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Piqua Shawnee Tribe Exhibit: Cultural Survival in Their Homeland
Kentucky Ag Connection - 10/15/2018

An exhibition highlighting 21st century challenges for the Piqua Shawnee Tribe, is now open at the Berea College Hutchins Library in Berea.

The exhibit showcases stunning photographic portraits by Ruth Morgan and excerpts from oral histories, conducted by Janet Clinger,that document the life experiences of two generations of Piqua Shawnee Tribe members. Titled, Piqua Shawnee Tribe: Cultural Survival in Their Homeland, the exhibit chronicles the on-going cultural revitalization process taking place within the tribe. Jim Green, a Berea native and resident, is one of the Shawnee highlighted in the exhibit.

The Piqua Shawnee Tribe formed in 1990 in order to give Native people--whose ancestors either stayed behind or returned after The Removal from the Ohio Valley in the 1830's--an opportunity to participate in cultural activities, especially ceremony, while bonding with other Native people.

The Piqua do not live on a reservation. Tribal members are scattered throughout the eastern United States and come together in a central location for ceremony three times each year as part of their commitment to keeping their Native culture alive and thriving.

Clinger and Morganhave been coming to London, Kentucky for more than 10 years to interview and photograph the Piqua Shawnee when tribe members come together from Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky to do ceremony.

According to Morgan, the Piqua Shawnee live today between two cultures that often are in opposition to one another. They face major challenges including the protection of burial and other sacred sites, ensuring an accurate depiction of the history of the Shawnee and other Eastern Woodland peoples, preserving traditional ceremony and community, and creating a viable vision for the future of the tribe.

The exhibition, on display through Oct. 31 in Berea, will travel for a year through Kentucky with support of the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission and partial funding from National Endowment for the Arts.


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