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Museum-Architecture — The National Museum of the American Indian has a curvilinear architecture. Photo courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Indigenous Influence

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July 27, 2015

Current Exhibitions

Commemorating Controversy: The Dakota – U.S. War of 1862 – Through Dec. 29 – The 12 panels within this exhibition study the origin of The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, its voices, the major events it inspired and the war’s devastating effect, including President Abraham Lincoln’s order to hang 38 Dakota men – known as the largest mass execution in the U.S., to this day.

Moon sconce at the exit of the Our Universes exhibition. Photo by Maxwell MacKenzie, courtesy Smithsonian NMAI.

Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World – Through December 2017 –Within this exhibit, explore the eight cultural philosophies of indigenous peoples from the Western Hemisphere.
The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire – Through June 1, 2018 – Explore how building the Great Inka Road was made possible, its impacts in the region and its legacy.
Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations – Through Fall 2018 – The mostly untold story of the influential Native diplomats and leaders of Indian Nations that came to treaty with the U.S. in the wake of its creation is explored within this exhibit.

Delegation posing with President Andrew Johnson on the steps of the White House, 1867. Representatives of the Yankton, Santee, Upper Missouri Sioux, Sac and Fox, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Kickapoo and Miami Nations. Photo by Alexander Gardner. — Delegation posing with President Andrew Johnson on the steps of the White House, 1867. Photo by Alexander Gardner.

Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of the Chesapeake – Ongoing – This ongoing exhibit introduces guests of the museum to those native to the Chesapeake Bay region and their continued impact in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Delaware.