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Illinois State Museum temporarily closes archaeology exhibits at Dickson Mounds

By: Gary Todd

LEWISTOWN – The Illinois State Museum announced the temporary closure of its second-floor archaeology exhibitions at its Dickson Mounds Museum in Lewistown as part of a planned tribal consultation process. All other attractions will remain open to visitors. Museum anthropology staff are reviewing and removing selected artifacts and reconsidering exhibition text. This project is guided by the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990. The Illinois State Museum received a grant from the National NAGPRA Program (a division of the U.S. National Park Service) to assist with consultation with the federally recognized Native American tribes who considered Illinois their homeland before and post European contact.
Conversations between the State of Illinois and the Peoria Tribe of Native Americans of Oklahoma and the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma led to closure of the Dickson Mounds Burial Exhibit in 1992. Since then, museum staff have welcomed further collaborations and consultations and are committed to responding to tribal wishes regarding the disposition of their ancestors and associated objects. Future exhibitions projects will center Indigenous perspectives and collaborate with the tribal communities forcibly removed from Illinois.

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