Allison Brooke LaGasse

My name is Allison and I am a sophomore at University of Maryland, College Park. I will be admitted into the School of Business this coming semester. As a terrapin, I'm a part of the College Park Scholar's, Earth, Life, & Time program. Maryland's diverse campus and exciting athletic events are my favorite aspects of college life. Go Terps!!! Fear the Turtle!!

Here's a Little Info about the Courses & Activities I partake in at UMD:

First Semester Courses Freshman Year:

• Earth, Life, & Time Colloquium
• Biology 106
• Pre-Calculus 115
• World 125
• Psychology 100
• University 100

Terp Activities:

• Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority
• Intramural Coed Volleyball

Additional Activities:

• I am looking forward to studying abroad in Nice, France second semester of my junior year. 

Some Additional Personal Info:

I am from Olney, MD which is a nice town about thirty minutes from the University of Maryland. I attended Sherwood High School where I participated in the National Honors Society, SADD, and COACH. When it came to sports I was all about volleyball! I played on, and was captain of both the girls and coed teams. Our coed team won the championship all four years! It was without a doubt the best part of high school. Still attending Sherwood is my younger brother, Grant, I miss my parents and him so much! Hopefully Grant can help lead the coed team to a 5-peat! I'm really looking forward to seeing my parents and grandparents again. I really can't wait for some home-cooked meals! I miss all my girls from home too. Jodi, Dana, Lee, Kristen, and Kasey, I hope you are all loving college life! I'm having a lot of fun at Maryland.  Thanks for visiting my webpage!

Report on Field Trip to the National Museum of the American Indian

            The National Museum of the American Indian is the newest National Museum on the mall in Washington, DC.  The architecture of the museum itself is very characteristic of the Indian people and their values.  The earthy, sand colored stone reminds one of the earth, which the Indian people have always held in high esteem.  Upon entering the museum, the story isn’t much different.  It is obvious that the museum’s design and exhibitions were created with input from various Native American cultures.  While the first two floors of the museum allow visitors to experience American Indian food from different regions or purchase Native American crafts in the museum store, the third and fourth floors hold many exhibits that allow one to gain a better understanding of the Native American people and their continuance in society today.

            The exhibit titled, Our Universes, shows how Native Americans relate to the natural world.  An assortment of philosophies is presented that explains the ideas of the American Indians.  It is apparent that the museum is very in tune with Native American people and their cultures.  The map of stars leads one down the hall as videos of Powwows and other ceremonies play.  While this exhibit holds very few artifacts, the information and pictures on the walls are full of information.

            The second exhibit was Our Peoples.  As opposed to many museums, the National Museum of the American Indian tells the story of the European Invasion from the Indian point of view.  Hundreds of artifacts tell the story of the invasion along a timeline.  At first, Indians only made ceremonial vessels, spearheads, and jewelry, but over time, as the Europeans invaded, the need for weapons, and currency came about.  The invasion of the Europeans brought new technologies, animals, and disease.  The exhibit clearly shows that the Native Americans were not only fighting for their lives…they were also fighting to keep their cultures and traditions alive.

            The third permanent exhibit was titled, Our Lives.  I found our lives extremely interesting because the exhibit asks the question, “What makes one an American Indian?”  The exhibit shows how people have been classified as Indian in the past by the European people and the American government.  This exhibit also contains pictures of Native Americans living today in society alongside other Americans.  The exhibit clearly shows that the Native American people have not been left behind, and their culture remains.  American Indians have changed with the times while preserving what is most important to them; their culture.  The exhibit also makes it obvious that there are many Indian tribes, many cultures, and many beliefs.  Native Americans can not be viewed as all one and the same.  

            Other exhibits in the museum included The Art of George Morrison and Allen Houser, the jewelry of Ben Nighthorse, and display cases of ceremonial vessels, spear points, and peace medals.  Each of these exhibits held artifacts that sent various messages, such as: women and children are important to Native Americans; spearheads are made in countless ways depending on their purpose; decorative jewelry is a large part of Indian culture and is used often in ceremonies; Native Americans made efforts to make peace with the American government and have the peace medals as proof; and animals, the landscape, and the sky are all very important to the culture of the Native American people.

            Overall, the message of the Museum was there are many different Native American cultures, and despite some tough points in history, their culture has survived, and Native Americans are still living today.  They were not conquered and extinguished by the Europeans and their culture has not been forgotten.  This message is extremely different than the message one gets when seeing Native American exhibits at other museums such as the Smithsonian.  Other museums seem to convey the message that the Indians were here first, but then they either died or became Americanized.  Other museums do not press the fact that Native American cultures remain to this day.