Lane County History Museum

When you walk in and go to the right corner, there's a tiny section over there about the Native Americans who lived here before Westerners committed biopiracy and genocide. The first of about 10 informational photos says that the museum is trying to be more inclusive and aware of its history, but has all the photos of the Native Americans up a staircase you cant even access. And, it looks like most, if not all, of the photos were taken without this person's consent. It's very obvious that this section did not take any direction from a Native person, or do any research into considerations to be taken. How about mention of community efforts to reconstruct the Kalapuya dictionary? How about teaching about the agriculture they did here before colonization? How about teaching about Lane County's roles in the atrocities of residential schools? How about not putting the ONLY photos and mention of native people up in a corner you can't even access? How about showing examples of traditional dances done by Kalapuya and neighboring tribes? So f*ckin, daft, y'all. Do better.

I understand that its a small museum, but you could at LEAST make the stairs available to view what you do have, even though its almost comical how obvious it is that these did not want their picture taken, or didn't know, like the blind woman standing outside her house- probably not knowing who tf was there or why.

The Race for Change exhibit is phenomenal and takes up a very decent amount of space, that was awesome. The only reason I'm giving 3 stars instead of one is because of the effort put into the Race for Change exhibit, and the fiery and undeniable acknowledgments of KKK presence here in Eugene- which NEEDS to be taught about if our community wants to be a safe space.