SALT LAKE CITY — Children on field trips, tourists and other visitors to the Utah Museum of Natural History found personal connections to Indigenous culture and history during Indigenous Peoples Day.
I overheard one girl on a field trip telling her friends about her Shoshone grandmother making beaded jewelry similar to pieces displayed in the museum's collection.
"I do think it's important because it's a part of all of our history," said Erin Gehring, who brought her son to the museum.
For Gehring, not a person with indigenous roots, still said the exhibit evoked the stories of her parents, who grew up near the Fort Hall Reservation.
"My parents grew up in Blackfoot, Idaho, near the reservation, and so this, some of the beaded work and things they did growing up as well," Gehring said.
WATCH: Hands-on history: Utah students connect with ancient Fremont culture
The museum also attracted out-of-state visitors like Gabe Drown and his wife, who included the stop during their Utah national parks tour. Drown, from Vermont, said he appreciated seeing petroglyphs and other Indigenous artifacts during their travels.
"Well, my family has a lot of native ties in New England, so it's something that I was brought up with, looking at a lot of the different New England native cultures and history," Drown said.
The Natural History Museum works closely with local tribes, including the Goshute, whose ancestral lands include the area where the museum now stands.
