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“Americans” exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian

American Indian images, names, and stories infuse American history and contemporary life.

The images are everywhere, from the Land O’Lakes butter maiden to the Cleveland Indians’ mascot, and from classic Westerns and cartoons to episodes of Seinfeld and South Park. American Indian names are everywhere too, from state, city, and street names to the Tomahawk missile. And the familiar historical events of Pocahontas’s life, the Trail of Tears, and the Battle of Little Bighorn remain popular reference points in everyday conversations.

Americans highlights the ways in which American Indians have been part of the nation’s identity since before the country began. It will surround visitors with images, delve into the three stories, and invite them to begin a conversation about why this phenomenon exists.

Pervasive, powerful, at times demeaning, the images, names, and stories reveal the deep connection between Americans and American Indians as well as how Indians have been embedded in unexpected ways in the history, pop culture, and identity of the United States.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author N. Scott Momaday has been named as this year’s winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize’s Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award—a lifetime achievement award celebrating literature’s power to foster peace, social justice and global understanding.