“Nation to Nation” Exhibition
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian’s exhibition “Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations” begins in September 2014 (the 10th anniversary of the museum) and continues through fall 2018.
“Nation to Nation” documents the history of treaty making between American Indians and the United States, from the days of the early republic, when treaties were considered by both sides to be serious, diplomatic agreements based on the recognition of each nation’s sovereignty, to the U.S. government’s use in the 19th century of coercive treaties to dispossess Native Americans of their lands, to the 20th century, when Indian Nations successfully fought court and legislative battles for federal recognition of their treaty rights. The guest curator is Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee).
Exhibition Facts
- 8,000-square-foot interactive exhibition in the former “Our Peoples” gallery, fourth level
- Five sections: Introduction to Treaties; Serious Diplomacy; Bad Acts, Bad Paper; Great Nations Keep Their Word; and The Future of Treaties
- More than 125 objects from the museum’s collection and other lenders, including original treaties, archival photographs, wampum belts, textiles, baskets and peace medals
- Three museum-produced original videos narrated by Robert Redford and four museum-designed electronic touch-based interactive media stations
Tribal Communities
- 37 tribes featured from 18 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces
Native Communities
Tribes featured individually in a case study:
Community |
State(s) |
Lenape |
Pennsylvania, Oklahoma |
Muscogee Creek Nation |
Oklahoma |
Haudenosaunee |
New York |
Citizen Potawatomi and Pokagon Potawatomi |
Oklahoma, Michigan |
Navajo |
Arizona |
Tribes featured collectively in a group case study (mentioned by name in a picture or object caption):
Horse Creek Treaty Case Study
Community |
State |
Yankton Sioux |
South Dakota |
Arapaho (Wind River Reservation-Eastern Shoshone & N. Arapaho) |
Wyoming |
Cheyenne (Northern Cheyenne) |
Montana |
Mandan (Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation) |
North Dakota |
Hidatsa (Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation) |
North Dakota |
Arikara (Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation) |
North Dakota |
Crow |
Montana |
Shoshone (Wind River Reservation-Eastern Shoshone & N. Arapaho) |
Wyoming |
Assiniboine (Ft. Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Reservation) |
Montana |
California Case Study
Community |
State |
Kumeyaay/Diegueno |
California |
Maidu |
California |
Pomo |
California |
Yokuts |
California |
San Luis Rey |
California |
Cahuilla |
California |
Fishing Rights Case Study
Community |
State(s) |
Nisqually |
Washington |
Puyallup |
Washington |
Tulalip |
Washington |
Lummi |
Washington |
Quileute |
Washington |
Makah |
Washington |
Ojibwa |
Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Michigan |
Isolated Artifacts, Photos and Captions
Community |
State/Province |
Cherokee |
Oklahoma |
Menominee |
Wisconsin |
Piegan |
Piegan Reserve, Alberta, Canada |
Kaw |
Oklahoma |
Omaha |
Nebraska |
Algonquin |
Quebec |
Huron-Wendat |
Quebec, Oklahoma, Kansas |
Kiowa |
Oklahoma |
Eastern Band Cherokee |
North Carolina |
Northern Tsitsistas (Cheyenne) |
Montana |
Original Treaties Displayed
At least nine original treaties on loan from the National Archives (shown successively, one at a time) will be displayed during the entire four-year run of the exhibition; each treaty will be displayed for approximately six months total before being rotated.
September 2014–February 2015
Treaty of Canandaigua between the Haudenosaunee and the United States, 1794
March 2015–August 2015
Treaty of New York between the Muscogee Nations and the United States, 1790
September 2015–February 2016
Horse Creek Treaty (The Great Smoke; Fort Laramie Treaty; Treaty of Long Meadows) among the Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Crow, Hidatsa, Mandan and Sioux Nations and with the United States, 1851
March 2016–August 2016
Treaty between the Potawatomi Nations and the United States, 1836
September 2016–January 2017
Treaty K, between the Native Nations in California and the United States, 1852 (Treaty at Temecula between the Luiseño, Cahuilla and Other Nations and the United States, ratified Jan. 5, Treaty Commissioner O.M. Wozencraft, unratified [Senate vote not to advise and consent], June 28)
February 2017–July 2017
Medicine Creek Treaty between the Nisqually, Puyallup and Squaxin Island Nations and the United States, 1854
August 2017–January 2018
Treaty between the Potawatomi Nations and the United States, 1809
February 2018–July 2018
Treaty between the Navajo Nation and the United States, 1868
August 2018–September 2018
Treaty between the Lenape (Delaware) Nation and the United States, 1778
Publication
“Nation to Nation” will be accompanied by a richly illustrated publication (272 pages) edited by Harjo, which features essays by prominent Native and non-Native historians and legal scholars, including Robert N. Clinton, Raymond J. DeMallie, Jennifer Nez Denetdale (Diné [Navajo]), Kevin Gover (Pawnee), Richard W. Hill, Sr. (Tuscarora), James Riding In (Pawnee) and Lindsay G. Robertson.
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SI-438-2014
Bethany Bentley
202-633-8293
Lisa Austin
212-514-3826