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American Indian Museum

Q'eswachaka suspension bridge. Q'eswachaka, Apurímac River, Canas Province, Cusco, Peru.

Urban Explorations

A Dozen Indigenous Craftsman From Peru Will Weave Grass into a 60-Foot Suspension Bridge in Washington, D.C.

The ancient technology used lightweight materials to create soaring 150-foot spans that could hold the weight of a marching army

An example of a pot used by the ancient Maya

Chocolate Week

What We Know About the Earliest History of Chocolate

We’ve learned things that could help today’s artisan chocolatiers improve their trade

From the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

There Are 120 Years of Lakota History on This Calendar

The visual recording of life in the nation sheds light on a vanished culture

Raymond C. Yazzie, 2012. Coral, Lone Mountain and Orvil Jack turquoise, opal, sugilite, 14-karat gold. Collection of Janice Moody.

Why is Turquoise Becoming Rarer and More Valuable Than Diamonds?

With depleting mines, turquoise, the most sacred stone to the Navajo, has become increasingly rare.

Illustration found in Die Totentänze (Stammler,1922)

Halloween

This Halloween, Spend a Ghoulish Night (or Day) at the Smithsonian

Whether actual or virtual, D.C. or NYC, there’s plenty of scary stuff to go around at the Institution

"We are limited to one vessel, with nowhere else to go."

Anthropocene

A New Way for Stewardship of Mother Earth: Indigeneity

Smithsonian geographer Doug Herman proposes a return to sustainable solutions, based on the path laid by Indigenous peoples for millennia

Master navigator Mau Piailug teaches navigation to his son and grandson with the help of a star compass.

How the Voyage of the Kon-Tiki Misled the World About Navigating the Pacific

Smithsonian geographer Doug Herman explains the traditional science of traversing the ocean seas

Chippewa men performing in an annual powwow held near Cass Lake, Minnesota.

Cool Finds

An American Tribe Wants a German Museum to Return Native American Scalps

The German Museums Association says that scalps are not subject to the same ethical guidelines that govern other human remains

Hokule'a departs on 4-year worldwide voyage from Honolulu in May 2014.

For Four Years, This Polynesian Canoe Will Sail Around the World Raising Awareness of Global Climate Change

A Smithsonian curator chronicles the genesis of the project that hearkens back to when ancient navigators traveled the oceans

From the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

There’s a 1,200-year-old Phone in the Smithsonian Collections

One of the earliest examples of ingenuity in the Western Hemisphere is composed of gourds and twine

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Q & A with Governor and Children’s Book Author Frank Keating

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Q & A: Ottawa/Ojibwe Basket-Weaver Kelly Church

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Q & A: Caddo Potter Jereldine Redcorn

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Q&A: Comic Artist Jolene Nenibah Yazzie

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What’s Up at the Smithsonian This Week 11/10-16

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Beading the Way

How Joyce Growing Thunder Fogarty created one of the centerpieces for the National Museum of American Indian’s “Identity by Design” exhibition

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Sculpting Her Vision

A photo gallery of Nora Naranjo-Morse’s inspiring outdoor designs

A late-19th-century sled fashioned from eight buffalo ribs—as simple, utilitarian and elegant as a Shaker chair—was made by members of South Dakota’s Lakota Sioux tribe.

Was a Native American Actress the Inspiration for the Enigmatic Sled in ‘Citizen Kane’?

A sled in the Smithsonian collections just might provide a clue to Hollywood’s most celebrated symbol

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Natural Harmony

The new National Museum of the American Indian is a proud expression of Native American beliefs

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