The American Museum of Natural History has added explanatory labels to a long-exhibited diorama of a negotiation between an Indigenous tribe and European settlers, which critique the imagined scene for its historical falsities and erasure of colonial violence. The addition comes after decades of agitation from activist groups and presents a way forward for museums to create teachable moments from inequitable dynamics.

“Lauri Halderman, the museum’s vice president for exhibition, said, ‘We could have just covered it over.’ Instead, museum officials decided on a more transparent approach. ‘What was actually more interesting was not to make it go away,’ Ms. Halderman continued, ‘but to acknowledge that it was problematic.'”