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National Museum of the American Indian

Niuam (Comanche) peyote fan, ca. 1890. Oklahoma. 22/9197 (Ernest Amoroso, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian)

Native Perspectives on the 40th Anniversary of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Forty years ago, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act finally finally extended that right to the country's Native citizens. Here Native Americans who observe traditional ways talk about religious freedom.

Alaska Army National Guard Col. Wayne Don, then 38th Troop Command commander, pledges the Oath of Office, administered by Alaska Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Joseph Streff, Alaska Army National Guard commander, after Don was promoted to full colonel. Dena'ina Center, Anchorage, July 14, 2017. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Bedard)

A Tradition of Service: Colonel Wayne Don

Col. Wayne Don, a citizen of the Cupig and Yupik tribes, talks about his service in the Regular Army and the Alaska Army National Guard. Col. Don, who has been deployed to Bosnia, Afghanistan, and other overseas posts, is a member of the Advisory Committee helping to build the National Native American Veterans Memorial on the grounds of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Haudenosaunee bear effigy pipe, 17th c. Cayuga Lake, New York. 22/3765 (Ernest Amoroso, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian)

"Words Spoken Before All Others," the Ohenten Kariwatekwen or Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address

When the museum asked Native Americans if their families celebrate Thanksgiving, a friend from the Crow Agency in Montana spoke for many Native people when she told us, "My Dad used to say, 'We give thanks everyday. . . .' " The Ohenten Kariwatekwen is often called the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, but translated directly the name refers to "words spoken before all others." The Haudenosaunee nations—the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora—traditionally open and close every important gathering with a version of these thanks.

Petty Officer S. Joe Crittenden (U.S. Navy retired), deputy principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and a member of the advisory committee to the National Native American Veterans Memorial. (Photo by Jeremy Charles, courtesy of the Cherokee Nation)

A Tradition of Service: Navy Veteran S. Joe Crittenden, Deputy Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

S. Joe Crittenden, deputy principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, talks briefly about his service in the U.S. Navy in the mid-1960s and what it has meant to his life. Five years ago, Deputy Chief Crittenden testified in support of the Act of Congress creating the National Native American Veterans Memorial. Now he is a member of the advisory committee seeing the memorial through to its dedication in 2020.

Ramey Growing Thunder (Fort Peck Sioux and Assiniboine Tribes), Chief John Spotted Tail (Rosebud Sioux Tribe), Carolyn Brugh (Fort Peck Sioux and Assiniboine Tribes), and Tamara Stands and Looks Back–Spotted Tail (Rosebud Sioux Tribe) take part in a ceremony at the National Museum of the American Indian honoring the Treaty of Fort Laramie. Ms. Growing Thunder holds a photograph of Medicine Bear (Yanktonai Band of Sioux), one of the Native leaders who signed the treaty 150 years ago. Delegations from the Yankton Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe, and Northern Arapaho Tribe also traveled to Washington, D.C., for the installation of the treaty in the exhibition

The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, Never Honored by the United States, Goes on Public View

On October 26, delegations from the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Yankton Sioux Tribe, and Northern Arapaho Tribe traveled to Washington, D.C., to see the Treaty of Fort Laramie installed at the National Museum of the American Indian. Signed in 1868, the treaty was broken less than ten years later when the United States seized the sacred Black Hills. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the United States had acted in bad faith, but the issue remains unresolved.

Designer, artist, activist, and organizer Jordan Cocker. (Tekpatl Kuauhtzin)

"To Indigenize the Western World"—Artist and Organizer Jordan Cocker

Jordan Cocker describes herself as “Indigenous in two ways—as Native American from the Southern Plains, K’gou màyí, a Kiowa woman; and as Pasifika, a Tongan woman.” Thinking of herself “in halves,” however, doesn't reflect her lived experience. “The years spent on and between my two ancestral territories,” she says, “braided together my two lines in a good way. Everything is about the ancestors—who they are by name, what they did, where they went, and the legacy that they created and passed down to me. My ancestors on both sides of my family survived colonization, boarding school, and so many other types of trauma so that I can live in a good way.” The museum’s Dennis Zotigh interviews Jordan for Asian American Pacific Heritage Month.

Manitok Thompson, Veronica Connelly, Rosie Kowna Oolooyuk, and Bernadette Dean at the National Museum of the American Indian's Cultural Resources Center. The four women—skilled caribou and sealskin clothing makers, and fluent Inuktitut-speakers and knowledge keepers—traveled to Washington from Nunavut as guests of the Embassy of Canada to attend the opening of the embassy's exhibition

Inuit Women's Survival Skills, Which Kept Arctic Explorers Alive, Help Heal Residential School Survivors

This May the National Museum of the American Indian was privileged to host four remarkable Inuit women from Nunavut who were in Washington as guests of the Embassy of Canada to attend the opening of the exhibition "Captain George Comer and the Inuit of Hudson Bay." At a related symposium, Bernadette Dean, Rosie Kowna Oolooyuk, Manitok Thompson, and Veronica Connelly spoke of the knowledge of land, ocean, ice, sky, and animal behavior their people shared with George Comer, a whaler who wintered over at Cape Fullerton 14 times in the early 1900s. They also described the knowledge Inuit women needed to make life-saving caribou and sealskin clothing. Now they're concerned with passing that knowledge on, to help museums conserve Inuit collections and to help Inuit women heal from the deep-rooted scars left from attending Indian Residential Schools.

Delaware leaders prepare to unveil the Treaty of Fort Pitt, on view at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. From left to right: Denise Stonefish, chief of the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown; museum director Kevin Gover; Chester “Chet’ Brooks, chief of the Delaware Tribe of Indians; and Deborah Dotson, president of the Delaware Nation. May 10, 2018, Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi/AP Images for the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian)

A Brief Balance of Power—The 1778 Treaty with the Delaware Nation

The Treaty with the Delaware Nation, signed at Fort Pitt in September 1778, represents a time when the newly independent United States needed American Indian allies to drive British troops from forts and outposts west of the Appalachian Mountains. Despite the treaty's provisions, however, conflict continued in the Ohio Territory, leading the Delaware people to look for safer lands farther north and west. This month, delegations from the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown, in southern Ontario; the Delaware Tribe of Indians, in northeastern, Oklahoma; and the Delaware Nation, in central Oklahoma, came to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., to see the Treaty of Fort Pitt placed on exhibit and to honor their forebears, who made their marks to secure the future of their people.

Lyricist, musician, and dancer Christian Parrish Takes The Gun, aka Supaman. (Matika WIlbur)

"To Reach More, Serve More, Inspire More, and Just Live More"—Hip Hop Artist Supaman

Christian Parrish Takes The Gun (Apsáalooke Nation), who performs as Supaman, has won a Nammy (Native American Music Award), an Aboriginal Peoples Music Choice Award, and the 2017 MTV Video Music Award for "Best Fight Against the System"—the last as part of the group of Native and non-Native musicians who recorded "Stand Up/Stand N Rock." What motivates him, however, isn't recognition but spirituality, Native culture and values, the people he meets on the road, and the chance to make a difference in the world.

Jazz performer and composer Delbert Anderson (Navajo). (Shutterfreek Photography)

"The Swing of the Navajo Heartbeat and the Improvisation of Navajo Chants"—Musician Delbert Anderson

In celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month, the museum talks with musician Delbert Anderson. The sources of Anderson's always-evolving art are eclectic, ranging from jazz standards and improvisation, to Navajo spinning songs and the traditional melodies his grandfather hums, the scenery of the Navajo Nation, and the historic experience of both Native and African American people. “Most of the time I explain the Delbert Anderson Trio’s music as traditional Native American jazz—fusing ancient Navajo cultural music with the hard swing and funk of the jazz masters,” Anderson says. “But I’d rather just call it music.”

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