Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

A Century Ago..."They Came as Sovereign Leaders"

See photographs of six great Native chiefs who participated in President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 inaugural parade.

January 14, 2009 – February 22, 2009

American Indian Museum DC

A Century Ago..."They Came as Sovereign Leaders"

See photographs of six great Native chiefs who participated in President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 inaugural parade.

January 15, 2013 – February 25, 2013

American Indian Museum DC

A Song for the Horse Nation

Witness the epic story of the horse's influence on American Indian tribes from the 1600s to the present.

October 29, 2011 – January 7, 2013

American Indian Museum DC

An Exploration in Photography with Native Teens

View photographs by 13 Native high school students, mainly representing tribes from Oregon and Washington State, who visited the Oregon College of Art and Craft in the summer of 2007.

March 3, 2008 – March 15, 2008

American Indian Museum DC

Arctic Journeys/Ancient Memories: The Sculpture of Abraham Anghik Ruben

View Abraham Anghik Ruben's sculptures as they give new life and expression to the myths and legends of ancient northern cultures of the North American Arctic.

October 5, 2012 – January 2, 2013

American Indian Museum DC

Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of Quileute Wolves

See rare artworks and objects from the Quileute Nation that create a public forum for clarifying misconceptions and offering authentic interpretations of wolf mythology.

January 13, 2012 – May 9, 2012

American Indian Museum DC

Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics

Follow Native American athletes who provided some of the most dramatic moments in Olympic history, especially at the 1912 Games in Stockholm, Sweden.

May 25, 2012 – September 3, 2012

American Indian Museum DC

Brian Jungen: Strange Comfort

Examine iconic works and major pieces never before seen in the United States by Brian Jungen (Dunne-za First Nations/Swiss/Canadian).

October 16, 2009 – August 8, 2010

American Indian Museum DC

Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions

See some 30 contemporary Native baskets that examine the ways in which baskets and their makers are literally and symbolically "carriers of culture."

June 8, 2006 – September 5, 2006

American Indian Museum DC

Ceramica de los Ancestros: Central America's Past Revealed

Treasures from the museum's collection of Central American ceramics shed new light on the exchange of dynamic ideas about art, culture, politics, and technology within the region’s largely unknown civilizations.

March 29, 2013 – February 15, 2015

American Indian Museum DC

Circle of Empowerment: Education, Language, Culture, Tradition

View the winning artwork and writing pieces from the 4th Native American Student Artist Competition.

August 22, 2008 – September 22, 2008

American Indian Museum DC

Comic Art Indigene

Explore how the new narrative art forms of comics and comic-inspired art incorporate storytelling to express the contemporary Native American experience.

March 6, 2009 – May 31, 2009

American Indian Museum DC

Commemorating Controversy: The Dakota—U.S. War of 1862

Explore the causes, voices, events, and long-lasting consequences of the conflict between Dakota akicitas (warriors) and the U.S. military and immigrant settlers.

January 14, 2015 – December 29, 2015

American Indian Museum DC

Conversations with the Earth: Indigenous Voices on Climate Change

Have a look at Indigenous science and gain a Native perspective on global climate change through photographs, video, and audio clips.

July 22, 2011 – January 2, 2012

American Indian Museum DC

Crux: (as seen from those who sleep on the surface of the earth under the night sky)

View a mobile by Brian Jungen (b. 1970, Dunne-za First Nations/Swiss-Canadian) that depicts five animals that describe the Australian constellations.

July 30, 2009 – February 25, 2011

American Indian Museum DC

E Mau Ke Ea: The Sovereign Hawaiian Nation

This exhibitions takes visitors through the history of the Hawaiian Nation, from the consolidation of the islands by King Kamehameha I, through annexation, to the rise of the Hawaiian rights movement in the late 1960s and the resurgence of Hawaiian nationalism today.

January 17, 2016 – January 2, 2017

American Indian Museum DC

For a Love of His People: The Photography of Horace Poolaw

Through the themes of portraiture, community, family, military, and performance, the exhibition gives a glimpse of Native life in 20th-century Oklahoma.

November 11, 2016 – June 4, 2017

American Indian Museum DC

Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian

See paintings, bronze sculptures, and lithographs that highlight the more-than-40-year career of contemporary Native artist Fritz Scholder (Luiseno, 1937-2005).

November 1, 2008 – August 16, 2009

American Indian Museum DC

Grand Procession: Dolls from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection

See how five Native American artists turn a centuries-old tradition of doll making into a contemporary art form.

April 20, 2013 – January 1, 2014

American Indian Museum DC

Identity by Design: Tradition, Change, and Celebration in Native Women's Dresses

See 55 dresses and more than 200 related items from the Plains, Plateau, and Great Basin regions in this exhibition of Native women's identity through traditional dress and its contemporary evolution.

March 24, 2007 – August 3, 2008

American Indian Museum DC

Indelible: The Platinum Photographs of Larry McNeil and Will Wilson

Photographers Larry McNeil (Tlingit/Nisgaá) and Will Wilson (Diné/Bilagaana) challenge the romanticizing softness of 19th-century images of the “Vanishing Race.”

June 7, 2014 – January 5, 2015

American Indian Museum DC

IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas

Explore the cultural integration and diffusion of African American and American Indian people through this collection of twenty banners.

July 4, 2011 – January 2, 2012

American Indian Museum DC

IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas

Read compelling text and see powerful graphics on 20 banners discusses the cultural integration and diffusion of African American and American Indian people.

November 10, 2009 – May 31, 2010

American Indian Museum DC

Jewelry Designed by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell

See jewelry designed by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne, R-Colo.), a leading artist working in contemporary Native American jewelry.

September 21, 2004 – April 3, 2005

American Indian Museum DC

Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist

This major retrospective of the Cherokee artist Kay WalkingStick, includes 75 of her most notable works.

November 7, 2015 – September 18, 2016

American Indian Museum DC