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Exhibits and Collections

Stretching the Canvas: Ten Decades of Native Painting

Stretching the Canvas: Ten Decades of Native Painting

Stretching the Canvas: Ten Decades of Native Painting explores how Native artists challenged perceptions of what constituted art and what Native art could and should look like. Featuring more than 50 works by 46 artists, this exhibition tells the story of how American Indian art expanded after World War I and how Native painters began to advocate for themselves in a world that often ignored their talent.

Image credit: Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee Nation, b. 1935), Homage to Chief Joseph (Chief Joseph #1), 1975. Encaustic on canvas. Gift of Reverend Monsignor Cajetan Thomas Salemi, 2011. (26/8542)

Past Highlights

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InSight: Photos and Stories from the Archives

Image credit: Thommy Mestokosho (Innu, 1937–2016) playing guitar, Québec, Canada, 1959. Photograph by William Stiles (1912–1980). William F. Stiles collection of photographs and films. S02178)

Screen print of American Indian, in elaborate costume, dancing.

Free to Use and Reuse: Native American Heritage

Image Credit: Crumbo, Woody, Artist. Eagle dancerleft / Crumbo. , ca. 1952. Photograph. Library of Congress

Contemporary Art of Steven Yazzie a person orchestrating with a blooming desert in the background

The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans

Image credit: Children wearing typical dresses for Ecuadorian National Day. 103-14 Roosevelt Ave., Corona Plaza, Queens. Camilo Jose Vergara 2021. Camilo José Vergara's photographs are protected by copyright. Privacy and publicity rights may also apply.

Exhibits and Collections

1492: An Ongoing Voyage American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920 Ancestral Voices Chronicling America – Digitized Native American Newspapers Dawes Act – Digitized Newspaper Resources Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942 Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America Project France in America The Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Papers Hugh Lenox Scott papers, 1582-1981 (Kiowa Collection) Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784-1894, United States Serial Set, Number 4015 Indian language collection, 1595-1833 Indians of North America (World Digital Library) Indigenous Law Web Archive Living Nations, Living Words Margaret Mead Papers and the South Pacific Ethnographic Archives C. Hart Merriam Papers Montana Folklife Survey Collection Native American Constitutions and Legal Materials Native American Education/Indian Schools – Digitized Newspaper Resources Native American Land Acknowledgment Native American Newspapers Henry Rowe Schoolcraft Papers Jim Thorpe (athlete) – Digitized Newspaper Resources Omaha Indian Music Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America Rhode Island Folklife Project Collection Virginia H Mathews papers, 1897-1991 Wounded Knee – Digitized Newspaper Resources

Today in History

Veterans History Project

Resource Guides & Collection Overviews

Abbe Museum Mukurtu Site from Abbe Museum The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages (California Language Archive) The Comparative Mission Archaeological Portal from University of Florida Digital Archive of Huhugam Archaeology DAHA from Arizona State University Documenting Endangered Languages Program The Gasuet Orleans Road from Humboldt State University Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project from University of Nebraska Guide to the Indigenous Material at the American Philisophical Society, from the American Philosophical Society Healing the Warrior's Heart In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now Laura Gilpin's Artist Photography from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art Local Contexts 2.0: Implementing Traditional Knowledge Labels Mukurtu Midwest from Wisconsin Library Services Muskogee (Seminole/Creek) Documentation Project (partially funded by NEH grants)

Native Voices

Humanities Magazine articless