hastingsmuseum

New Moon Moving

Umoⁿhoⁿ Tribal Interpretive Center/Museum

A Vision of Cultural Resilience

The Umoⁿhoⁿ (Omaha) Tribal Interpretive Center/Museum -- New Moon Moving -- will be a world-class exhibition, archival and educational facility situated among ancestral Reservation lands on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River in the northeast quadrant of Nebraska, along the eastern edge of the Great Plains of the North American steppe -- greatest prairie region on earth.

Nestled among wooded lands rich in both sacred and historic sites, New Moon Moving's unique and remarkable design is exemplary of both geographic and cultural place. Sculpted literally atop a bluff 270 feet above the flood plain, New Moon Moving affords in three directions an exquisite view of the immediate Missouri River basin, north, south and east, to the Iowan Loess Hills beyond. At the cliff base are low-lying wetlands to be set aside as a wildlife sanctuary, while the accompanying wilderness both north and south along the river and atop the bluffs, plentiful with diverse plants and animals and local sites of interest, will feature several hiking and horse trails, offering at least two canoe landings. The planned 3,300 acre sanctuary is valued at over $1 million dollars unimproved, and will continue a thread of trails and other public access along the western banks of the Missouri River provided by both Nebraska state parks and non-profit, private entities such as Indian Caves State Park to the southeast, Fontenelle Forest near the City of Omaha, and Ponca State Park in the northeast.

Designed by the noted architect and Nebraska native Vincent Snyder of Austin, Texas, New Moon Moving reflects state-of-the-art thinking in terms of exhibits, conservation and scholarly research in a culturally appropriate setting. An interpretive composite of the strength and power of Umoⁿhoⁿ cosmology and resilience of the adaptability of an ancient people to modern life, Mr. Snyder’s aesthetic is meant as a “living sculpture,” providing in shape and line an unmistakable presence of what 21st Century visitors can yet learn about themselves through the shadows of the past. A graduate of the University of Nebraska and Princeton University, Mr. Snyder has a distinguished career that includes extensive professional associations with the architects Michael Graves and Frank Gehry, where as a senior design architect he contributed to such internationally-acclaimed projects as the Vitra Headquarters in Switzerland, EuroDisneyland in France, and the EMR Communications and Technology Center in Germany.

Among the many exhibits, visual displays and interactive media to be seen throughout the public areas of New Moon Moving are a number of cultural artifacts and sacred objects, valued at $3.5 million dollars, returned to the Umoⁿhoⁿ niⁿ gashiⁿga (Omaha people) in the late 1980's through the work of the Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project (OTHRP), the organization responsible for New Moon Moving’s presence and initial operation. It is OTHRP's belief and New Moon Moving's mission in all its programs and research activities to incorporate a proactive, ecological approach that tells the Umoⁿhoⁿ story in terms of cultural resilience and reality. New Moon Moving will serve as the central repository for all cultural material and archival documents relating to the Umoⁿhoⁿ, one of the major Native cultures of North America. Both academic and conservatory work will be a prime focus of New Moon Moving’s mission. Scholars interested in researching any aspect of both the ancestral or contemporary Umoⁿhoⁿ, and institutions desirous of restoring fragile materials related to Native culture, will be able to fulfill these needs. A major research library expressly designed for Umoⁿhoⁿ and related Native research will be open to both the public and scholars

Among its many educational and community service components, New Moon Moving will also serve as the administrative offices for OTHRP's numerous cultural, repository, research and service interests. A full-service restaurant, featuring local Native cuisine and regional offerings in a pleasant ambiance of vistas overlooking the Missouri River basin, will also be available. Atop is an outdoor concourse where community events and other public gatherings will be presented during the seasons appropriate with such venues.

Groundbreaking, completion and operation of New Moon Moving, with construction expected to take up to three years, is anticipated to be accomplished by the end of the first decade of the 21st Century.