Native Indians in traditional dress perform during the pow wow in New York City, the United States, July 27, 2013. (Xinhua/Wang Lei)
Members of the state's Wampanoag community and their supporters say Plimoth Patuxet Museums has not lived up to its promise of creating a "bi-cultural museum" that equally tells the story of the European and Indigenous peoples that lived there.
NEW YORK, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Native Americans in the U.S. state of Massachusetts are calling for a boycott of a popular living history museum featuring colonial reenactors portraying life in Plymouth, the famous English settlement founded by the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower, reported The Associated Press on Wednesday.
"Members of the state's Wampanoag community and their supporters say Plimoth Patuxet Museums has not lived up to its promise of creating a 'bi-cultural museum' that equally tells the story of the European and Indigenous peoples that lived there," said the report.
They say the "Historic Patuxet Homesite," the portion of the mostly outdoor museum focused on traditional Indigenous life, is inadequately small, in need of repairs and staffed by workers who aren't from local tribes, according to the report.
Former museum staffers say museum officials for years ignored their suggestions for modernizing and expanding the outdoor exhibit, which marks its 50th anniversary next year, said the report.
That, coupled with low pay and poor working conditions, led to the departure of many long-standing Native staffers who built the program into a must-see attraction by showcasing authentic Indigenous farming, cooking, canoe building and other cultural practices, it added. ■
