One of the only museums in the Chicago area devoted exclusively to the indigenous people of the Great Lakes region is reopening in Evanston Oct. 1 with new leadership as well as a new name, mission and focus.
The former Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, founded in in 1977 and located at 3001 Central St., Evanston, is now the Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum, incorporating the Ojibwe word for “Great Lakes” and reflecting the institution’s revised mission and vision.
“The new name reflects our stronger focus on the Great Lakes region,” said Kim Vigue, the museum’s executive director. This focus includes replacing exhibitions that had taken a broad North American approach with exhibitions more centered on the Great Lakes.
“We have also moved beyond presenting Native peoples primarily through historic objects and broad cultural regions,” Vigue added. “Our exhibitions now place greater emphasis on contemporary Native life, language, art, foodways, environmental stewardship, and current stories from the region.”
The museum became a majority Native-led institution in 2022 and then underwent an extensive rebranding process.
“That shift marked an important turning point and led to broader changes in how the museum operates, who is involved in decision-making, and how we work with tribal nations and the local Native community,” said Vigue, who is of Menominee and Oneida ancestry.
She noted that renovations were supported through a combination of funding sources with no single benefactor or capital campaign driving the work. Vigue also said the museum is an independent nonprofit organization governed by a board of directors and that “no individual, family, tribe or government entity owns it.”
Native Americans make up a majority of both the staff and board of directors, Vigue said, with 11 indigenous directors on the 14-person board and 100% indigenous membership on the board’s executive committee.
“Indigenous staff and board members have brought lived experience, cultural knowledge and stronger community relationships into the museum’s work,” Vigue says.
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“This change in representation has significantly impacted the museum,” she adds. “Indigenous people now play a central role in decisions about exhibitions, collections, repatriation, programming, and our relationships with tribal nations and the local Native community.”
Other significant changes are happening behind the scenes, Vigue says.
These include working directly with tribal nations to review the museum’s collection, improve how pieces are cared for and support for returning “culturally significant items when appropriate.”
In addition, the museum is expanding its indigenous gardens and developing a teaching kitchen to support Indigenous chefs, food programs, educational classes, and community meals, Vigue says.
A formal reopening is set for Oct. 1, followed by an Indigenous People’s Day celebration on Oct. 12.
“This reopening is significant because it brings together several years of change that began with the museum’s shift to majority Native leadership in 2022,” Vigue says.
“These new exhibitions are one of the clearest ways visitors will now see that progress,” she adds. “Visitors will now encounter galleries that more closely reflect our name, mission and regional focus.”
The opening includes the debut of “The Gifts of Our World,” a permanent, hands-on exhibition for children ages three to 10, and a presentation of “Indigenous Chicago,” which traces more than 500 years of Native history in the Great Lakes region and will be on view for three years.
The Gifts of the World exhibit features 14 interactive stations, including one that introduces the Seven Grandfather teachings of the Anishinaabe people, a weather wall where visitors activate the sun, moon, wind and rain, and chalkboard surfaces for writing or drawing what visitors are thankful for.
The exhibit was created with Kohl Children’s Museum and supported by Lilly Endowment Inc.
“Indigenous Chicago” stems from the Newberry Library’s Ayer Indigenous Studies Collection and new work by Native artists. It explores the histories of the Potawatomi, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Myaamia, Wea, Sauk, Meskwaki, Ho-Chunk, Kickapoo and Mascouten peoples, whose homelands include Chicago.
“The ‘Indigenous Chicago’ project was created through five years of collaboration among the Newberry Library, tribal nations, and members of the Chicago Native community,” said Astrida Orle Tantillo, president of the Newberry Library, in a news release.
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“We are also opening ‘Belonging: Restitution, Dignity, and Radical Care in Collections,’ a temporary exhibition focused on repatriation, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and museums’ responsibilities in caring for Indigenous belongings,” Vigue said.