The competition to design the National Native American Veterans Memorial received more than 120 submissions, from artists across the world. Five concepts were unanimously chosen as finalists by a jury of Native and non-Native artists, designers, and scholars. Today, the designers shared their concept drawings for the memorial and the ideas and experiences that shaped them.
Images of American Indians are embedded in Americans' everyday lives and have been since before the American Revolution. What other nation in the world is so fascinated by one segment of its society? And what can we learn about ourselves and our history by thinking about why? One of the curators of the "Americans," opening January 18 at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., gives a brief introduction to a few of the ideas behind the major new exhibition.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the December solstice is the year’s day of least sunlight, when the sun takes its lowest, shortest path across the sky. North of the Arctic Circle, it is the midpoint of the period of darkness, when even twilight doesn’t reach the horizon. We asked a few of our Native friends to share traditions they’ve heard about the winter solstice. Their answers highlight winter as a time for storytelling.
Captain Jefferson Keel (U.S. Army retired), Lieutenant Governor of the Chickasaw Nation and co-chairman of the National Native American Veterans Memorial Advisory Committee, talks about his experiences in the U.S. military. The design competition for the memorial begins November 11, 2017. Entries will be accepted through January 9, 2018. Information about the competition is available at https://nmai.us.fluidreview.com/.
Specialist Allen Kale‘iolani Hoe (U.S. Army retired), a member of the National Native American Veterans Memorial Advisory Committee, talks about his experiences as a Native Hawaiian in the U.S. military and his belief in the importance of national service. The design competition for the memorial begins November 11, 2017. Entries will be accepted through January 9, 2018.
Every month, the Washington museum’s imagiNATIONS Activity Center staff highlights a different book during the Story & Discovery program. These books, written by Native American authors or in consultation with Native communities, showcase the diversity of Native cultures throughout the Western Hemisphere. Here are six of the staff's favorites, appropriate for children age 5 to 7. Learning about other people's experiences breaks down stereotypes, and thinking critically about the characters and illustrations in these books is a great way to help young readers develop empathy and cultural sensitivity skills.
In May 2018, when the museum in New York opens its new imagiNATIONS Activity Center (iAC), one highlight will be a traditional Yup’ik kayak frame—15 feet of historically correct white spruce driftwood—made at the Qayanek Qayak Preservation Center in Kwigillingok, Alaska. The New York iAC will offer young museum-goers hands-on experiences that make vivid the origins and outcomes of Native innovation, including the genius of kayak-building.
The Thanksgiving story deeply rooted in America’s school curriculum frames the Pilgrims as the main characters and reduces the Wampanoag Indians to supporting roles. It also erases a monumentally sad history. The true history of Thanksgiving begins with the Indians.
Master Sergeant and Lipan Apache War Chief Chuck Boers (U.S. Army retired), a member of the National Native American Veterans Memorial Advisory Committee, talks about his experiences as a Native American in the U.S. military and the traditions that inspired his service. The design competition for the memorial begins November 11, 2017. Entries will be accepted through January 9, 2018. All information about the competition is available at https://nmai.si.edu/nnavm/memorial/.
Signs nailed to a mile-marker at the DAPL protest show how far people came and from how many places to stand up for treaty rights and the right of Native Nations to be consulted as governments. Now the final section of the exhibition "Nation to Nation" at the National Museum of the American Indian, the mile-marker stands as a powerful symbol of the fact that American Indian treaties remain U.S. law, and that their stories are not finished. It also serves as a symbol of modern resistance.
In 1809, nearly 1,400 Potawatomi, Delaware, Miami, and Eel River Indians and their allies witnessed the Treaty of Fort Wayne, ceding 2.5 million acres of tribal lands in present-day Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio in exchange for a peace that did not last. This September, representatives of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi saw the treaty go on view at the National Museum of the American Indian. “It is an honor to come full circle to an article that our ancestors signed,” Tribal Chairman John P. Warren said. “I hope we are fulfilling their hopes and dreams by being here.”
As summer turns to fall, wonderful exhibitions in New York City and Washington, D.C., feature works by Inuit women from the acclaimed artists' community of Kinngait, or Cape Dorset, on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center in New York currently hosts "Akunnittinni: A Kinngait Family Portrait," featuring works by Pitseolak Ashoona and her daughter and granddaughter. The Embassy of Canada in the United States is presenting the one-artist show "Ningiukulu Teevee: Kinngait Stories."
Suspension bridges, which connected Andean peoples who had previously been isolated from one another, were essential to the organization and administration of the Inka Empire and played a crucial role in the social history of the region into the 20th century. No wonder neighboring communities take pride in getting together each year to rebuild the last Inka bridge.
Award-winning singer Spencer Battiest (Seminole Tribe of Florida/Choctaw) is a third- or fourth-generation musician, but his cultural roots go even deeper. “I’ve always had close ties with my tribe since I was young,” Spencer explains. “As I push forward in my career and see how far I can go, I always carry my tribe with me.” Battiest’s reverence for his heritage is palpable in his work. His music videos have Native directors, actors, tech hands, and producers. “I love doing business with other Natives. That’s always been my thing.”
From our museum in New York: Native designers, artists, and entrepreneurs who are making their mark on fashion take a day off to work with young people hoping to become a part of that world. Some pointers? Communicate, collaborate, and support each other. Expect creative fields to be an ongoing struggle—keep working! And remember, perfection is not the goal.
The Indian Removal Act, signed by Andrew Jackson in 1830, became for American Indians one of the most detrimental laws in U.S. history. Nation to Nation looks at Removal’s historic and legal repercussions for the tribes. The upcoming exhibition Americans, opening in the fall, will ask us to think about what we, as a nation, have chosen to know and not know about the Trail of Tears.
Indians are everywhere in American national and pop culture, and have been for centuries. Why is that? Americans, opening in the fall, explores Americans’ and American Indians’ entangled history, revealed by the events that have shaped our national consciousness and by the imagery of American Indians all around us in our everyday lives.
Autumn White Eyes (enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, Turtle Mountain Anishinaabe, Northern Cheyenne, and Pawnee descent) talks about writing, revision, and the evolution of her work. She sees poetry and spoken word as forms of oral tradition and storytelling: "I was lucky to grow up with my great grandmothers," she says, "and I loved hearing them tell stories, which always sounded like poetry to me." Their stories are one source of her inspiration; others include the writing and performance styles of John Trudell, Mayda del Valle, Tanaya Winder, Supaman.
The broad strokes of Pocahontas’s biography are well known—unusually so for a 17th-century Indigenous woman. Yet her life has long been shrouded by misunderstandings and misinformation, and by the seemingly inexhaustible output of kitsch representations of her supposed likeness. The conference "Pocahontas and After," organized by the University of London and the British Library, sought a deeper understanding of Pocahontas's life and the lasting impact of the clash of empires that took place in the heart of the Powhatan Confederacy during the 17th-century.
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