Last month, in a special dedication ceremony, the Peoria Riverfront Museum unveiled display cases that would ultimately feature duck decoys. But it wasn’t the decoys that were the subject of the celebration. It was unprecedented collaboration that resulted in the first business deal in generations between a central Illinois entity and the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.
Members of The Peoria Tribe hand-crafted the 14 state-of-the-art display cases to house some of the finest museum-quality duck decoys in the world, including those on loan from New York’s American Folk Art Museum.
Chief Craig Harper of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma spoke at the dedication of the newly upgraded Center for American Decoys at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. He explained that decoys were long used by indigenous peoples to hunt waterfowl and was honored to take part in preserving and showcasing the past.
“We took a very practical thing, and we made it beautiful. We see those old things; we see them new again. We see those old things brought back and showcased. Those of the next generations will come back and be inspired. We love the educational component of that,” Harper said.
The Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma is a confederation of Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankashaw and Wea Indians united into a single tribe in 1854. The tribes which constitute The Confederated Peorias, as they then were called, originated in the lands bordering the Great Lakes and drained by the mighty Mississippi. They are Illinois or Illini Indians, descendants of those who created the great mound civilizations in the central United States two thousand to three thousand years ago.
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Photo Credit: Peoria Riverfront Museum