IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas
November 10, 2009 - May 31, 2010
2nd Level, Sealaska Gallery
Compelling text with powerful graphics on 20 banners discusses the cultural integration and diffusion of African American and American Indian people, especially those of blended heritage. This exhibition also sheds light on the dynamics of race, community, culture, and creativity and addresses the human desire to belong.
Related publication
10-minute video
Brian Jungen: Strange Comfort
October 16, 2009 - August 8, 2010
3rd Level, W. Richard West Jr. Contemporary Changing Gallery
This major survey features iconic works by Brian Jungen (Dunne-za First Nations/Swiss/Canadian), as well as major pieces never before seen in the United States. Jungen is widely regarded as the foremost Native artist of his generation; his art transforms the familiar and banal into exquisite objects that reference themes of globalization, pop culture, museums, and the commodification of Indian imagery. He first came to prominence with Prototypes for New Understandings (1998-2005), which fashioned Nike footwear into masks that suggested Northwest Coast iconography. Later works have included a pod of whales made from plastic chairs, totem poles made from golf bags, and a massive basketball court made from 224 sewing tables.
Cases: Orientation Exhibition
- TBA
1st Level, South Wall, Potomac Atrium
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: Buffalo Dancer II and Always Becoming
Outside
• Buffalo Dancer II: 2010-Indefinitely:
On view outside the main entrance to the museum is George Rivera's 12-foot, 2,000-pound bronze sculpture depicting an American Indian performing a sacred dance.
• 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. Note: Nora Naranjo-Morse is the first Native American woman to create an outdoor sculpture in Washington, D.C.
Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of Chesapeake
- Permanent
2nd level
Through photographs, maps, ceremonial and everyday objects, and interactives, this panel display provides both an overview of the history and events affecting the Native peoples -- Nanticoke, Powhatan, and Piscataway tribes -- of the Chesapeake Bay region (what is now Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.) and information on their continued presence today.
Our Peoples: Giving Voice to Our Histories
- Permanent
4th level
This exhibition discusses events that shaped the lives and outlook of Native peoples from 1491 to the present. The first part of the exhibition reveals the forces that affected the lives of Native peoples; it shows how Native peoples have struggled to maintain traditions in the face of adversity, and explains why so little of this history is familiar. The second area consists of eight small galleries that recount the histories of individual tribes: Blackfeet (Montana), Chiricahua Apache (New Mexico), Kiowa (Oklahoma), Tohono O'odham (Arizona), Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation (North Carolina), Nahua (Mexico), Ka'apor (Brazil), and Wixarikari -- sometimes known as Huichol -- (Mexico). The exhibition also includes a "wall of gold" featuring over 400 gold figurines, dating back to 1490, along with European swords, coins, and crosses made from melted gold.
Our Lives: Contemporary Life and Identities
- Permanent
3rd level
This exhibition examines the identities of Native peoples in the 21st century, and how those identities, both individual and communal, are the results of deliberate, often difficult choices made in challenging circumstances. This exhibition explores the forces in modern Native life that Native peoples are profoundly influenced by -- their families and communities, the language they speak, the places they live and identify with, and their own self determination. Eight communities contributed their stories to this telling: the Campo Band of Kumeyaay Indians (Southern California), urban Indian community of Chicago (Illinois), Yakama Nation (Washington State), Igloolik (Nunavut, Canada), Kahnawake Mohawk (Quebec, Canada), Saint-Laurent Metis (Manitoba, Canada), Kalinago (Dominica), and Pamunkey (Virginia).
Window on Collections: Many Hands, Many Voices
- Permanent Displays
3rd and 4th levels
These permanent displays feature more than 3,500 items from the museum's collection that reveal the remarkable breadth and diversity of Native American objects. Located on the third and fourth levels of the museum and housed in drawers and glass-fronted cases, objects are arranged by categories, including beadwork, peace medals, arrowheads and other projectile points, containers, dolls, and animal objects.
Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World
- Permanent
4th level
Focusing on Native cosmology and organized around one solar year, this exhibition explores the annual ceremonies of Native peoples as a window on their ancestral teachings. Under a "night sky" of fiber-optic stars and constellations, discover how celestial bodies shape the daily lives -- and establish the calendars of ceremonies and celebrations -- of Native peoples today. Featured communities: Mapuche (Chile), Lakota (South Dakota), Quechua (Peru), Yup'ik (Alaska), Q'eq'chi, Maya (Guatemala), Santa Clara Pueblo (New Mexico), Anishinaabe (Hollow Water, Manitoba, Canada), and Hupa (California). The exhibition also highlights the Denver (Colorado) March Powwow, the North American Indigenous Games, and the Day of the Dead -- seasonal celebrations that bring Native peoples together.
Sculptures and Individual Art Installations
- Indefinitely
• Crux: (as seen from those who sleep on the surface of the earth under the night sky) (2008): Brian Jungen's suspended mobile depicts five animal and is constructed from steel, new and used suitcases, and a wooden rowboat. 1st level, Potomac Rotunda (opened late July/early August 2009).
• Sacred Rain Arrow (1988, 94" x 58"): Allan Houser's 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. 3rd Level, near entrance to Our Lives (new location as of July 22, 2009).
Note: Previously on view 1st Level, Potomac Rotunda.
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