C.Maxx Stevens: House of Memory

Now - June 16, 2013
2nd Floor, East Gallery

C.Maxx Stevens (Seminole/Muscogee) is a visual storyteller whose deeply personal, eclectic constructions tell stories about places and people from her past. Working with “found objects” and such  ephemeral materials as paper, wood, and hair, she creates art that has a dark, gritty quality that is both haunting and familiar. The 19 works selected for this solo exhibition -- sculpture, installation, and prints --  illustrate the complexities of the contemporary Native experience and address memory through cultural and personal symbols.

Circle of Dance

Now - October 8, 2017
1st Floor, Diker Pavilion for Native Arts & Cultures

Music and dance have always been essential to the spiritual, cultural, and social lives of Native people, and unique forms of ritual, ceremonial, and social dancing remain a vital part of contemporary community life. Featuring 10 social and ceremonial dances from throughout the Americas, this exhibition illuminates the significance of each dance and highlights the unique characteristics of its movements and music. Each dance is represented by a single mannequin, dressed in appropriate regalia and posed in a distinctive dance position, and a video component capturing the movements and music integral to each performance.

Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture

Now - August 11, 2013
East Gallery

This banner exhibition highlights Native people who have been active participants in contemporary music for nearly a century. Musicians like Russell "Big Chief" Moore (Gila River Indian Community), Rita Coolidge (Cherokee), Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree), and the group Redbone are a few of the Native performing artists who have had successful careers in popular music. Many have been involved in each form of popular music -- from jazz and blues to folk, country, and rock. In this exhibition their stories will be told, along with the history behind them. Visitors can hear samples of these music greats and find out with whom they collaborated, learn by whom they were inspired, and consider contemporary artists whom they influenced. Highlights include Jimi Hendrix's (Cherokee) colorful patchwork full-length leather coat.

Video (runs continuously)
Hand-held devices with music clips by each of the featured musicians

Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian

Permanent Exhibit
South Gallery

This exhibition of some 700 works of Native art from throughout North, Central, and South America demonstrates the breadth of the museum's renowned collection and highlight the historic importance of many of these iconic objects.

Chosen to illustrate the geographic and chronological scope of the museum's collection, Infinity of Nations opens with a display of headdresses. Signifying the sovereignty of Native nations, these works include a magnificent Kayapo krok-krok-ti, a macaw-and-heron-feather ceremonial headdress.

Focal-point objects, representing each region, include an Apsaalooke (Crow) robe illustrated with warriors' exploits; a detailed Mayan limestone bas relief depicting a ball player; an elaborately beaded Inuit tuilli, or woman's inner parka, made for the mother of a newborn baby; a Mapuche kultrung, or hand drum, depicting the cosmos; a carved and painted chief's headdress, depicting a killer whale with a raven emerging from its back, created and worn by Willie Seaweed (Kwakwaka'wakw); an anthropomorphic Shipibo joni chomo, or water vessel from Peru; a Chumash basket decorated with a Spanish-coin motif; an ancient mortar from Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, N.M.; a gourd carved with a detailed picture of the Battle of Arica by Mariano Flores Kananga (Quechua); and an early Anishinaabe man's outfit complete with headdress, leggings, shirt, sash, and jewelry. The exhibition concludes with works by Native artists including Allan Houser (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache) and Rick Bartow (Mad River Wiyot).

• Related book: Infinity of Nations
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