The contribution focuses on two regional Mexican museums, which are dedicated to the regional history of indigenous societies: el museo yaqui/Yaqui museum in Sonora and the Museo de la guerra de castas/Museum of the Caste War in Quintana Roo. Both museums have been founded within a national "cultural wave" in the 1990-ies, seeking a modern representation of indigenous history, aligned in accordance to international museum standards, but also embedded in the surrounding indigenous communities. Embeddedness means a close cooperation with the local village population which in both cases was a major actor in the founding moment, because both arose out of civil society movements. However, the major financial supporters until today are state institutions which demand a specific cultural display pattern, following cultural politics of the national state. Additionally, each museum is committed to its educational function which is challenged in a further dimension, since more and more visitors are foreigners (due to the rising tourism industry in the respective regions). Thus, different interest groups interact and influence the memory and cultural work of the museum and the museum is indebted to them. The contribution examines, how both museums as agents 'move' between the different expectancies and, on their own, create and issue a transnational dialogue on regionally focused indigenous memoryscapes, which does have repercussions in the way how those indigenous communities perform their collective memories.
