SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — When Michael Slasinski heard about a busload of visitors at the Castle Museum of Saginaw County History looking for an exhibit on Native Americans that once called the region home, it broke his heart.
“Herman Rindhage was still working the front desk back then,” remembered the Thomas Township man, whose personal collection of what he calls “Indian artifacts” fills a large portion of his basement-turned-museum. “There really wasn’t anything at the Castle at the time, nothing permanently in place.”
That’s not the case anymore. Slasinski, in honor of his late wife, Barbara, has donated a number of pieces detailing the everyday life of the Council of Three Fires tribes, the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes.
“It’s something I’ve thought about for a long time,” Slasinski told The Saginaw News (https://bit.ly/1rk4wua ), adding that it hardly put a dent into what he’s collected since his first trip to the Wisconsin Dells reservation as a young boy. “There’s more coming, too, including a pair of Chief Shopenagon’s moccasins.”
If all goes according to plan, it will accompany a display of silver gorgets or crescent-shaped plates and letters of Michigan’s famed Native American, who died at 103 on Christmas Day 1911.
“This is an important part of our community’s heritage,” Deputy Director Thomas Trombley said. “We have not had the materials before to go with the stories we tell. And what I love about Mike’s collection is that it is more contemporary, noting a heritage that still exists.
“This is a very important part of our new collections plan, exploring the diversity of our region’s different heritages.”
Chief Curator Sandy Schwann created three vignettes and an octagon in the middle, Slasinski said, in its own room. The pieces are numbered, referring to labels that tell the story behind them and their use.
Among the artifacts is a circa-1837 fan from an Indiantown school; others include beaded bags, baskets and other pieces that reflect the culture of the local tribes.
“We stayed away from the spiritual and medicinal artifacts out of respect for the culture,” Slasinski added. “I’m proud of what we have and that it will stay in Saginaw.”
Schwann made the final selections from Slasinki’s collection, choosing pieces that might have been in use 100 to 120 years ago.
“They were still living a fairly traditional life, utilizing in the home some of the same things their ancestors did,” Schwann said. “We also selected works that highlight their culture, such as the decorative beaded works and baskets. Some of these things may have been constructed for sale or trade in the early 1900s but that’s a reflection of their life, too.”
And in everything, she added, there’s the very spiritual side of the society that was interwoven in all they did.
“It’s so much of who they are, even today,” she said. “What we offer in our new exhibit is as authentic and accurate a reflection as we’re able. We’re telling a story of a culture that is still in existence and a significant part of our community.”
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Information from: The Saginaw News, https://www.mlive.com/saginaw
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