Smithsonian Magazine: December 2005
Features
Iraq's Resilient Minority
Shaped by persecution, tribal strife and an unforgiving landscape, Iraq's Kurds have put their dream of independence on hold-for now
By Andrew Cockburn
The Evolution of Charles Darwin
A creationist when he visited the Galápagos Islands, the great naturalist grasped the full significance of the unique wildlife he found there only well after he had returned to London
By Frank J. Sulloway
Airborne Archaeology
The view from above can yield insights on the ground
By Andrew Curry
West African Gold: Out of the Ordinary
The inventive goldwork and royal regalia of Ghana's Akan people on display in a new exhibition are drawn, strikingly, from daily life
By Doug Stewart
Native Intelligence
The Indians who first feasted with the English colonists were far more sophisticated than you were taught in school. But that wasn't enough to save them
By Charles C. Mann
Helen Gurley Brown, the World Trade Center and Nobel Prizes...
A look back at the world in Smithsonian Magazine's first year
By Mimi Kirk
The Grand Union flag, free at last, and lighting up Broadway...
December anniversariesmomentous or merely memorable
By Chai Woodham
Departments
Indelible Images
The Big Picture
A well-planned single image yells the story of 20th-century transportation
By Christine Dell'Amore
Phenomena & Curiosities
Return of the Jaguar?
Novel camera traps have documented the elusive cat in Arizona, suggesting it may not be gone from the United States after all
By Will Rizzo
The Object at Hand
Christmas Cards
When orbiting pranksters Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford launched into "Jingle Bells," Mission Control almost lost control
By Owen Edwards
Points of Interest
By Design
Over the past half-century the small town of Columbus, Indiana, has turned itself into a showplace of modern architecture
By Clay Risen
Editor's Note
Natural Selection
In Darwin's Galápagos Islands, evolution is on display
By Carey Winfrey
From the Secretary
A Whale Called Phoenix
A very large mammal will help tell an even weightier taleabout the ocean in this crowded, challenging century
By Lawrence M. Small, Secretary
Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark: The Journey Ends
The triumphant return of the Lewis and Clark expedition
By Smithsonian magazine
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