Ohoyo Hlampko Vhleha: The Influence of Matriarchs
In our newest temporary exhibit, artist Brad Joe honors Choctaw matriarchs and their contributions to Choctaw ways of life. The exhibit will run through Mar. 16, 2024.
Exhibitions
Orientation Gallery: Welcome to our Story
From the lobby, guests will pass through a collection of vignettes depicting Choctaw tribal members and landscapes from each of the 12 districts of the Choctaw Reservation. Each story shows how the Choctaw culture is alive and well in our communities today. The area leads to the Orientation Theater, where visitors can see a short video about Choctaw culture.
Bok Abaiya – Practiced Hands and the Arts of Choctaw Basketry
This temporary exhibit will open on July 22, 2023, and close on March 30, 2024. Here, the work of generations of Choctaw basket weavers is displayed alongside contemporary Choctaw art. Come view the exhibit to learn more about the importance of rivercane to Choctaw basket weavers and how modern Choctaw artists are incorporating ancestral basket patterns within their work.
Chahta Nowvt Aya: The Choctaw Journey
The permanent exhibitions are constructed of a four-part story focusing on the history of the Choctaw tribe from ancestral times to the present day. These immersive exhibits will take viewers into Choctaw life, putting them face to face with culture and history as it was lived throughout time.
People of the Mother Mound
The first landscape illustrates the origins of the Choctaw people and shares our creation stories. Oral tradition, combined with an archaeological perspective, demonstrates how the earliest Choctaws lived.
Chahta Pia (We Are Choctaw)
The second landscape transports guests to the time of Shomo Takali, or Hanging Moss, a beautiful forest settlement founded by our ancestors during the time of European contact and lasting hundreds of years until the early part of the Trail of Tears. Experience the sights and sounds of the Mississippi homelands as they existed hundreds of years ago.
Moving Fires
The third landscape depicts how the Choctaw people maintained their government-to-government relationships with the United States for years through treaties and negotiations. These treaties would eventually lead to the removal of thousands of Choctaw ancestors from their homelands to Oklahoma. This landscape tells the story of the Trail of Tears through the eyes of two families making the journey at different times and on different routes, each sharing their own challenges and hardships they had to overcome.
Oklahoma
The final and largest landscape illustrates life in Oklahoma for the Choctaw people. Beginning in the 1830’s and continuing to the modern Choctaw Nation, this exhibit demonstrates how our tribal government maintains sovereignty and invests in the well-being of its people and their communities by honoring the past and preparing for the future.