Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

Various cobs of multicolored corn.

How Seeds Tell Stories

In the past century, there has been a seventy-five percent decline in agricultural biodiversity. When we fail to prioritize biodiversity, we risk erasing cultural diversity as well.

Carolyn Smith collecting beargrass in Klamath National Forest, 2015. For beargrass to be supple enough for weavers to use in their baskets, it needs to be burned annually. Ideally, it is burned in an intentionally set cultural fire, where only the tops are burned, leaving the roots intact. Prescribed fires in the Klamath National Forest are few and far between, so weavers “follow the smoke” and gather, when they can, after wildfires sweep through the landscape. (Photo courtesy of Carolyn Smith)

How Indigenous Ecological Knowledge Offers Solutions to California’s Wildfires

The Indianola dock stretches out into the Puget Sound. Since time immemorial, the Suquamish Tribe has sourced their sustenance, folklore, and community from the salt waters and pebbly beaches of the sound. Photo by Julian White-Davis

The Struggle for Native Lands in Indianola, Washington

From Insects, their way and means of living. Artwork by R. E. Snodgrass

Cicada Folklore, or Why We Don’t Mind Billions of Burrowing Bugs at Once

Master basket weaver Arthur Petrosyan sits and works on a project. (Photo by Narek Harutyunyan, My Armenia Program)

Travel the Sweetest Route through Vayots Dzor and Syunik, Armenia

Sasun, a local guide, takes in the view of Mount Ughtasar. (My Armenia Program)

See Armenia Through the Eyes of a Local Guide

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