Current Affairs

Centuries of European colonial distortions come under the scrutiny of a new PBS series, Native America, scheduled to air Oct. 23-Nov. 13, 2018.

Speaking through Taíno spiritual leaders in trances, Puerto Rico’s ancestors repeatedly warned before last year’s devastating hurricanes to take care, algo viene, something is coming. These spiritual phenomena are an important strand of the Taíno resurgence, as descendants of the supposedly extinct Caribbean Indigenous peoples recover from the hurricane of European colonialism. This important movement is the focus of a new exhibit Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean at the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian – Smithsonian in lower Manhattan.

A back pain brings NMAI veteran Jorge Estevez a life-changing encounter with the Indigenous and healing traditions of his native Dominican Republic.

The project that will produce the National Native American Veterans Memorial has another component, a joint effort with the Library of Congress to collect oral histories and historical material, which is well underway.

An after-hours party at the Museum on the National Mall drew a lively crowd to view The Americans exhibit behind the scenes, to enjoy food and drink and generally to enjoy themselves.

Traditional agriculture and cuisine are integral to tribal culture. Recovery of these roots is also preserving the well-being and identity of many Indian peoples.

From dank chicherias in small towns to gourmet big-city restaurants catering to tourists, the traditional fermented-corn beverage chicha is still being drunk throughout the Andes. It is no longer the medium of reciprocity that oiled pre-colonial social bonds, but it is still a standard for Indigenous identity.

The new imagiNATIONS Activity Center opening in May in the New York National Museum of the American Indian offers hands-on experience of the many discoveries of Indigenous Americans as they learned to thrive in their environment. Staples developed through generations of crossbreeding, such as potatoes, tomatoes and maize, have spread worldwide.

A mile-marker arose in 2016 in the middle of a camp of “water protectors” protesting construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, covered with signs showing how far tribal supporters had travelled to the North Dakota site. When state authorities dispersed the camp, the signpost was donated to the National Museum of the American Indian in D.C, where it is now part of the Nation to Nation exhibition on Indian treaties.