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Exhibits and Collections

Dancers in front of Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery for Dia de los Muertos festival.

Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains

Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains celebrates the full expression of narrative art among Native nations of the Great Plains. The exhibition juxtaposes historical hides, muslins, and ledger books with more than 50 contemporary works commissioned by the museum. Illustrating everything from war deeds and ceremonial events to family life, Native identity, and pop culture, the artworks are as diverse as the individuals who created them.

Image Credit: Lauren Good Day (Arikara/Hidatsa/Blackfeet/Plains Cree, b. 1987). A Warrior’s Story, Honoring Grandpa Blue Bird, 2012. Muslin, dyed wool fabric, pigments, brass sequins, brass bells, satin ribbon, cotton thread, acrylic sinew; 151 x 141.6 x 2.5 cm. Purchase supported by the R. Devon Hutchins Memorial

Past Highlights

Screen print of American Indian, in elaborate costume, dancing.

Free to Use and Reuse: Native American Heritage

Image Credit: Crumbo, Woody, Artist. Eagle dancerleft / Crumbo. , ca. 1952. Photograph. Library of Congress

Contemporary Art of Steven Yazzie a person orchestrating with a blooming desert in the background

The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans

Image credit: Children wearing typical dresses for Ecuadorian National Day. 103-14 Roosevelt Ave., Corona Plaza, Queens. Camilo Jose Vergara 2021. Camilo José Vergara's photographs are protected by copyright. Privacy and publicity rights may also apply.

Oil painting of a Native American sitting on a rock looking out towards the ocean with a rifle on his lap.

Robert Houle: Red Is Beautiful

Image credit: Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Exhibits and Collections

1492: An Ongoing Voyage American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920 Ancestral Voices Atlantic World (The): America and the Netherlands Chronicling America – Digitized Native American Newspapers Dawes Act – Digitized Newspaper Resources Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942 Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America Project France in America The Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Papers Hugh Lenox Scott papers, 1582-1981 (Kiowa Collection) Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784-1894, United States Serial Set, Number 4015 Indian language collection, 1595-1833 Indians of North America (World Digital Library) Indigenous Law Web Archive Living Nations, Living Words Margaret Mead Papers and the South Pacific Ethnographic Archives Montana Folklife Survey Collection Native American Constitutions and Legal Materials Native American Education/Indian Schools – Digitized Newspaper Resources Native American Land Acknowledgment Jim Thorpe (athlete) – Digitized Newspaper Resources Omaha Indian Music Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America Rhode Island Folklife Project Collection Virginia H Mathews papers, 1897-1991 Wounded Knee – Digitized Newspaper Resources

Today in History

Veterans History Project

Resource Guides & Collection Overviews

Abbe Museum Mukurtu Site from Abbe Museum The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages (California Language Archive) The Comparative Mission Archaeological Portal from University of Florida Digital Archive of Huhugam Archaeology DAHA from Arizona State University Documenting Endangered Languages Program The Gasuet Orleans Road from Humboldt State University Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project from University of Nebraska Guide to the Indigenous Material at the American Philisophical Society, from the American Philosophical Society Healing the Warrior's Heart In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now Laura Gilpin's Artist Photography from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art Local Contexts 2.0: Implementing Traditional Knowledge Labels Manuscripts Relating to Samson Occom and Eleazar Wheelock’s Early Indian Students Mukurtu Midwest from Wisconsin Library Services Muskogee (Seminole/Creek) Documentation Project (partially funded by NEH grants)

Native Voices

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