Description: A forerunner of today’s efforts to decolonize and Indigenize American museums, Tichkematse was one of the first Native American employees at the Smithsonian Institution. His work with natural history and anthropological collections continue to inspire Native and non-Native museum professionals nearly 150 years later.
Description: Despite another year of telework and limited physical access to our collections, the Smithsonian Institution Archives has continued to serve our researchers and share more of our collections with the public.
Description: Volunteers have been an integral part of the Smithsonian since the beginning. As our historian Pamela Henson likes to say, we have always relied on the kindness of strangers. A blog post in honor of Volunteer Appreciation Month 2015. Includes a list of Smithsonian crowdsourcing projects that volunteers can participate in.
Description: On September 28, 1999, representatives of dozens of tribes from across the hemisphere gathered on the National Mall for the groundbreaking of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. On the overcast morning, several hundred people packed under three tents during a ceremony that featured blessings from the four cardinal directions. After the ceremony, some