A Heterotopia: Night at the Museum with a Native in the Dark 異托邦

A Heterotopia:
Night at the Museum with a Native in the Dark
Sandie Y. J. Lo (羅宜柔
羅宜柔)
羅宜柔)
Abstract
“Museums,” a place for the collections of ancient behaviour and objects, is a heterotopia, according to
Foucault, in which objects and cultures in particular could be “suspended, neutralized, or reversed” (1998:
231). Steven C. Dubin points out museums may display power, “ratif[ying] claims of superiority” (3).
In the film, Night at the Museum, cultures either in the continent (America) or beyond that are juxtaposed,
made fun of and/or reversed as the representation of America, the superpower. In particular, this article
would focus on the long-forgotten American Native, Sacajawea who, in Night at the Museum is enclosed in
the exhibition window of the museum, “deaf” “unresponsive” (68) and “lifeless” (80). Kathleen S.
Fine-Dare puts it that “the physical conquest of the continent needed intellectual taming as well” (20). On
the one hand, the recall of Sacajawea tells the world how Hollywood cherishes history, indigenes’ also
included. On the other, through further analysis of Sacajawea, we find the twisted manifestation and
acclamation of the dominance of the American Whites.
This article intends to re-define the expression of the indigenous culture in Night at the Museum with the
focus on the indigenous heroine—Sacajawea. Particularly, in the light of this Native American, this paper
aims to re-interpret the transmission of the indigenous culture in a film made in the twenty-first century.
The first part of this paper introduces Foucault’s heterotopia and how the term is associated with museums.
Then, the story of Sacajawea is briefly summarized. The final analysis focuses on her presentation,
representation and misrepresentation in the film and how the Sacajawea who is imprisoned in the museum
and the Sacajawea in the Native tribe (ex)ist in the heterotopian museum.
Keywords: Heterotopia, Museum, Sacajawea
異托邦:
異托邦:《博物館驚魂夜》
博物館驚魂夜》與暗夜中的美國女原民
摘 要
博物館，一個集古今大成的匯集區，在傅柯眼中則成了文化文物「遭懸置、中立化並逆化」
(1993:231) 的異托邦。杜賓更認為博物館是個「至高無上權」的最佳展示場合(3)。在《博物館驚魂
夜》中，我們看到不同時空的人、物、景並列於似真似假的異樣空間。處在這般的異托邦中，本文所
欲著重的則是一位美國原民英雌莎卡佳薇雅的呈現，一探這位女原民以及其代表的文化如何在其中遭
異質化。
本文首先討論傅柯的異托邦與博物館的連結。其次簡述莎卡佳薇雅的故事/傳奇，最後則深探莎
卡佳薇雅在博物異托邦的呈現，再現，與誤現。
關鍵字詞
關鍵字詞: 異托邦、
異托邦、博物館、
博物館、莎卡佳薇雅
0
“Museums,” according to Foucault, is a place for the collections of ancient behaviour and objects and
thus should be a heterotopia, in which objects and cultures in particular could be “suspend[ed], neutralize[d],
or reverse[d]” (1998: 178). Steven C. Dubin points out museums may display power, “ratif[ying] claims of
superiority” (3). In the film, Night at the Museum, cultures either in the continent (America) or beyond that
are juxtaposed, made fun of and/or reversed as the representation of America, the superpower. In particular,
this article would focus on the long-forgotten American Native, Sacajawea who, in Night at the Museum, is
enclosed in the exhibition window of the museum, “deaf” “unresponsive” (68) and “lifeless” (80).
Kathleen S. Fine-Dare puts it that “the physical conquest of the continent needed intellectual taming as
well” (20). On the one hand, the recall of Sacajawea tells the world how Hollywood cherishes history,
indigenes’ also included. On the other, through further analysis of Sacajawea, we find the twisted
manifestation and acclamation of the dominance of the American Whites.
This article intends to re-define the expression of the indigenous culture in Night at the Museum with the
focus on the indigenous heroine—Sacajawea. Particularly, in the light of this Native American, this paper
aims to re-interpret the transmission of the indigenous culture in a film made in the twenty-first century.
The first part of this paper introduces Foucault’s heterotopia and how the term is associated with museums.
Then, the story of Sacajawea is briefly summarized. The final analysis focuses on her presentation,
representation and misrepresentation in the film and how the Sacajawea imprisoned in the museum and the
Sacajawea in the Native tribe co-(ex)ist in the heterotopian museum.
I. Foucault’s Heterotopia and Museums
In “Of Other Spaces,” Foucault coins the term “heterotopias” in comparison with utopias to challenge
the deployment between space and power. To Foucault, a utopia is a fundamentally unreal and imaginative
space while a heterotopia
a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found
within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are
outside of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because
these places are absolutely different from all the sites that they reflect and speak about, I shall call
them, by way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias. (231)
Foucault furthermore takes an example from the mirror. It is a utopia because it is a “placeless place” to
remind the gazer where he/she is not. “I am over there, there where I am not” (232). However, it is also a
heterotopia to direct the gazer to know his/her absence. “I come back toward myself” (232) because of the
direction of the mirror. The mirror that “make[s] this place that I [the gazer] occupy at the moment when I
look at myself in the glass at once absolutely real, connected with all the space that surrounds it, and
absolutely unreal, since in order to be perceived it has to pass through this virtual point which is over there”
(232).
Originally, Foucault classifies five principles in the study of heterotopias, or heterotopology. In
combination with his two categories of a heterotopia, I will make it as six principles. First of all, there are
two categories of a heterotopia: the heterotopia of crisis and that of deviation. The former refers to
“privileged or sacred or forbidden places, reserved for individuals who are, in relation to society and to the
1
human environment in which they live, in a state of crisis: adolescents, menstruating, women, pregnant
women, the elderly, etc” (232); the latter, a place for people who evade or avoid “in relation to the required
mean or norm are place” (232). Foucault finds examples from places as psychiatric hospitals and prisons.
The rest five principles include: (1) functions and meanings of a heterotopia can be modified with the
folding of history; (2) the heterotopia can juxtapose in a single real place several spaces; (3) heterotopias are
frequently linked to heterochronies, or slices in time to shirk away the general or traditional time; (4) a
heterotopia is not freely accessible and is imputed with “disciplinary technologies”; (5) functions of a
heterotopia unfold two different poles—either it functions to create “a space of illusion that exposes every
real space” or “a space that is other, another real space, as perfect, as meticulous” (233-35). Thus, Foucault
finds similarities between a heterotopia and a museum.1
Museums are heterotopias in which things and spaces are juxtaposed: barbarians, civilization, the
pre-history beings, the future inventions are all “virtually analyzed” (Foucault 1970: 131) in a museum.
Consequently, Lefebvre coins museums the “space of accumulation” (1991:263) while Foucault prefers it
the “space of representation” (1970: 130). However, that Hooper-Greenhill proclaims “the great collecting
phase of museum is over” (2000: 152) defines and offers modern museums new functions and existence.
Originally, museums were built to give voices to objects, and especially to allow the opportunity to educate
and enlighten (Hein 151). Little by little, scholars as Susan Pearce explore objects for the exhibition are
not selected randomly; consequently, they deserve “symbolic reinterpretation” with “the essence of their
peculiar and ambiguous power” (27). Thomas Markus, in particular, notes that a visit of a museum may
demonstrate “power relationships” which “are achieved mainly through movement control and surveillance
[on the visitors]” (1993:21-5). Namely, visitors in the museum are appreciating the magnificence of the
collection and in the meantime, they are also experiencing a ritual walk toward worshipping their nation.
That is why Carol Duncan and Alan Wallach indicate that a trip to a museum may “promote the visitor to
identify with an elite culture at the same time to spell out lace in the social hierarchy” (457).
In Night at the Museum, people and objects from different time periods and spaces are juxtaposed
together. It seems to be an unreal utopia to show the harmony of the default of space and time. Yet, from
the Hall of Civilizations, African Mammals, exhibition places on Attila the Hun, the Mayan Village diorama,
to the Old West with Chinese and Irish railroad workers, all the sections in the museum belong to part of
human life and may evoke visitors’ emotion of the great achievement of human beings. The construction
and framework of the museum, as a result, is similar to Jean Baudrillard’s description of Disneyland as
hyperreality which exists “in order to hide that it [Disneyland] is the ‘real’ country” (12) and yet its
existence also makes us believe that “the rest is real” (12). To Baudrillard, in hyperreality [or Disneyland
as in the case], whether it is a true or false representation is out of question; but what really matters is the
question of “concealing the fact that the real is no longer real” (13). Nevertheless, in a heterotopia,
reservation of a truth or falsification may demonstrate selectors’ power and their hegemonic ideology.
From the book cover of the film (and also a short novel),2 the hierarchical power arrangement is implicated.
1
This article has been reviewed by Prof. Wei-Yun Yang by pointing out the seemingly diversifying argument from some
other theorists. However, Foucault himself has unveiled directly the connection between a museum and a heterotopia in “Of
Other Spaces”(235); consequently, I will proceed the article with supporting statements by other theorists in the following
sections.
2
All contents/discussion on Night at the Museum is based on Leslie Goldman’s rewriting of the motion picture screen story
and screenplay (which is originally composed by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant) of Night at the Museum
2
From Figure 1, the leading character in Night at the Museum, Larry Daley, is surrounded by a dinosaur
skeleton (T-rex skeleton), President Roosevelt, his horse, Sacajawea, the Hun, lions and Pharaoh
Ahkmenrah. The arrangement, nevertheless, is of random order—or actually, displays a prejudiced view
from the arranger/designer. The front appearances of T-rex skeleton and Dexter the monkey seem to
foretell the story would be narrated from the ancient to the contemporary. Yet, to our surprise, President
Roosevelt (born in the late nineteenth century) is nearer to Larry than Sacajawea (an American Native born
in the late eighteenth century). Likewise, Roosevelt’s horse is nearer in comparison with the African lion.
It is really doubt if Roosevelt’s horse is as important as the lion from Africa. From the unusual layer
arrangement of characters on the poster, it should be reasonable to surmise President Roosevelt is more
important than Sacajawea and his steed of course should be put of a more essential perspective than an
infamous lion from Africa. If this is the case then, the poster presents us a hyperrealistic world where facts
[the chronological facts] are concealed and “the real is no longer real” (Baudrillard 13) and where power
relations are also represented.
Figure 1.
The Book Cover of Night at the Museum
II. The Story of Sacajawea
In the book, Sacajawea is described as “the Greatest Tracker in History” (45) who was hired for the
exploration led by Lewis and Clark of the just bought Louisiana. To a great tracker as entitled in the book,
the narration of Sacajawea’s life story apparently is undermined.
In fact, Sacajawea’s story can be classified as a legend since neither her birth nor her death can be
confirmed. It is widely believed that Sacajawea was born around 1788 or 1789. Her death, however, is much
more mysterious.3
3
People say that Sacajawea died young and some say she survived but was killed in 1869 during an Indian skirmish.
However, rumour also has it that she was seen in 1884, talking about the adventure with Meiwether Lewis and William Clark.
this were the real Sacajawea, then, she must have survived for almost one hundred years old.
3
If
All in all, to make a long story short, Sacajawea was hired by Meriwether and William and William
Clark to join the exploration, also entitled as "The Corps of Discovery," from the west of the Mississippi to
the Pacific Ocean. Yet, what was not mentioned is that, Sacajawea at that time was only sixteen years old
and she was expecting a baby as well.4 Even more shockingly, Sacajawea was selected because of her
pregnancy. These Euro-Americans5 believed that with a pregnant female and later with a child around,
they showed their sincerity for peace since woman and child were both emblems of peace.
To be brief, Sacajawea was not only a tracker to the expedition. Occasionally, Sacajawea helped to
provide food and even healing.6 In addition, according to McCall, “Not only had Sacagawea again provided
a nutritious supplement to the corps’ edibles, but she also brought a new botanical item to the attention of
the captains” (44) since the two captains were also botanists—during the journey, they also drew a lot of
plants they had found.
Because of her faithful performance, on Monday May 20th, 1850, the explorers named a stream as
“Sâh-câ-ger we-âh or bird woman’s River after our interpreter the Snake woman” (Devoto 113).7
Furthermore, Sacajawea proved her decisive role as a semi-ambassador. As McCall points out,
Sacajawea should be helpful since she could speak several Native languages (77 n.2). Moreover, there was
once Sacajawea contributed her belt to a Chinook Chief for his beautiful robe which, in the end, became a
tribute to President Jefferson. Due to her loyalty and brilliant help, Lewis on Thursday, May 16th, 1805,
according to the journal edited by Bernard Devoto, specified that this was an Indian woman of “equal
fortitude and resolution” (111).
On August 14, 1806, the expedition arrived back at the Mandan villages and paid five hundred dollars
as wages to Charbonneau. As Sacajawea, she was paid nothing since she was merely a wife of
Charbonneau. After then, Sacajawea was memorized by different methods such as by a Sacagawea stamp
in 1993 and a statue in Idaho History Museum.
III. Sacajawea in a Heterotopia
The great achievement of Sacajawea in Night at the Museum (either in the book or in the film)
apparently has been distorted and twisted. The modification, or even re-invention of Sacajawea’s story
may serve as the hegemonic power arrangement applied and sometimes it is an irony on the
Euro-Americans’ ignorance of this Native American woman.
1.
Heterotopian Appearance
Sacajawea in the film is played by Mizuo Peck (see Figure 2).
4
Her husband Toussaint Charbonneau was an interpreter and guide.
Sacajawea’s age.
In a time without any camera, it is very
It is said that her husband was three times of
5
Jace Weaver, a famous Native critic, prefers to use the term Euro-Americans to refer to the white people in the American
continent from England, or Americans “of European descent” (That the People Might Live xiii). Especially, he points out those
white people are Europeans who “happen to” live in America. However, this paper does not intend to involve in the ideological
conflict; therefore, “the White,” “Euro-Americans,” “European Americans” and are employed interchangeably.
6
Please read Bernard Devoto’s the Journal of Lewis and Clark 93.
From the appellation, we can also view the status changing of Sacajawea to the expedition. Sacajawea firstly appeared on
November 11th, 1904. At that time, she was called as a “Squar” (The Journals of Lewis and Clark 65) or a “squaw” (Ibid. 93).
“Squar” is equal to “squaw” with similar pronunciation. However, from May 16th, 1805, she became an “Indian woman” (111) .
From an online dictionary, Bartleby, “squaw” is an “offensive” slang to refer to a man’s wife. The noun, “squaw,” implies
a sense of humiliation, and belittlement while “an Indian woman” accentuates an individual and independent female.
4
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difficult to assure of the appearance of Sacajawea. However, the dress and costume of Mizuo Peck’s
Sacajawea, indeed, are not far from the “commonly-known” Sacajawea. Figure 3, a memorial stamp in
1993, and Figure 4, a golden dollar in 2000, depict a young lady with long black bangs. It seems that
Sacajawea is represented in the movie with authenticity.
Figure 2.
Mizuo Peck as
Sacajawea in the movie, Night
Figure 3.
A Sacajawea Stamp
9
in 1993
Figure 4.
A Sacagawea
Golden Dollar in 2000
8
at the Museum, 2006.
Yet, after further exploration, more proofs tell us another story. At least two book covers (it also
happens that the two authors are American Indians) ask readers of a different perspective and they are the
book cover of James Willard Shultz’s Birdwoman: Sacajawea’s Own Story (Figure 5) and Joseph Bruchac’s
Sacajawea: the Story of Bird Woman and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Figure 6). Illustration of
Sacajawea from Figures 2 to 4 is a Sacajawea full of femininity and maybe sexual drive (especially in Mizuo
Peck’s representation). James Willard Schultz’s Sacajawea shows more of her femininity in the maternity
by having a baby in her arms. Bruchac’s Sacajawea may surprise fans of Sacajawea – he presents us an
androgynous person. Yet, Bruchac’s Sacajawea is likely to be the verisimilitude of an Indian woman since
the Native women are said to be quite strong or even robust for much farm work. So, Bruchac unveils us
another new, surprising, but true-life Sacajawea. On the contrary, Mizuo Peck only helps to elaborate a
romanticized American Indian princess who is gorgeous and seems to be young lady-like eternally10 and the
romanticization in fact is constructed by the sterile and deeply-rooted stereotype in European-Americans’
gazing on an American Native female.
8
From Yahoo!Movies. All pictures about Night at the Museum are from the same website. See
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809266172/photo/970418561.
9
For Figure 3 and Figure 4, see Brian W. Dippie’s Sacagawea Imagery,
http://www.windriverhistory.org/exhibits/sacajawea/sac04.htm.
10
It seems most of Sacajawea versions have forgot that Sacajawea, lass as she is, is also a mother.
guiding, yet, her motherly love also deserves further admiration.
5
She is brave for her
Figure 5.
Shultz’s Book Cover on Sacajawea
Figure 6.
Bruchac’s Book Cover on Sacajawea
The heritage of Mizuo Peck tells how Sacajawea survives either ridiculously or reversely in American
history. Despite the official website of Night at the Museum claims Peck a native New Yorker, the word
“native” sounds ironically since, as Michael L. Martinez puts it, Peck is actually a young
Caucasian-Japanese (Mizuo Peck is Sacagawea in Night at the Museum). The mixed Japanese-American
heritage of Mizuo Peck, thus, supports the two extreme functions of a heterotopia: on the one hand, it creates
an imaginary, charming Sacajawea to show the unreality of the nearly true Sacajawea by Shultz and Bruchac;
on the other, the imaginary Sacajawea is a contrast of the ugliness of the reality (presented by Shultz and
Bruchac). The image of Sacajawea is, hence, “simultaneously represente[d], contest[ed], and invert[ed]”
(Foucault 231).
The fabric of Sacajawea as being located in a heterotopia is particularly constructed at the moment
when Larry breaks down the exhibition window. The exhibition window is functioned like the mirror
affiliated with Foucault’s “Of Other Spaces.” It depicts the place Larry occupies as absolutely real (the story
of Sacajawea indeed exists in the history) and it also shows connection with places surrounding (President
Roosevelt also uses a binocular observing Sacajawea); yet, the window is absolutely unreal, since “in order
to be perceived it has to pass through this virtual point which is over there” (Foucault 221). Once the
window pane is broken, the heterotopia Sacajawea lives in is separated but only into different pieces of
heterotopias.
2.
Heterotopian History and Culture
In this film/story, not only can we see Sacajawea in a heterotopia, but we can also perceive the
heterotopian history and culture to satisfy what Eric Hobsbawn and Benedict Anderson indicate, the
imaginary community, where the white man (Roosevelt) and the red woman (Sacajawea) not only get along
so well with each other but fall in love so easily.
Nevertheless, the mixed history corresponds to Foucault’s subversion of the so called “total history”
(2002: 7-10). The educative and enlightening functions of museums are fluid and transformed. In
Foucault’s The Order of Thing, it is only in the nineteenth century when exhibiting objects were presented
the totality of time (1970: 263-79). Yet museums today are different. Hooper-Greenhill indicates that
6
“the great collecting phase of museums is over” (2000:152). Exhibiting objects differ and ideas about the
museums’ purpose have changed, too. Hooper-Greenhill elaborates more about how museums are open to
multiple voices; she even coins a term, “post-museum” to refer to the heteroglossian feature in contemporary
museums (2000: 140-62).
So, Night at the Museum opens up to the readers/audience the deconstructive world/history. First of
all, the great discoverer Columbus (see Figure 7) is costumed as a blabbering, one-colored,
ill-communicated (since he speaks Italian language) old man despite of the fact that Columbus was at his
early forty when he discovered America; moreover, who should be the first explorer is still on the altercation.
Namely, museums educate their audience a possibly wrong history which is taken as the truth for the
presentation of museums.
Figure 7. Galileo and Larry,
Both Are at Lost
Figure 8.
Rebecca Is Played
by Carla Gugino
Even in Larry’s real world, hidden deconstruction of truth is also deployed.
Rebecca, a graduate
student passionately studying the story of Sacajawea, is played by Carla Gugino, an Italian-American. She
shows great passion on Sacajawea; in particular, she claims to intend to “get into her [Sacajawea’s] head,
figure[ing] out what she was really going through” (70). Yet, in her introduction of Sacajawea, she unveils
“Sacajawea was the Shoshone Indian woman who led Lewis and Clark on their expedition to find the Pacific
Ocean. She was a woman of few words” (67). Clearly, Rebecca emphasizes the leading power of
Sacajawea by distorting history: first, Sacajawea did not lead the expedition to the Pacific Ocean. The day
when the explorers found the Pacific Ocean, Sacajawea was angry because she was not allowed to view the
ocean (albeit Sacajawea, a mountain indigene, was quite afraid of the sea). Secondly, Sacajawea should
not be a woman of few words but she was made to be one.11 Most of the time, Sacajawea was surrounded
by strangers using a language she was strange to; it would be unnatural if she were talkative. The
description of Sacajawea by Rebecca12 may cause misunderstanding as Larry raised the famous question,
11
Prof. Yang indicates that people who do not talk too much are not always supposed to be the minority and even some
whom may be quite powerful. Of course, I totally agree with Prof. Yang’s idea; however, the silent Sacajawea apparently should
not be the case. That is why Diane Glancy (another famous Native writer) in her novel on Sacajawea points out “You
[Sacajawea] know how to be quiet” (17). Even, to highlight the inarticulation of Sacajawea, Glancy employs a second point of
view perspective and therefore, an unknown narrator takes the control of the narration and readers seldom hear Sacajawea talk just
as what Sacajawea had encountered in her real life.
12
Prof. Yang’s comment has really had a great contribution for this article. About Rebecca, Prof. Yang makes a point of
Rebecca’s intention on building a more authoritative Sacajawea (because Rebecca considers Sacajawea as a heroine and even
leader) by even distorting the history. This point corresponds to my basic statement of the heterotopian Sacajawea who is
7
“Was she [Sacajawea] deaf?” (67). The question also manifests the restriction of Sacajawea and her story
that have been forgotten and left on a corner of history for a long while and the truth that Sacajawea may be
treated as the subaltern described in Spivak's essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in which the subaltern may
voice out but is often ignored.
When Duncan and Wallach refer to the tour in the Louvre as a ritual walk, they indicate a possible
training or taming in the ritual walk. After a visiting of the National Palace Museum of R.O.C., we may
praise and laud the Chinese culture very much. When Bill Hillier especially lays emphasis on the “virtual
community”13 through visual co-presence in visiting museums, Tony Benett notices that “the new social
bond” (50) is also made. The “new social bond” in fact evokes the taming/training process.
Visitors are tamed during the ritual walk in a museum while Larry is the tamer who tames the
exhibiting objects and even the history. First of all, he tames the T-rex skeleton which, amazingly, behaves
like a loyal dog, wagging his big tail and asking for having fun. Actually, from the book cover (Figure 1),
T-rex skeleton is presented as a body guard of Larry. Second, he tames the Easter Island head (Figure 9)
that has looked down upon Larry as a “dum dum” (43). By giving some “gum gum, ” the Easter Island
head helps Larry to quiet a chaos. Again, he, like T-rex skeleton, becomes the subject of Larry. Then,
Larry outwits Dexter by a toy key. He eases the Huns whose story is recorded in The Complete Idiot’s
Guide to the Idle Age (72) just by a hug (113). How about Sacajawea? Born in the late eighteenth
century, Sacajawea should be separated from the group with T-rex and the Huns. However, the DVD cover
of Night at the Museum tells us another story. From Figure 10, the DVD cover makes some changes. What
surprises me is Sacajawea is on the right side with a lion and a Neanderthal. The Neanderthal is carrying a
thick stick as a weapon while the lion is stepping forward as if to attack Larry. Amazingly, Sacajawea is
categorized into the waiting-for-tamed, uncivilized and threatening group. While the Sacajawea in two
hundred years ago was a silent young girl, the Sacajawea in the twenty-first century tells us another story.
Figure 9. The Easter Island Head can Be
Tamed Easily by Chewing Gum
Figure 10. The DVD Cover
with the Right Yellow
Side as the Un-tamed
Figure 11. The Final Scene of
This Movie
14
viewed, observed and finally offered with various definitions.
13
For further information of the term, please read Howard Rheingold’s Virtual Communities: Homesteading on the
Electronic Frontier, (Mass.: Addison-Wesley Addison-Wesley), 1993.
14
As if the discrimination is perceived, after finishing the paper for a month while searching in some internet store, I find
both the DVD and the book covers have been rearranged. The left-right, civilized-uncivilized framework is seen no more.
8
Conclusion
Museums, like written history, guide reflections about the past, but museums should not be considered as
places only. Fine-Dare takes museums “both as places and as process wherein history is not only presented
through its displayed objects but is revised and even forgotten” (21). Curtis M. Hinsley concludes that
“Dehistoricization was the essence of the process” (170). While Larry concentrates himself on the study of
Sacajawea, he also makes a comment “Not that Larry remembered learning this” (46) to satirize European
Americans’ ignorance of Sacajawea. Nevertheless, he is also accused by Rebecca of “mak[ing] fun of a
history” (95). In his striving for saving the museum, Sacajawea is manifested as the stereotyped noble
Indian, amiable and obedient. She is romanticized as she used to be in many other versions of her story.
What’s odd is when Larry sets her free, Sacajawea says nothing at all; however, when she is saved by Teddy
Roosevelt, Sacajawea falls in love with him. Freedom is not appealing to her. Ironically, she falls in love
with an old guy (please keep in mind that Sacajawea is supposed to be less than twenty years old during the
expedition led by Clark and Lewis). She is destined either in her real life or in the modern museum in
marriage. Or to be specific, as Hooper-Greenhill puts it, exhibitions present an ideal space to consider a
key tenet of critical cultural geography, the production of power/knowledge. By dissolving the notion of
time and space, the movie creates a new time period, space and even history—a history that belongs to the
dominant. Etienne and Etienne share a similar meaning, “These museums were hungry for fine pieces
whose prestige would contribute to the glory of the states that owned them” (66). Museums thus have been
transformed into a heterotopia wherein power and knowledge are struggling and striving, wherein strategies,
various governing ideologies are displayed and wherein white supremacy is still lurking. The last scene
(Figure 11) manifests a global map with Asia, Europe and Africa—all of the places had been colonized by
white Americans. What’s odd is, we cannot see Sacajawea among them. Of course, we can interpret it as
Sacajawea is classified into the dominant, the white Americans. However, no one can deny that in the end,
she is still voiceless and inarticulated. How about Larry then? Larry finally finds he loves the job and in
particular, he becomes “an old pro” (139) who takes the full control of the museums wherein the story of
Sacajawea will be active only at night, in the dark.
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