National Museum of the American Indian

Communicating stories about a nation's shared past helps listeners think critically about the choices people made in the past and those we make today. National stories examine our mistakes through discourse and encourage listening and understanding across diverse communities. #Educators: Save the dates for our upcoming professional development series which introduces the new Native Knowledge 360° (NK360°) resource "The “First Thanksgiving”: How Can we Tell a Better Story?" Based on an inquiry design model, this resource helps teachers and students dispel misconceptions about the “First Thanksgiving” by examining the events through multiple perspectives, including those of the Wampanoag Nation, who have been largely excluded from this national story. Mark your calendars for Tuesdays, January 14, 21, 28, and February 4, 2025, 7–8:15 PM ET to join us online. This opportunity is FREE and registration is open for the full series here: https://s.si.edu/4frOKak Educators will receive a Certificate of Completion upon attendance and filling out the post-survey. #Thanksgiving #K12 #Teachers Image: Art by Timothy Truman; Colors by Michael Sheyahshe (Caddo). ©2023 The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian

"By making art, I try to clarify intuitive moments of time, truth, and place. My creative endeavors are how I acknowledge what I know to be true. It is the language I employ to define my place within the world."—Anita Fields \(Osage\) At first glance, these moccasins look ready to slip on, but they are actually made of clay. Anita Fields has been working with clay for 50 years. In addition to clay, she also works with textiles, and attributes her love of textile arts to learning how to sew from her grandmother at an early age. As an Osage ribbon worker, Fields was recognized as 2021 National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts. Much of Fields’ work draws on Osage culture and history, especially the Osage notions of duality, between earth and sky, and male and female. She’s also inspired by childhood memories, powerful stories, social issues, and everyday encounters. Fields writes, “I’m interested in how we adorn ourselves for certain purposes and the transformative experiences we are allowed by this process. These ideas are realized by the making of clay and textile articles of clothing such as dresses, moccasins and even purses. They are metaphors for how we see our place in the world and the influences of culture.” Hear more from Fields on her art practice with the@[ ARTiculated podcast from the Smithson](urn:li:organization:53883841)ian's Archives of American Art. https://s.si.edu/4iWo4k4 The title of this sculpture, “Begin With Your Right Foot” references instructions from Osage elders to their children as they dress themselves for the I'n-lon-schka dances in June. The instructions refer to living your life in balance. That seems like excellent advice on the eve of a new year, don’t you think? What are some New Year’s traditions in your family or community? Share with us in the comments. Thank you for making the National Museum of the American Indian part of your 2024, we look forward to seeing you in person or online in 2025! \_\_ Anita Fields \(Osage, b. 1951\), “Begin With Your Right Foot,” 2012. Sculpture: pottery, clay slip, paint, glaze. 6 x 9.4 x 23 cm. Museum purchase from the artist, 2014. 26/9329

With their eye-catching orange and black wings, monarch butterflies travel thousands of miles to winter homes. Indigenous peoples’ connections to the butterfly have existed for millennia. This artwork, "Monarch Nation," in the collection of our Smithsonian American Art Museum was created by Kevin and Valerie Pourier, Oglala Lakota husband-and-wife artists from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. They depicted monarch migration on a buffalo horn, a material with a deep ancestral and cultural connection—the name of the Lakota “Pte Oyate” translates as “buffalo people. Learn more: https://s.si.edu/41v6tJy The Purépecha people of northwestern Michoacán in Mexico called the butterfly “parákata,” or “the harvester,” because the arrival of its overwintering population coincided with the community’s annual harvest. Learn more from our National Museum of the American Indian: https://bit.ly/4gw9UUH Monarch butterflies are increasingly threatened but there are ways you can help by planting native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants in your backyard or balcony. Kevin Pourier, Valerie Pourier, "Monarch Nation," 2019, carved bison horn, inlaid orange sandstone, white mother of pearl

Are you a community researcher, scholar, or artist in need of access to a world-class collection of Native American arts and related staff and resources to support your work? Apply now for one of our recently established fellowship programs! The second annual application cycle for the museum's Native American Collections Fellowship and Native Arts Fellowship is open now through January 31, 2025. These programs support community researchers, scholars, and artists to pursue research projects that utilize the collections and resources of the National Museum of the American Indian. For more details, please visit https://s.si.edu/4bYeRnP. Interested applicants can attend a free info session to learn about the fellowship and application process. Native Arts Fellowship December 18, 3-4 PM Register: https://s.si.edu/3BlYuUy Native American Collections Fellowship December 19, 1-2 PM Register: https://s.si.edu/4g4RqLk #Fellowships #Smithsonian #NativeArts #MuseumCollections #Research #Artists

Get to know Apsáalooke artist Wendy Red Star’s “1880 Crow Peace Delegation” series of annotated portraits in our collection.

How do national stories like the one we share about "that meal at Plymouth a long, long time ago" shape our understanding of history and the present? Learning stories that include multiple sources provide fuller, richer pictures of shared history so that we can be better listeners and make better choices in the present and future. This animated clip comes from a longer video about the concept of national stories included in "The “First Thanksgiving”: How Can We Tell a Better Story?" a new resource from our education initiative Native Knowledge 360° (NK360°). Based on an inquiry design model, this resource helps teachers and students dispel misconceptions about the “First Thanksgiving” by examining the events through multiple perspectives, including those of the Wampanoag Nation, who have been largely excluded from this national story. If you're an educator, you can register now for a FREE four-part series of professional development webinars coming up in early 2025. Find the full video, learn more, and register on NK360°. https://lnkd.in/e_2BFkuF __ Video produced by Baker and Hill for the National Museum of the American Indian and featured in the inquiry resource, The “First Thanksgiving”: How Can We Tell a Better Story?" #Thanksgiving #NationalStories #NK360 #Education

#ICYMI: Our celebration of the year’s best in Native film is back and you can stream more than 30 films right now from home! Grab a friend and the popcorn and tell us what you’re watching in the comments! https://lnkd.in/esJxvgUy

Happening tonight, Wed., Nov. 20, 7-8 PM: "Complexities and Contradictions: Treaty-Making Between the U.S. and Native American Nations in the Early Republic," registration required. https://s.si.edu/3Z60PfB Join a virtual conversation with National Museum of American Diplomacy Historian Dr. Alison Mann and Michelle Anne Delaney, PhD, Acting Assoc. Dir. for Museum Research and Scholarship, National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). This conversation will explore the complex negotiation processes, cultural dynamics, and the broader historical contexts that shaped these treaties and their legacies, which include forced removal of a majority of Cherokees from their lands. The aim is for attendees to leave with a deeper understanding of early American diplomacy and its lasting impact on Native American communities. #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #Diplomacy

COMING SOON: In just one week, you can stream some of the year's best in Indigenous film from the comfort of home, all for FREE! Our Native Cinema Showcase Online kicks off next Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, 12:01 AM ET through Friday, Nov. 29, 2024, 11:59 PM ET. Don't forget to save the dates and share with friends! The museum's Native Cinema Showcase is an annual celebration of the best in Native film. In honor of the museum’s twentieth anniversary in Washington, DC, the theme of looking back and moving forward is highlighted in films that explore the challenges still confronting Indigenous peoples on disparate fronts, including sports, missing and murdered Indigenous women, intergenerational trauma, and rematriation of the land with buffalo. Learn more about the 33 films (25 shorts, eight features) representing 25 Native nations in eight countries: U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Finland films included in the showcase on our site: https://lnkd.in/gPQtJewd #NativeCinemaShowcase #IndigenousFilm #SmithsonianNAHM

"Through acts of creation, nurturing, leadership, love, and protection carried out in infinite forms, our grandmothers, aunties, sisters, cousins, nieces, and friends collectively care for our communities. As a suite, these works speak to the importance of kinship roles and tribal structures that emphasize the necessity of extended family, tribal and communal ties as meaningful and significant relationships necessary for the rearing of healthy and happy individuals and communities."—Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) Over the course of a year, Dyani White Hawk collaborated with Master Printer Cole Rogers and the staff at Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis, Minnesota to create “Takes Care of Them.” Many layers of ink were applied to suggest the yokes of dentalium shells as well as the textures of felted wool cloth, satin ribbons, cowrie shells and other materials traditionally used to make these Plains style women’s dresses. Metallic foil accents were then individually added by hand. Each print is individually named for a quality that embodies the ways women care for our families and communities: “Wówahokuŋkiya | Lead,” “Wókaǧe | Create,” “Nakíčižiŋ | Protect” and “Wačháŋtognaka | Nurture.” The suite also reflects the practice of requesting four veterans to stand guard at the cardinal directions during certain ceremonies. White Hawk says, “This list is simply a starting point, an acknowledgement and gesture of gratitude for the many women in my life that have helped Create, Nurture, Protect, and Lead in ways that have taught me what it means to be a good relative.” The suite of "Takes Care of Them" prints, one of the few full sets in a museum collection, is currently on view on Level 3 at our Washington, DC location. Learn more: https://s.si.edu/3oJMdD3 This Veterans Day, and every day, we honor the service and sacrifice of Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Alaska Natives that have served in every branch of the United States military. The National Native American Veterans Memorial on the grounds of our Washington, DC museum offers a space for veterans and their families to commemorate those who served. __ “Takes Care of Them,” Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota), 2019; suite of four screen prints; ink and metal foil on paper; 55.5” x 32”. 27/636 #VeteransDay #SmithsonianNAHM #NativeVeterans