Exhibition highlights urban Native Americans

Grand Valley’s Kutsche Office of Local History will host an exhibition, “Walking Beyond Our Ancestors’ Footsteps: An Urban Native Experience,” beginning November 3 at the Mary Idema Pew Library.

The exhibit is one of several events planned to celebrate Native American Heritage Month. It will remain at the library through November 21, then travel to the Grand Rapids Public Library in January.

The new exhibition is the beginning of a series that will highlight Native Americans living in the Grand Rapids area during the last half-century. It is a small portion of the work completed in conjunction with the “Gi-gikinomaage-min (We are all teachers): Defend Our History, Unlock Your Spirit” project that kicked off last fall by the Kutsche Office of Local History.

The exhibition contains historic documents and objects made by local Native Americans during the past several decades. Shannon Martin, director of the Ziibiwing Center for Anishinabe Lifeways and Culture, will open the exhibit with a presentation beginning at 6 p.m.

The exhibition collaborators are the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids Public Library, and Grand Valley's Kutsche Office of Local History, Native American Advisory Board, Office of Multicultural Affairs, and Special Collections & Archives.

For more information, visit the Kutsche Office's website at www.gvsu.edu/kutsche.