Hi, this is Nate DeMoeau with Memory Palace Podcast. I was the artist and

residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for 2016-2017,

during which I produced eight stories inspired by the museum in its collection.

The sculpture is referenced in this episode's title can be found in Gallery

759 in the American Wing. Images of them can be found in the show notes in your

podcast app. This is The Memory Palace from Nate DeMoeau.

How are you supposed to tell just by looking at them?

Two small sculptures, each less than a foot high, a man and a woman, a paired set,

white marble on a gray shelf. It's easy to miss here in this gallery as they

would be on the mantle of a wealthy widow's parlor, darkened in the daylight by

drawn curtains. How are you supposed to tell that they are much of anything?

They are Native American, the man and the woman. But take away the feathers and

the beads and I'm not sure you could tell they weren't just a couple of old

Greeks or some Roman nobles. But they are high a watha and mini-ha-ha, though

you couldn't be expected to know. You probably would have in an instant back when

these sculptures were made in 1868 or so. Here were the two star cross lovers

from the song of high a watha. Of course they were. Everyone knew Longfellow's poem.

It was the best seller for decades. Generations and generations of school kids

recited in class once and it made Longfellow immortal.

During him and his high a watha and mini-ha, eternal fame for a while there.

And it gave a new nation a kind of founding myth in its tale of noble

savages living in harmony with nature who slipped off into the mists of

...