Starting a museum exhibit with shoes seems, initially, an odd choice – especially when those on display look quite similar to the modern-day iterations with which we’re all familiar.
Arranged around a large circular display with toes pointing toward the center, each pair sits next to a plaque explaining who wore them, what they’re made of and the relevant time period. I walk around the circle before I see the sign explaining that the shoes represent an intertribal dance, a powwow tradition in which all tribes and peoples are invited to participate.
It’s then that I realize the canvas nurses shoes from the 1930s, the beaded moccasins from the 1800s, and all the rest are arranged as if ready to join together in the beat of a shared history, regardless of origin or heritage.
