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: We thought our work was done when a social media follower helped us identify our popular “unidentified male model” as German naturalist Emil Bessels. Then we discovered he may have murdered his captain during the 1871–73 Polaris Expedition.