Exhibiting Heritage

The Native American Church State of Oklahoma (NAC-OK), an intertribal organization chartered in 1918 to protect members' First Amendment right to use peyote as a holy sacrament, collaborated with the Sam Noble Museum on an interpretive exhibition for its 2018 centennial. The project used a shared authority methodology, integrating community-driven content with the museum's standard exhibition development processes. This approach allowed the museum to produce the exhibition through its established workflow while prioritizing community interpretation and design.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This project report discusses the 2018 Centennial Commemoration of the Native American Church State of Oklahoma (NAC-OK). Chartered in 1918 the NAC-OK is an intertribal organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of its members to use peyote as a holy sacrament. The Centennial Committee of the NAC-OK invited the University of Oklahoma’s Sam Noble Museum to collaborate on an interpretive exhibition on the history of the NAC-OK. The Committee and the museum employed a methodology grounded in shared authority to integrate community driven content with established museum processes for exhibition development. This approach allowed the museum to produce the exhibition through the museum’s established workflow while privileging community interpretation and design.