Exploring the Archeological Significance of the Ancestral Load Basket

By: Tara Beresh, Curatorial and Collections Manager If you’re local to Moab or a longtime visitor to the Moab Museum, you may be aware of the renowned “burden” basket—an extraordinary ancestral relic, iconic to the area and sacred to proximate Native groups. The cone-shaped basket is styled to be worn like a backpack, is woven…

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Authentic Land Acknowledgement: Are we just checking a box?

By: Tara Beresh, Curatorial & Collections Manager “It is important to understand the longstanding history that has brought you to reside on the land, and to seek to understand your place within that history. Land acknowledgements do not exist in a past tense, or historical context: colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need…

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Hopi Katsinam

By: Tara Beresh, Curatorial & Collections Manager If you live in the Southwest, you’ve likely encountered brightly painted carved figurines in gift shops. You may have even purchased one. To the average non-Native, “kachina dolls” are a beautiful representation of Southwest Native American culture. The human figures, reminiscent of local ancestral rock imagery, has even…

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The Implications of an Object

Cultural Material Acquisition and Exhibition at the Moab Museum Tara Beresh, Curatorial and Collections Manager, Moab Museum Museums worldwide have been criticized for the controversial display of indigenous objects. In years past, the Moab Museum showcased prehistoric ancestral objects such as ceramics, basketry, projectile points, and sandals. Some visitors admired these objects, inquiring: How old…

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