Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

City of Los Angeles, CA

200 N. Spring St., Room 300

Los Angeles, CA 90012

RE: Southwest Museum

Hello:

I am writing this letter as one of many individuals concerned about the future of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian. It is my understanding that the Autry National Center, with which the Southwest Museum merged approximately 3 years ago, is turning a blind eye to its plight and considering closing the museum at its present location and moving its many artifacts to an alternative location. I am writing this letter because I believe that closing the Southwest Museum would bring a very unnecessary end to a National Icon and because I believe that the Autry National Museum must allow the Southwest Museum to remain where it is and belongs.

It is my understanding that the Southwest Museum is the oldest museum in Los Angeles. It is also a storehouse for a very precious commodity, that being thousands of Native American artifacts. As should be obvious to all, our treatment of Native American culture has been deplorable. In the hands of the folks at the Southwest Museum, the artifacts are in a well established location, and have been there for some time. Instead of making efforts to move them to an alternative location, efforts should be made to allow them to remain where they are.

It is also significant, in my mind, that while the Autry Museum has an interest in the Southwest Museum, that the two museums remain completely separate. While I am sure that the Autry Museum is a wonderful place, I believe that to put Native American artifacts in the same place as the Autry Museum will diminish the significance of the artifacts and of Native American Culture. It would be yet another example of the assimilation of an outside influence into the "American way of life". We have enough examples of the treasures of other cultures being reduced to a sideshow, and I fear will happen if the Southwest Museum is closed and the artifacts are moved to Griffith Park.

It is also significant, in my mind, that the Southwest Museum’s current location, within eyeshot of the Arroyo Seco Parkway, is an icon of American History and culture located on an icon of American history and culture, that being Historic Route 66. The preservation of the memory of

Route 66, in whatever form, is so important to the preservation of Historic Route 66, and icons such as the Southwest Museum give present and future generations an understanding of this country’s history and the importance of Route 66 to that history. The history of Route 66, as well as postwar America, is documented in many forms. Such connections assist today’s "roadside historians" not only in learning about and understanding the significance of Route 66, but they also assist in learning about and understanding the many cultures through which it passed. As described by Robert Auer of the National Park service, such designations "allow the past to speak to the present, and the future."

RE: Southwest Museum

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Furthermore, its current location along Route 66 has and will continue to bring people in to the Southwest Museum. People who stop there and pass by the place take, in the history contained there, and pass their experience on to others, who, in turn, will stop at the Southwest Museum so they can see this landmark. They will visit other places in Los Angeles, shop in its stores, stay in its Motels, and spend money there. Keeping the Southwest Museum in its current location on Route 66 will bring benefit not only to the museum itself and bring an audience to its 13,000 plus artifacts, it will help the economy of Los Angeles as a whole. To move it will remove yet another slice of American History from the banks of the Mother Road, and will diminish travel along Route 66 and to Los Angeles.

I realize that the Southwest Museum has had its trying times and that the building is in need of repair. I also realize that a lot has been done to revitalize the museum and groups such as the Friends of the Southwest Museum have worked feverishly in its behalf. I realize that it will take work for the Southwest Museum of the American Indian to remain where it is, but it is work that needs to and should be done for the Museum so that it will remain where it rightfully belongs, at the Mount Washington campus, in its present location. I urge you to insist that the Southwest Museum remain in its current location, in the building it has occupied for so long, and that the Autry National Museum be required to do all that is necessary to make that happen.

Thank you for your consideration.

Yours Very Truly,

Kip Welborn

Friends of the Mother Road, Inc.