Exhibit looks at Native American imagery

New exhibit examines Native American imagery in US culture

FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. » Bold. Visionary. A spectacular success. The words in an online promotion for a new museum exhibit in Washington, D.C., describe an 1830 U.S. law that forced thousands of American Indians from their lands in the South to areas west of the Mississippi River.

Provocative, yes, says the cocurator of the exhibit “Americans” that opened last month at the National Museum of the American Indian. Bold and visionary in imagining a country free of American Indians. A spectacular success in greatly expanding wealth from cotton fields where millions of blacks worked as slaves.

“When you’re in the show, you understand bold and visionary become tongue in cheek,” co-curator Cecile Ganteaume said.

The exhibit that runs through 2022 has opened to good reviews and pushes the national debate over American Indian imagery — including men in headdresses with bows, arrows and tomahawks — and sports teams named the Chiefs, Braves and Blackhawks. The NFL’s Washington Redskins logo on one wall prompts visitors to think about why it’s described both as a unifying force in D.C. and offensive.

The exhibit falls short, some say, with an accompanying website and its characterization of the Indian Removal Act.

The online text is a perplexing way to characterize an effort that spanned multiple presidencies and at one point, consumed one-fifth of the federal budget, said Ben Barnes, second chief of the Shawnee Tribe.

The law led to the deaths of thousands of people who were marched from their homes without full compensation for the value of the land they left behind. And it affected far more tribes than the five highlighted online, he said.

JACQUELYN MARTIN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS People look at a section of the “Americans” exhibit that explores the historical context of the Battle of Little Bighorn, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. A new exhibit uses images of Natives to show how the...

PHOTOS BY JACQUELYN MARTIN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A school groups explores an interactive touch table to learn about the objects and images on display at the “Americans” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, in Washington.

People look at the “Americans” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

A “Native American Barbie” doll is among the items on display at the “Americans” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.