Modern humans are one of the most biologically successful, and unique, living mammals. Through the development of extensive and elaborate technology, we have become a major influence on the modern world, modifying it for our purposes and altering the lives of other creatures. Ancestors will lead you through those aspects of modern humanity that makes us unique and successful tracing the path of evolution through the past four million years. Walking on two legs, and the use of tools, symbols, and language have their own evolutionary trajectory throughout the era of human emergence. All of these traits, along with other unique human behaviors, merged to produce that complex biological and cultural creature we know as Homo sapiens.
This exhibit will also introduce you to our ancestors and close relatives, first came the early apelike Australopithecus (A.)* afarensis and A. africanus; these eastern and southern African relatives were the earliest humans. Their descendants included the large-jawed A. boisei and A. robustus, as well as the first member of our own biological group, Homo habilis. Homo habilis was the first of the lineage, leading through Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis to ourselves (Homo sapiens), that exhibited the emergence of most of what we recognize as humans. These ancient relatives will take you through the story in which all of our ancestors had a role.
People have lived in the American Southwest for nearly 12,000 years. The first Southwesterners were descendents of immigrants from Asia. They came to an unknown world but quickly and successfully made it their home. The exhibition reconstructs aspects of daily life, the ways in which people related to one another through particular kinds of artifacts and architectural structures, and infers some aspects of spiritual life from the symbolic features of art and aesthetic expression. Together, these insights offer a fascinating picture of the remarkable history of the American Southwest.
The People of the Southwest exhibition includes a collection of pottery from the Colorado Plateau to the Sonoran desert dated 975 -1.600 CE, with samples of prehistoric Mimbres, Cibola, Rio Grande and Casas Grandes objects. A reconstruction in the Museum illustrates how archaeological sites commonly look when they are being excavated.
The exhibition celebrates the cultural history of the Southwest, especially the close relationship southwestern people have had with the land around them. Through time, the connection between people and land has produced a deep spiritual bond that continues today in the daily life of many communities.
In 1907, Smith Siwid, Chief of the Tlowitsis, commissioned a pole from the celebrated Kwakwaka'wakw carver Charlie James (Yakuglas); Mungo Martin, later famous in his own right, may have assisted as an apprentice. Its seven crest figures—supernatural and ancestral beings—affirm the lineage and authority of Chief Smith Siwid and his family. Family history holds that he dedicated the pole at a p̓əsa, or potlatch, a ceremonial feast at which hosts distribute gifts to guests who witness and confirm claims of status and descent.
The pole was raised in the Tlowitsis winter village of Kalagwees, on Turnour Island, British Columbia. In 1941 it vanished, and the Tlowitsis Nation reported the theft to Canadian police. Anthropologist Frank Hibben brought a pole across the border by describing it as Tlingit, and from the 1960s until 2017 it stood on the University of New Mexico campus with nothing to connect it to the community it came from.
That changed through years of conversation between the Maxwell Museum and the Tlowitsis Nation. At the Nation's request, the pole remains at UNM—restored, renamed for the Smith family, presented with a fuller history, and accompanied by the University's acknowledgment of the wrong done in taking it. In 2017 it was moved indoors to the Hibben Center and conserved.
The unfolding story is told below in greater depth through a series of blogs and essays on the pole's carving, its removal, the Tlowitsis Nation, and the collaboration that brought it into the museum's care. We invite you to read on.
The Smith Family Totem Pole – Blog post July 18, 2018
Ask the Maxwell Friday: Largest Object in the Collections? – News Post June 12, 2020
The Smith Family Totem Pole (Part 1 of 4) – By Dr. Lea McChesney and Lauren Fuka - Blog post August 3, 2020
The Smith Family Totem Pole (Part 2 of 4) – By Dr. Lea McChesney and Lauren Fuka - Blog post August 10, 2020
The Smith Family Totem Pole (Part 3 of 4) – By Dr. Lea McChesney and Lauren Fuka - Blog post August 17, 2020
The Smith Family Totem Pole (Part 4 of 4) – By Dr. Lea McChesney and Lauren Fuka - Blog post August 24, 2020
May 3, 2017 – Totem Pole Restoration
September 16, 2017 - The Smith Family Totem Pole Blessing & Celebration