NMAI_AmericansAttachmentJ.8.pdf

Attachment J.8 – Americans Early Visitor Evaluations

The Americans project team has conducted four studies to date, ranging from focus groups to surveys of visitors to NMAI.

i. Spring 2014 – Interviews with NMAI Visitors regarding associations around Thanksgiving

45 visitors were interviewed 22 Males, 23 Females rating their knowledge of Native American history compared to others:

8 = relatively high 18 = medium 16 = low 3 = no answer

Visitors were shown text related to the first Thanksgiving meal from Edward Winslow’s journal and asked if they understood it and what it referred to. Twelve were able to identify it as being about Thanksgiving. Seventeen did not know what it was in reference to. Other responses included “feast, hunting deer, people meeting, Indians helping Pilgrims.”

They were then told the passage related to Thanksgiving and prompted for a reaction. And then what other things they associate with the time period of Thanksgiving. Responses were varied.

The following questions asked for what comes to mind with the following words: Wampanoag, King Phillips War, Squanto, Plymouth, and Thanksgiving. For the most part, respondents did not know what Wampanoag referred to; had not heard of King Phillip’s War; the name Squanto was vaguely familiar to many; many associated Plymouth with the rock and Pilgrims; and many choose words related to food, feast, turkey, and family for association with Thanksgiving.

See tabulated responses in NMAI_AmericansAttachmentJ.8i for more details.

ii. Summer 2014 – Testing of visitor responses to images of non-Natives dressed as Indians.

14 respondents. In general, observations showed that:

People really responded to the photos.

The images were provocative; they readily started conversations. Everyone recognized that the images were controversial. Even the ones who said they weren’t offended were defensive about it.

People had no difficulty seeing the common theme, if asked. They all related the photos to Indians. No need to prompt them.

They did not assume we were showing them for any ideological agenda, but they brought their own agendas with them, and sometimes tended to project them onto us.

See NMAI_AmericansAttachmentJ.8ii for more details.

iii. Summer 2014 – Testing of visitor responses to images related to the Battle of Little Bighorn

General observations:

Recognition of Custer and the ability to name his image is very high.

Recognition of Sitting Bull’s image is high, but not everyone who recognizes him knows his name.

Recognition of Battle of Little Bighorn is prevalent.

There is a lot of recognition of the movies (sometimes titles elude) but less recognition of early 20th century theatrical images.

Movie recognition is age-dependent. Younger people generally don’t recognize Little Big Man but they recognize Night at the Museum and Dances with Wolves.

Most people do not see a direct connection between the battle images and popular media (19th century and beyond). Except in a general way, it’s all about Indians, or it’s about depictions of Indians.

Very few people comment on the headdress, but they see a connection between Pharrell’s image and the headdress. They start to go to appropriation of culture.

See NMAI_AmericansAttachmentJ.8iii for more details.

iv. Spring 2015 – Focus group with American University students, associations with each event and responses to images

See NMAI_AmericansAttachmentJ.8iv for more details.