Wyoming’s New Medicine Lodge Immersive Exhibit Unlike Anything Else In The US

HYATTVILLE — The Native American culture of storytelling, mythology and respect for nature has been extensively written about and taught, but until now there hasn’t been a way for people to experience that firsthand.

After years of planning and pandemic-related delays, Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site’s newest, first-of-its-kind educational experience is open, and it’s a mind-blowing integration of technology and culture that immerses visitors in thousands of years of indigenous history through seasons, sights and sounds.

Several representatives from the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources traveled to the 100-acre park outside Hyattville, Wyoming, along the western edge of the Bighorn Mountains on April 27 to open the long-awaited Medicine Lodge Cultural Experience.

The center, built with a grant from the Hemsley Charitable Trust, isn’t a museum or a visitor center. Its unique approach to communicating cultural history is evident from the first moment visitors enter.

“Welcome to this sacred site, referred to as Medicine Lodge, homes of people and cultures for more than 10,000 years,” a recorded voice says in the first stop of the Cultural Experience. Visitors stand in a 360-degree panoramic painting of the surrounding landscape.

“Much history is here, and the spiritual power is significant,” the voice continues. “It must be protected for future generations. While you are here, be present and have good intent.”

Beating drums herald visitors as they proceed through four seasons and thousands of years at Medicine Lodge. They are immersed in the sights and sounds of the site’s millennia of history, depicted through images rather than artifacts and words spoken by people rather than printed on signs.

“It’s an immersive experience,” said Brooks Jordan, district manager for the Bighorn District of Wyoming State Parks. “I think there may not be anything quite like this, not just in Wyoming, but even in the United States. It’s quite a unique experience.”

The Cultural Experience

The Medicine Lodge Cultural Experience was designed to expose people to an essential element of the archeological site that many people felt was missing.

While Medicine Lodge was already known for its extensive petroglyphs and campsites, attracting around 50,000 visitors a year, Wyoming State Parks and its partners wanted visitors to connect with its cultural significance, which is totally different from its archaeological importance.

“We have interpretation for the archeology, the elk management area, and the plants and wildlife,” said site superintendent Heather Jolley. “We were missing the cultural aspects of Medicine Lodge. The visitor experience doesn’t fill it, but it gives people a taste of it.”

The Cultural Experience broke ground in May 2021. Throughout the design process, Wyoming State Parks worked with historic preservation officers from the Eastern Shoshone, Northern Arapahoe, Northern Cheyenne and Crow tribes to ensure it successfully captured Medicine Lodge’s cultural significance.

Rather than relying on artifacts and interpretive signs, the Medicine Lodge Cultural Experience uses immersive environments and large video screens to tell the cultural stories of Medicine Lodge. Instead of dry facts recited by a narrator, visitors hear animals and ambient sounds while witnessing the lives of the indigenous people through their hunting, spiritual journeys and oral tradition.

“You go through seasons and different timeframes to get a taste of the indigenous culture from the past 10,000 years,” Jolley said. “That’s why we call it a cultural experience. It’s not a museum or a typical cultural center. “It’s something you’ve never experienced before.”

Follow The Drums

It exposes visitors to Medicine Lodge’s changing seasons through the lives and legends of its indigenous residents, and begins with the push of a button in the panoramic landscape, which is the only button needed for the fully automated experience.

“You will enter to the sound of the drum, which represents the heartbeat of Mother Earth,” the voiceover says. “Please enter and begin your experience of cultural discoveries.”

In the first room, visitors watch mammoths traverse the prehistoric landscape in spring while indigenous people live their lives and share the lessons they’ve learned from their environment. Visitors then follow the drums into summer, where families move through the land, and a young man experiencing his first vision quests adds another image to the wall at Medicine Lodge.

In the fall, Indigenous people gather food and lodgepole pines for shelter, then invite visitors to sit around the fire on a cold winter night to see the legends portrayed in the starry skies above, such as the three warriors who chased a monstrous bear into the sky to create the constellation Ursa Major.

The depictions of the seasons, created with a mix of real footage and CGI, also provide additional context to petroglyphs on the immense rock wall outside. The experience includes digital recreations of images etched onto the rock, incorporating them into the narrative to reveal their context and cultural significance.

Educating Ourselves About Ourselves

The final room showcases the struggles and successes of American Indians in the 21st century. People from the Eastern Shoshone, Crow and Northern Arapaho share testimonials on how their culture was nearly lost over centuries of persecution and indoctrination and how they continue to reclaim and preserve the legacy of their ancestors.

Ivan Posey, tribal education coordinator at Central Wyoming College in Riverton, was one of the historic preservation officers involved with creating the Cultural Experience. He was also featured in one of the five testimonials.

“We’re at the point now where we have to start educating ourselves about ourselves and retain that knowledge that we’ve had passed down to us over generations,” he said. “When older people move on, we lose a whole library of knowledge. A lot of ceremonial activities and cultural activities were outlawed in the early 1900s. I think we’re at the doorstep of gaining some of that stuff back.”

Beautiful And Satisfying

It took about 15 minutes to complete the Medicine Lodge Cultural Experience. When visitors stepped outside, the impact was evident.

“That made me cry,” one woman said at its conclusion. “It’s beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.”

Everyone involved in developing the Medicine Lodge Cultural Experience was thrilled to hear the reactions of its first visitors. After years of planning and development, the new experience seems to have the desired effect.

“It’s very satisfying to see this project come to life,” Jordan said. “After several years of intensive planning and execution, exhibit design and working with tribal elders and historic preservation officers to have this project come together. Very satisfying.”

John Laughlin, who’s worked with Wyoming State Parks and the Wyoming Department of Transportation, has advocated for Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site since he first camped there two decades ago. He’s since participated in archaeological digs at Medicine Lodge, helping to reveal more of the site’s history and significance.

He’s thrilled that a permanent exhibition now shares Medicine Lodge’s cultural story in a unique, immersive way.

“It’s really exciting that Wyoming State Parks is very supportive of this approach,” he said. “It’s different for the state park to have something like this. Most of the time, people are just out recreating. Now you get to understand the history of this area as well.”

The Medicine Lodge Cultural Experience will officially open to visitors later this spring. It will be accessible during the regular operating hours of Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site, 8 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday.

Andrew Rossi can be reached at [email protected].