Karl May Museum and romanticising of First Nations peoples, cultures and knowledges of Turtle Island

<p dir="ltr">The field of anticolonial museum studies has had a profound impact on the ways museums operate and are held accountable for the stories their exhibits tell. Sites of cultural reproduction, such as literature, are too impactful in shaping narratives through misrepresentation and absence that can be perpetuated further through museum practices. A pertinent example of this can be seen through the novel Winnetou (1892), by German author Karl May. Since its publication, two hundred million copies have been sold worldwide, it has been translated into over thirty languages, made into eleven films, and most infamously, has inspired festivals nationwide in his name across Germany. May’s stereotypical depiction of an Apache warrior, Winnetou, and his German blood brother, Old Shatterhand, has ingrained itself deeply in the Zeitgeist over the last century, forming the basis of how Germans understand First Nations peoples of Turtle Island. One site of continued reproduction of these stereotypes is the Karl May Museum, which drew international critique in 2014 with their refusal to repatriate Saginaw Chippewa Ancestors’ scalps. The Karl May Museum is comprised of three main sections, Villa Shatterhand which resides in the late author's home and is dedicated to May’s work and life, Villa Bärenfett which is a wooden cabin built in 1928 and holds the First Nations exhibit, and the garden space connecting the two Villas. Through a mixed methods approach of literature review and phenomenological and heuristic analysis, this paper examines how the Karl May Museum reconciles its history of miseducation in favour of stereotypical narratives and makes steps to become a reparative institution. The main inhibitor for the Karl May Museum is its inability and unwillingness to besmirch its namesake. If they maintain this position, their attempts to present informative exhibits of First Nations peoples of Turtle Island will always be anachronistic.</p>