…It makes me want to do it all over again.”

 

4. To Sing as A Group: Multiple Voices of Seminole Music Exhibit, 2014

This incredibly memorable exhibit blended music, faith, history, and culture in a contemporary expression of Seminole art. Opening in March 2014, it featured “contemporary Seminole musicians who have incorporated historic Native roots into many musical genres, including folk, country, rap and rock.” The exhibit included memorabilia, videos, iPod listening stations, and live music at the opening celebration.

It explored Seminole music from a retrospective look at the earliest Creek and Mikasuki church hymns, all the way to modern additions like 2011 Native American Music Award winner “The Storm” by brothers Zac “Doc” Battiest and Spencer Battiest. Also featured were Rev. Paul “Cowbone” Buster, Savage Twins, The Osceola Brothers Band, James E. Billie, Native Voices, Tiger and Powell, and now-Museum Director Gordon Wareham (below).

 

5. It’s Not a Costume: Modern Seminole Patchwork Exhibit, 2014

It’s Not a Costume: Modern Seminole Patchwork opened in December 2014, following some incredible exhibits that year.  This exhibit is still making a significant impact today. Co-curated with artist Jessica Osceola, the exhibit featured predominantly modern Seminole patchwork. It paid homage to the way Seminole clothing has changed, grown, and evolved over time. “Style is always changing and moving, even in subtle ways,” Osceola said in a Seminole Tribune article in 2014. A deeply personal and culturally-rooted art, the exhibit also spoke about the importance of recognizing that Seminole patchwork is not only part of daily life, but one that is unequivocally Seminole. It also opened a larger conversation about the realities of cultural appropriation, and the pitfalls of a non-Seminole using Seminole patchwork designs and techniques without understanding the history or significance. We encourage you to learn more and explore the 2014 exhibit online.

 

6. First Film Festival at AIAC, 2014

Annually, the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum and the Seminole Tribe of Florida host the American Indian Arts Celebration (AIAC). This incredible gathering features tribes from throughout Indian country, showcasing their culture, history, art, and music. In 2014, AIAC also hosted a film festival, bringing film into the celebration. The moment was a favorite of former Museum Director Kate Macuen. She shared that “in the evening of AIAC, the Museum held its first film festival in front of the Museum. Although we gotten eaten alive by mosquitos, it was such a cool evening enjoying films by Sam Tommie and others.  We served popcorn and movie theater candy.  I loved being on Big Cypress at night.  There is such a special feeling with the stars shining above and it was the perfect setting to the film festival.”

 

7. Visit from Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, 2014

In 2014 then-Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell got a detailed tour of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum by none other than former-Chairman James E. Billie. You can see the pair walking through an exhibit at the Museum below.

 

8. Cofrancesco Vintage Seminole Doll Collection Donation, 2014

Phyllis Cofrancesco received her first Seminole doll from her parents in the 1950s, following a South Florida vacation. “I had never seen a doll made of tree bark. The clothing on the doll was much different than my ’50s clothing. It was a colorful cotton frock, and it had a creative design on it,” she wrote in a letter, shared in a Seminole Tribune article.

More than 50 years and 68 dolls later, Cofrancesco would donate the entire collection the Museum in 2014. With dolls dating back to as old as 1920, and as young as 2001, this incredible collection was the largest to be acquired by the Museum since it opened its doors in 1997. Cofrancesco continued that she was “proud to say they are now back home where they truly belong,”

 

9. Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America Exhibit, 2016

In 2016, the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum opened an exciting and colorful exhibit on loan from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). The exhibit “highlights the history of skateboarding as a popular reservation sport since its roots in West Coast Native American and Native Hawaiian surfing communities of the 1960s.” The opening was marked by dozens of Tribal youth decorating their own skate decks. Carrie Dilley, former Visitor Services & Development Manager recalls the fun exhibit. She shared that “as part of the Museum’s Ramp It Up exhibit, we hosted a skate parade through Big Cypress It was so fun to see the youth leading the parade to kick off AIAC that year.  A few of us staff members even joined in… on our rollerblades!”

 

10. Ainu Visit, AIAC 2016

The Museum welcomed the Ainu, all the way from Hokkaido, Japan for a special dance and music demonstration at the 2016 AIAC. The Ainu travelers also visited the Brighton Reservation, touring the reservation with the late Chief Justice Willie Johns. At AIAC a few days earlier, they demonstrated traditional dance while wearing their regalia, and kept a large crowd entertained until the very end of the day.

 

11. Building the Hunting Camp

In 2016, Daniel Tommie built a traditional Seminole hunting camp, consisting of a 10-by-15-foot lean-to and a 10-by-10-foot cooking chickee, at the site of the former Museum amphitheater. Kate Macuen remembers that “It was a sad day when the amphitheater had to be torn down and I remember there was lots of discussion on what would go in its place.  When Daniel Tommie had the idea to build a traditional hunting camp, it felt like the right decision to have something that visitors could see and visit at the beginning of the boardwalk.  Once it was complete, it transformed that space.  The fire burning under the a-frame chickee brought visitors over and there was always this peacefulness to that spot on the boardwalk.  I always loved taking a break and chatting with Daniel to hear his stories and learn more about Seminole history.” You can see Daniel Tommie tending the fire in the hunting camp in our featured image.

 

12. Rekindled: Contemporary Southeastern Beadwork Exhibit, 2017

Opened in the west gallery in January 2017, Rekindled focused on contemporary beadwork. It revived traditional styles created in the 1800s. The exhibit featured a number of beaded objects that were thought to be a lost tradition for southeastern tribes including Seminoles. This included items such as bandolier bags and sashes.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s a number of southeastern artists worked to revive these beading traditions. This includes Roger Ellis Amerman (Choctaw), Martha Berry (Cherokee), Carol Cypress (Seminole Tribe), Jerry Ingram (Choctaw), Jay McGirt (Seminole/Muscogee), and Brian Zepeda (Seminole Tribe), and later Karen Berry (Cherokee). The exhibit featured many of these artists. In a Seminole Tribune article about the exhibit opening, Carol Cypress shared that “My ideas came to me in my sleep. I’ve been trying to teach someone how to do bandolier beadwork to keep the art form alive.”

 

13. Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum 20^th Anniversary, 2017

In 2017, the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum recognized a milestone event: the 20^th Anniversary of the doors being open. Carrie Dilley, then Visitor Services & Development Manager remembers that the “event was a remarkable coming together of Museum staff, STOF communities, STOF employees, and community partners.” Visitors, guests, and community members joined together to reminisce about the Museum’s history and look forward to its future.

Kate Macuen recalled the evening fondly. “We planned big for the Museum’s 20^th anniversary, and it paid off! It was such a fun evening remembering how far the Museum had come and celebrating all of the amazing people who had contributed their time, knowledge, and energy to the Museum,” she said. “The community showed up in full and it was a lovely evening with music, good food, and twinkly lights by the cypress hammock.”

 

This first half of memorable moments are just the beginning! Check back on Friday for the rest of our list. Will your favorite moments make it? What did we miss?

 

Author Bio

Originally from Washington state, Deanna Butler received her BA in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Washington in 2014. Deanna moved to Florida in 2016. Soon, she began working for the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office. Deanna was the THPO’s Archaeological Collections Assistant from 2017-2021. While at the THPO, Deanna worked to preserve, support, and process the Tribe’s archaeological collection. She often wrote the popular Artifact of the Month series and worked on many community and educational outreach programs. She lives in Lakeland, FL with her husband, two sons, and dog.