Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics

May 25, 2012 - September 3, 2012
Sealaska Gallery, 2nd Level

Get ready for the 2012 Olympics by learning about Native American athletes who have provided some of the most dramatic moments in Olympic history. Special attention is given to the 1912 Games in Stockholm, Sweden, whose centenary we celebrate, and in which Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox) won both the pentathlon and the decathlon (a feat not since accomplished); Duke Kahanamoku (Native Hawaiian) won the 100-meter freestyle; Andrew Sockalexis (Penobscot) placed fourth in the marathon; and Lewis Tewanima (Hopi) won the silver medal and set an American record for the 10,000 meters that stood for more than 50 years, until another American Indian, Billy Mills (Oglala Lakota), won gold in Tokyo in 1964.

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

Permanent Exhibit
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

Permanent Exhibit
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 Exhibit
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.

Indoor Sculptures: Tsimshian Totem Pole and Sacred Rain Arrow

Permanent Exhibit
1st Level, Potomac Atrium, and 3rd Level, near Our Lives

• Sacred Rain Arrow (1988, 94" x 58"): Allan Houser's (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache) bronze sculpture represents the legend of a young Apache warrior selected in times of drought to shoot a sacred arrow to the heavens carrying his people's prayer for rain to the Spirit World. Third Level, near entrance to Our Lives.
• Tsimshian Totem Pole (2012): David Boxley’s (Tsimshian) 22-foot-tall cedar totem pole depicts the legend of Eagle and Young Chief: A young boy frees an eagle from a fishing net. Years later, after the boy has become chief, the eagle returns the favor by providing fish when the chief’s village faces starvation. First Level, Potomac Atrium (installed January 14, 2012; Permanent)