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National Museum of Natural History

A gray and white bird perches among leafy branches

Celebrate Black Birders Week and More Natural History Programs This May

Tune into programs about ancient mummies, resilient coral and the evolution of skin tone

Joshua Bell is the curator of globalization at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. He is working on a new exhibit about the global history of cellphones. (Smithsonian)

Meet the Scientist Studying How Cellphones Change Societies

In this month's "Meet a SI-entist," we will introduce you to the scientist studying the global history of cellphones.

The Chaco Canyon chocolate-drinking jars have a distinct shape, with connections to similarly shaped Mayan vessels. After testing distinguishable jar fragments from an excavated trash pile in in the canyon, archaeologists determined all of the drinking jars were used to consume cacao. (A336494, A336499, A336493, James Di Loreto, Smithsonian)

What Chocolate-Drinking Jars Tell Indigenous Potters Now

These chocolate-drinking jars are living proof of a dynamic pottery-making tradition that continues in descendant tribes of the Chaco Canyon Puebloans today.

“Vai” is one of more than 20 films celebrating language and cultural diversity at the Smithsonian’s fifth annual Mother Tongue Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of MPI Media)

See Indigenous Films at the Mother Tongue Film Festival

Don't miss these films at the Smithsonian's fifth annual Mother Tongue Film Festival.

Sgaawaay K’uuna is one of more than 20 films celebrating language diversity that will be screened at the Smithsonian's Mother Tongue Film Festival. (Still from Sgaawaay K’uuna (Edge of the Knife))

Don’t Miss These Award-Winning Films at the Mother Tongue Film Festival

Celebrate language diversity at the Smithsonian's Mother Tongue Film Festival.

A new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian highlights the ways in which American Indians have been part of the nation’s identity since before the country began. (Ernest Amoroso, Smithsonian)

New Exhibit Reveals Indians Everywhere...Except in Your Textbooks

Gwyneira Isaac, the National Museum of Natural History's Curator of North American Ethnology, reviews the newest exhibit on display at the National Museum of the American Indian.

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