Current Affairs

In 1976, the Polynesian Voyaging Society launched its sea-going outrigger canoe, the first built in Hawaii in centuries, to show how Pacific islanders explored and settled the vast expanse of their ocean.

Cross-country meetings with American Indian veterans have clarified the vision for the National Native American Veterans Memorial. A juried competition for its design will begin Nov. 11, 2017.

A new animation display at the NMAI – D.C.’s popular statue and meeting place Allies in War, Partners in Peace illuminates the role of the Oneida Indian Nation in supporting Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army.

The career of the distinguished linguist and poet is winning national recognition.

The homeland of the O’odham people extends from the Gila River in Arizona to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. Deep religious, cultural and family ties spanned this region long before the Gadsden Purchase of 1854 imposed an international border, and they persist today

The National Museum of the American Indian is wrapping up its celebration of the 100th anniversary year of the establishment of our predecessor institution, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (MAI). MAI’s founding on May 10, 1916, paved the way for the opening of the museum in upper Manhattan in 1922 and eventually the establishment of the NMAI as part of the Smithsonian Institution in 1989. This milestone anniversary gave us various opportunities for celebrating the provenance of our collections and its continued study and expansion. Who would have imagined in the early 1900s that NMAI – with its museums on the National Mall and in Lower Manhattan and the Cultural Resources Center collections facility in Suitland, Md. – would have become such an internationally prominent institution? There are so many stories to tell about amazing and remarkable personalities, and struggles and triumphs along the way, and this past year we proudly honored our truly unique history.

Did the wrong Minnesotan win this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature? Some in Indian Country think the honor is overdue for Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa), the Minneapolis-based writer whose 15 novels weave together families, tribe and Ojibwe land over several generations in a way compared to William Faulkner’s chronicles of Yoknapatawpha County.

Smithsonian historian Herman Viola eulogizes his adopted brother, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Possibly the oldest team sport in the world, the game played by the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh lives on in several small villages in Sinaloa, Mexico.

Laurie Odjick (Anishinaabe) is just one of hundreds of mothers, sisters and daughters in Canada who are mourning missing and murdered Indigenous women.