WyomingPBS, public media for the state of Wyoming, in partnership with Central Wyoming College, hosted a special screening and discussion of the local documentary, LIVED HISTORY: The Story of the Wind River Virtual Museum. LIVED HISTORY documents the creation of a digital archive of tribal artifacts for the people of the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming.
Over the years, pipes, cradle boards, parfleches and other ancestral artifacts from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming have accumulated in museums, far from their place of origin. LIVED HISTORY documents the creation of a high definition video 'virtual museum' of ancestral artifacts, currently stored in museum collections, for the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes. The Wind River Virtual Museum is an attempt to preserve the observations of elders, whose numbers are diminishing rapidly on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Following the documentary screening, a group of panelists engaged attendees in an open dialogue about the stories and issues raised from the film. Panelists included Philbert McCleod, Jordan Dresser, William C’Hair and LIVED HISTORY producer Mat Hames from Alpheus Media. Priya Sircar, Consultant for Lord Cultural Resources, moderated the discussion.
Below is a picture from the panelist discussion, which included over 100 attendees.
LIVED HISTORY will premiere on WyomingPBS Tuesday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. and will also be posted online. For more information about LIVED HISTORY click here.
You can view the Wind River Virtual Museum’s high definition images and videos of ancestral artifacts described by tribal elders in their native languages here.
This project was made possible in part by the Matthew and Virgie O. Dragicevich Foundation.