The Ta�no Legacy in the Caribbean (working title)

TBA
TBA (or at Ripley Center?)

This exhibition about the indigenous roots of Caribbean culture focuses on the legacy of the Taíno, the Native people who greeted, and later resisted, Christopher Columbus.   

Central America: Ceramics and Civilization (working title)

TBA
TBA (or at Ripley Center?)

An exhibition of the treasures of NMAI’s Central American ceramics collection that will shed new light on the exchange of dynamic ideas about art, culture, politics, and technology within the region’s largely unknown civilizations    

Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of Quileute Wolves

Now - May 9, 2012
Sealaska Gallery, 2nd Floor

This exhibition brings together rare artworks and creates a public forum for clarifying misconceptions resulting from the popular Twilight books and films. Approximately 20 objects of Quileute art are used to offer authentic interpretation of art representing wolf mythology, including five wolf headdresses spanning 70 years (1870s–1940s). Learn from the Quileute themselves about their history, visual and performing arts, unique language and oral traditions, and ways in which their important cultural beliefs are kept alive today. Also included are historical photographs, a map of Quileute place names, a timeline of Quileute history, a 12-minute video about the rich cultural history of the Quileute Nation, and eight drawings of Quileute cultural activities—including wolf rituals—created by schoolchildren between 1905 and 1908.

 Quileute = “quill-yoot”

A Song for the Horse Nation

Now - January 7, 2013
W. Richard West Jr. Contemporary Arts/3M Gallery, 3rd Level

This exhibition presents the epic story of the horse's influence on American Indian tribes from the 1600s to the present. It features 112 works from the museum's collection to reveal how horses shaped the social, economic, cultural, and spiritual foundations of American Indian life, particularly on the Great Plains. Highlights include historical ledger drawings, beaded bags, hide robes, and paintings, including new works by contemporary Native artists. Also on view are a Hunkpapa Lakota winter count by Long Soldier (c. 1902) that depicts the horse's first appearance in the community; a 16-foot-tall, hand-painted, 19th-century Sioux tipi depicting battle and horse-raiding scenes; a life-size mannequin of a horse in fully beaded regalia; and Geronimo's and Chief Joseph's rifles.

Based on the museum's publication A Song for the Horse Nation: Horses in Native American Cultures, edited by George P. Horse Capture and Emil Her Many Horses (2006): $14.95

Orientation Exhibition Cases

Indefinitely
Potomac Atrium, 1st Level, South Wall

These nine introductory exhibition cases cover the following topics:

• Our Place in the Universe
• Ceremony
• Native Identities
• Leadership
• Contact and Confrontation
• Challenges and Solutions
• Achievements and Contributions
• Learning More

Outdoor Sculptures

Indefinitely
Near entrances

• Buffalo Dancer II: 2010-Indefinitely:
On view outside the main entrance to the museum is George Rivera's (Pueblo of Pojoaque) 12-foot, 2-ton bronze sculpture depicting a Buffalo dancer who performs during a celebration of thanksgiving. 

• Always Becoming: September 21, 2007-Indefinitely:
On view outside near the Maryland Ave. entrance to the museum is a family of five sculptures hand-built by artist Nora Naranjo-Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo, Espanola, N.M.), winner of the museum's outdoor sculpture design competition. Based on aboriginal architecture and made of organic, nontoxic materials -- dirt, straw, sand, clay, wood, and moss -- the tipi-like forms are from 6 to 15 feet tall and 3 to 4 inches deep. Each will take on a life of its own as the elements of nature slowly erode the organic materials over time, thus the name Always Becoming. Nora Naranjo-Morse is the first Native American woman to create an outdoor sculpture in Washington, D.C. 

Free brochure

Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of Chesapeake

Permanent
2nd level

Through photographs, maps, ceremonial and everyday objects, and interactives, this small display provides an overview of the history of the Native peoples of the Chesapeake Bay region (what is now Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.) from the 1600s to the present day. The Native people of this region include the Nanticoke, Powhatan, and Piscataway tribes.