Indian Dormitory
|
Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum
(listed as Indian Dormitory) |
|
Indian Dormitory in 2011
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | Huron St., Mackinac Island, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 45°51′4″N 84°36′55″W / 45.85111°N 84.61528°WCoordinates: 45°51′4″N 84°36′55″W / 45.85111°N 84.61528°W |
| Built | 1837 |
| Architect | Oliver Newberry |
| Part of | Mackinac Island (#66000397) |
| NRHP Reference # | 71000408 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 5, 1971 |
| Designated MSHS | February 17, 1965 |
The Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum is an art museum located in the historic Indian Dormitory building on Mackinac Island, Michigan. The museum's exhibits feature art inspired by Mackinac Island, including historic painting and maps, photographs from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, Native American art and beaded garments, and contemporary art and photography from area artists.
The museum is one of many attractions in Mackinac Island State Park.
The Indian Dormitory is a Federal-style structure built at U.S. government expense on Mackinac Island, Michigan, in 1838. It was a pioneering idea in building housing for Native Americans visiting the Indian agency on the island. From 1867 until 1960, it was used as a public school, and from 1966 until 2003 as a museum of Native American culture. On July 2, 2010, it opened as the Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum, operated by Mackinac State Historic Parks. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Indian Dormitory is a surviving fragment of the assimilationist vision of Henry Schoolcraft, the U.S. government official supervising Native American affairs and based at Mackinac Island. Schoolcraft noticed in the early 19th century that the culture of most Native Americans centered on the hunting and gathering of food, activities which were less productive in terms of food production than agriculture.
Schoolcraft believed that Native Americans could be persuaded to cede much of their hunting lands to the U.S. federal government, and that the government could reinvest some of the proceeds to be earned from reselling these lands to teach farming techniques to the "Indians." Other income from land sales could be used to support Native American families during the transitional period.
As the Indian Agent in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and later on Mackinac Island, Schoolcraft had seen that many of the Native Americans who traveled by foot or canoe to visit his agency were limited by necessity to portable, temporary shelters they could easily build. These did not seem adequate from the European-American point of view.
...
Wikipedia