How We Know
The museum exposes not only conclusions, but also the evidence systems, uncertainties, disagreements, corrections, and limits behind them.
Written history
Production interpretation must identify source type, provenance, limitations, curator state, and what the material can and cannot establish.
Oral history
Production interpretation must identify source type, provenance, limitations, curator state, and what the material can and cannot establish.
Archaeology
Production interpretation must identify source type, provenance, limitations, curator state, and what the material can and cannot establish.
Maps
Production interpretation must identify source type, provenance, limitations, curator state, and what the material can and cannot establish.
Colonial records
Production interpretation must identify source type, provenance, limitations, curator state, and what the material can and cannot establish.
Family archives
Production interpretation must identify source type, provenance, limitations, curator state, and what the material can and cannot establish.
Newspaper archives
Production interpretation must identify source type, provenance, limitations, curator state, and what the material can and cannot establish.
Museum objects
Production interpretation must identify source type, provenance, limitations, curator state, and what the material can and cannot establish.
Linguistic evidence
Production interpretation must identify source type, provenance, limitations, curator state, and what the material can and cannot establish.
Comparative cultural analysis
Production interpretation must identify source type, provenance, limitations, curator state, and what the material can and cannot establish.
Evidence classes
What does not count as proof?
Visual resemblance alone, repeated internet claims, unsourced family trees, attractive reconstructions, and a single uncontextualized colonial statement do not automatically establish ancestry, chronology, route geometry, or cultural transmission.