BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of the American Indian -- Exhibit: Americans -- Gallery

DC -- Natl Museum of the American Indian -- Exhibit: Americans -- Gallery:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Description of Pictures: Americans -- Room: Gallery
January 18, 2018 – 2022
American Indians represent less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, yet names and images of Indians are everywhere: military weapons, town names, advertising, and that holiday in November. Americans invites visitors to take a closer look, and to ask why. Featuring nearly 350 objects and images, from a Tomahawk missile to baking powder cans, Americans examines the staying power of four stories—Thanksgiving, Pocahontas, the Trail of Tears, and the Battle of Little Bighorn—that are woven into the fabric of both American history and contemporary life. By highlighting what has been remembered, contested, cherished, and denied about these stories, and why they continue to resonate, this exhibition shows that Americans have always been fascinated, conflicted, and profoundly shaped by their relationship to American Indians.
Online exhibit: https://nmai.si.edu/americans/

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. AMAMGA_180120_005.JPG: Americans Indians are everywhere in American life It's strange: nearly all that can be named or sold has at some point been named or sold with an Indian word or image. If this seems normal, that's because it has become normal. It started before the United States existed and continues today. These images are worth a closer look. What if they are not trivial? What if they are instead symbols of great power? What if the stories they tell reveal a buried history-and a country forever fascinated, conflicted, and shaped by its relationship with American Indians?
2. AMAMGA_180120_020.JPG: Indian Chief motorcycle A classic, the Indian is considered the most stylish of mass-produced motorcycles. In 1897 American-made bicycles named Indian were sold overseas. The name stuck when the company sold its first motorcycles in 1902. It became a true brand, with a feathered headdress as the logo and Indian Red as the signature color. In the 1930s, models could be customized with colors such as Mohawk Green, Seminole Cream, Navajo Blue, and Apache Gray. This model's fender ornament is an Indian figure with headdress, and the word Indian is written in stylish script on the tank. The company's first advertising executive said, "No more popular or wealth-producing name could have been chosen."
3. AMAMGA_180120_045.JPG: Pontiac hood ornament Pontiac was an Ottawa war chief who defeated the British in the 1760s. The city near Detroit is named for him, as was the General Motors brand of cars, which featured a hood ornament in the form of an Indian-head profile. During the 1950s its design was meant to suggest jet planes and rockets. The last Pontiac rolled off the assembly line in 2010.
4. AMAMGA_180120_053.JPG: Seminole Feed, Newberry, Florida Although most people think of cowboys as icons of the West, Native peoples have raised cattle in Florida ever since the Spanish introduced the livestock in the 1500s. By the late 1700s, cattle ranching was a thriving enterprise in the north-central Alachua region, but the Seminole Wars of the 1800s nearly wiped out Native-owned cattle. Today the Seminole Tribe, having developed a breed that thrives in Florida's climate, manages the nation's fifth-largest ranching operation. They hold a two-week roundup every summer.
5. AMAMGA_180120_059.JPG: Early West lunchbox This lunchbox features hand-drawn portraits of Buffalo Bill, Bill Hickok, and Daniel Boone on one half of its side and bottom. The other half features Geronimo, Medicine Crow, and Sitting Bull.
6. AMAMGA_180120_070.JPG: Arrow Motel sign Native American names and symbols dot the American landscape. Rivers, mountains, and lakes with Indian names. A third of the states. Chicago, Miami, Tuscaloosa. Washington, DC, is on land between the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, with the mighty Chesapeake Bay to the east. Indian words and places are everywhere in American daily life. The Arrow Motel has been shuttered for years, yet the sign remains, a landmark in a small town's main intersection. What does a motel have to do with Indians? It is both strange and unremarkable. It doesn't make sense, but somehow it does. Why? One reason is that Indian names and imagery are familiar. They are authentic. They are American.
7. AMAMGA_180120_074.JPG: Northwest Coast Native American Barbie doll From 1993 to 2000, Native American Barbie modeled various looks, from "modern powwow" to "Eskimo," that kept her tribal affiliation a mystery. The Northwest Coast Native American Barbie was the first tribally specific doll. The Tlingit-influenced Barbie, complete with a chilkat robe, has long dark hair and tan skin, but she hasn't lost her Barbie essence.
8. AMAMGA_180120_083.JPG: Coppertone Suntan Oil Before the legendary ad campaign featuring a little girl and her mischievous dog, the face of Coppertone was an Indian in a feather headdress, with the slogan Don't Be a Paleface.
9. AMAMGA_180120_085.JPG: New Mexico and Arizona travel poster This poster was created to promote the Union Pacific Railroad and to encourage vacationers to explore the "history and mystery" of the Southwest, especially "authentic" Native American trade goods. The Arizona Rockies thing never caught on.
10. AMAMGA_180120_104.JPG: Cleveland Indians The baseball team in Cleveland, like the football team in Washington, DC, has been a focus of Native American activists for decades.
11. AMAMGA_180120_113.JPG: Washington, DC, football team For generations, the Washington team has been a unifying force in the nation's capital, despite being the last to integrate and having a name many find offensive. Every so often, the team plays the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.
12. AMAMGA_180120_116.JPG: One-Eleven American Cigarettes package American Tobacco Company's One-Eleven cigarettes were first available in 1922 for 10 cents a pack. The back of the soft packages included images of a Turkish man, a Virginia gentleman, and a Native American man.
13. AMAMGA_180120_121.JPG: One-Eleven American Cigarettes package American Tobacco Company's One-Eleven cigarettes were first available in 1922 for 10 cents a pack. The back of the soft packages included images of a Turkish man, a Virginia gentleman, and a Native American man.
14. AMAMGA_180120_122.JPG: Wild West Tribal Chief Lego set The Tribal Chief figure, most recently known as the Lego Movie character Chief from the Old West, is part of the 1997 Lego System. The chief's accessories include a headdress, a steed, a spear, an oval-patterned shield, a green bush, and a black snake.
15. AMAMGA_180120_133.JPG: The Iron Horse movie poster In this poster for an early John Ford movie, clouds of stampeding buffalo and a gorgeous Native American warrior dominate the frame, as construction of the transcontinental railroad proceeds below. By 1924, the "romance" of the West was firmly established in the American imagination.
16. AMAMGA_180120_147.JPG: Half Breed album cover Cher's tale of a young woman who is half-white, half-Cherokee and accepted by neither race became a worldwide hit in 1973. For an appearance on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, she sang while seated on a horse.
17. AMAMGA_180120_151.JPG: Native American Barbie doll, 1996 Mattel's fourth attempt at achieving a Native American Barbie reflects generic interpretations of what Native Americans look like. Touted on the box as "tribe-inspired," her dress doesn't represent any particular tribe, just "tribe."
18. AMAMGA_180120_156.JPG: Ad for the Keep America Beautiful campaign The "crying Indian" public service announcement for the Keep America Beautiful campaign first aired on Earth Day in 1971. The slogan for this well-known commercial was "People start pollution. People can stop it." While the actor who became the face of Native America was not actually Native American, the PSA's success and the single tear are landmarks in the history of environmental conservation.
19. AMAMGA_180120_171.JPG: New Yorker magazine cover, 2014 The New Yorker's ironic Thanksgiving cover reflects the controversy over the use of Native American mascots in professional sports. It shows Indians and pilgrims about to share a feast before a TV football game featuring the Washington, DC, team.
20. AMAMGA_180120_177.JPG: New Yorker magazine cover, 2004 Robert Crumb's New Yorker cover is a study in dispossession. It features an American Indian on a busy Manhattan street, wearing a sandwich board advertising a Thanksgiving special. Along the left edge are eight portraits of Indians and Americans from the past.
21. AMAMGA_180120_182.JPG: Virginia colonial seal, 1705 This seal shows an American Indian representing Virginia kneeling before Queen Anne of Great Britain, presenting her with tobacco. The text underneath the figures reads "Behold Virginia, the Fourth Realm."
22. AMAMGA_180120_186.JPG: Flaming Star movie poster In the 1950s and early 1960s, Elvis Presley was the biggest rock and roll star in the world, and Westerns ruled the box office. During his film career, Presley twice played American Indian characters.
23. AMAMGA_180120_189.JPG: Big Chief root beer stand The name of this kitschy Kansas City, Missouri, soda stand is an extension of stilted Hollywood-Indian language, which frequently included the expression big chief. A local newspaper couldn't resist going further, describing the stand as "heap big Injun chief."
24. AMAMGA_180120_193.JPG: Chaka Khan performs in an eagle-feather headdress Chaka Khan -- a.k.a. the Queen of Funk and front woman for the funk band Rufus as well as solo success -- donned a complete quasi-Indian costume with an imitation eagle-feather headdress at one of her hugely popular performances.
25. AMAMGA_180120_196.JPG: El Bubble bubble-gum cigar box Founded in 1946, the Philadelphia Chewing Gum Corporation made smoking child-friendly with bubble-gum cigars. The chief painted on the box is related to the Indian figures that have been used for centuries to sell tobacco cigars.
26. AMAMGA_180120_199.JPG: Custer's Last Fight movie poster Perhaps Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's most impressive accomplishment is the way he's managed to stay in popular consciousness nearly 150 years after his death in the Battle of Little Bighorn. His posthumous career has been filled with dramatic role changes -- from hero to villain to incompetent loser to symbol of the costs of manifest destiny.
27. AMAMGA_180120_203.JPG: Cigar store Indian Branding tobacco with images of American Indians began in the early 1600s, when colonists started shipping to Europe tobacco cultivated in Virginia and the Caribbean. Carved wooden Indian figures are, however, a uniquely American form of advertising that tobacco sellers first used during the late 1800s. Some of the figures can be seen as both demeaning representations of Indians and fine examples of American folk art.
28. AMAMGA_180120_205.JPG: "On the Stage Coach" poster The Deadwood stagecoach, which originally traveled throughout the West, achieved iconic status in the 1880s and 1890s as one of the stars of Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows. Each performance included an Indian attack on the coach, followed by a cavalry rescue led by Buffalo Bill himself.
29. AMAMGA_180120_216.JPG: Savage Arms bullet box Things aren't always what they seem. Savage Arms, whose guns are widely used in police departments, is named after its founder, Arthur Savage.
30. AMAMGA_180120_228.JPG: Tomahawk flight-test missile The United States has named weapons after Native Americans for more than 200 years. After the stunning Indian victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, the practice became more common. A 1969 Pentagon directive stated "Names should appeal to the imagination without sacrifice of dignity, and should suggest an aggressive spirit and confidence." Aircraft were to carry "Native American terms and names of Native American tribes and chiefs." The Tomahawk is a subsonic cruise missile. Launched from submarines or ships, it can hit targets 1500 miles away. It has been used hundreds of times in conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Sudan, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. This early production model flew four test missions between 1976 and 1978. Zuni missile Named after a tribe in the Southwest, the Zuni rocket was introduced in 1958 and widely used in the Vietnam War. Deployed as an air-to-air missile without a guidance system, it required a pilot to aim his craft and hope for the best.
31. AMAMGA_180120_232.JPG: Pocahontas postage stamp This stamp was one of three issued in 1907 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia. The other two featured, respectively, Captain John Smith and the founding itself.
32. AMAMGA_180120_235.JPG: mproved Order of Red Men Wigwam, San Pedro, California The national fraternal group known as the Improved Order of Red Men (IORM) traces its origins to the colonial-era Sons of Liberty. That group was a secret society whose members on at least one occasion dressed as Indians to oppose British taxes. IORM lodges like this one in San Pedro, California, are called wigwams, and meetings are called powwows. In 1915, more than 5,000 people attended an IORM "powwow" after a parade through the San Pedro business district. The drill team from Sequoia Tribe No. 140 won first prize that day.
33. AMAMGA_180120_239.JPG: 18th Bombardment Squadron flight jacket patch After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the 18th Bombardment Squadron flew patrol missions along the U.S. East Coast as part of the 34th Bombardment Group. The group later joined the defense force for the West Coast, and in 1944 it helped prepare for the Normandy invasion by bombing airfields and coastal defenses in France.
34. AMAMGA_180120_251.JPG: World War I Lafayette Escadrille Indian-head insignia American pilots fighting for the French during the early years of World War I used an Indian-head insignia to distinguish themselves from airmen of other nationalities. The emblem was likely based on the logo of the Savage Arms company, which was named for its founder, Arthur Savage.
35. AMAMGA_180120_257.JPG: The Great Sioux Massacre movie poster A forgettable film, except by the television series Fargo, which renamed it Massacre at Sioux Falls for a 2015 episode called "Waiting for Dutch." The opening scene shows a film crew shooting a Western being delayed by the then movie star Ronald Reagan, whose nickname was Dutch.
36. AMAMGA_180120_261.JPG: Indian-head insignia on a biplane During World War I American pilots who flew in the Lafayette Escadrille, a French squadron, adopted a dramatic Indian head as their insignia and painted it on their biplanes.
37. AMAMGA_180120_264.JPG: "Red Man's Greed," South Park This adult cartoon began in 1997 and has become an American cultural landmark. In a bizarre episode called "Red Man's Greed," the show imagines an Indian reservation dispossessing the town of South Park. The plot is too insane to summarize. The episode is an interesting example of the vibrant debate about Indians and What It All Means that takes place on the fringes of American popular culture and is almost wholly absent at the center.
38. AMAMGA_180120_268.JPG: Land O'Lakes Butter The most famous Indian maiden of all time kneels among green meadows and blue lakes. She wears buckskin and beads, and her feathers are red, white, and blue. She holds a box of Land O'Lakes butter, meaning that she holds an image of herself holding the box. This repeats into infinity. Created by Arthur C. Hanson, the logo was updated in the 1950s by Patrick DesJarlait, a member of the Red Lake Ojibwe tribe.
39. AMAMGA_180120_272.JPG: Indian Joe Tonic box Indian Joe was an actual person, born in the mid-1700s in Nova Scotia, Canada. Mark Twain also used the nickname in his novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The stereotype of the violent, malicious Indian extends to the inside of the box.
40. AMAMGA_180120_279.JPG: The Lone Ranger television still When television was finally ready for prime time, so was The Lone Ranger. A blockbuster hit on radio, it effortlessly made the transition to the ghostly box, taking up permanent residence in American living rooms. Its long run may have come to an end, though, as moviegoers in 2013 received with indifference a Disney feature film. But don't count out these two yet -- they may still have a future in American popular culture.
41. AMAMGA_180120_283.JPG: Indian Head brake fluid and radiator cement The Brooklyn-based Permatex Company filed for its Indian Chief trademark in 1949. Registered in 1951, the trademark expired in 1992. The company is now more than 100 years old and still produces chemicals used in a variety of industries.
42. AMAMGA_180120_293.JPG: Saturday Evening Post magazine cover This magazine cover humorously depicts two men, an Indian and a Pilgrim, haggling over the worth of a turkey. The Pilgrim has some beads to trade for the Indian's turkey, but it seems highly unlikely that the Indian finds such a deal acceptable.
43. AMAMGA_180120_299.JPG: World War I Marine Corps helmet with Indian-head-and-star insignia A fondness for the Indian-head-and-star insignia led some men in the Fifth and Sixth Marine Regiments to attach their shoulder patches to their helmets when they participated in Armistice Day parades. The insignia was so popular that in 1920 the War Department permanently adopted it for the Regular Army and the Army National Guard.
44. AMAMGA_180120_304.JPG: "The American" poster This poster features a romanticized view of the American West, with pristine water, old-growth forest, and a rosy sunset. Merged with the scene is a group of Indians in a canoe. The portrait of the single Indian, labeled "American," is surrounded by objects of warfare.
45. AMAMGA_180120_316.JPG: The Game of Ten Little Indians box Like many children's rhymes, "Ten Little Indians" cheerfully tells a gruesome tale. You start with ten, and end up with none.
46. AMAMGA_180120_317.JPG: Peanuts illustration related to "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" One of the most popular cartoon strips in the history of cartoon strips, Peanuts is an insular, small, and psychological world. It makes room for Indian characters and story lines because Peanuts is set in America, and there is no America without American Indians.
47. AMAMGA_180120_320.JPG: Iroquois Number Box The Iroquois Publishing Company was based in Syracuse, New York, originally the center of Six Nations (Iroquois) Confederacy. There is nothing especially Iroquois, however, about combining and separating numbers.
48. AMAMGA_180120_323.JPG: Elvis Presley receives a headdress In 1960, Elvis Presley was inducted into the Los Angeles Tribal Council by the Native actor and activist William McGuire, also known as Chief Wah-Nee-Ota. Presley was so honored for his "constructive portrayal of a man of Indian blood" in the 1960 film Flaming Star. In the movie, Presley plays a young man whose mother is Kiowa and father is white. The plot revolves around his difficulties after Kiowas kill a white family. The film is considered one of Presley's finest acting performances, but in the role, he did not wear a headdress or any other Indian clothing. McGuire, who was born in Muscogee, Oklahoma, presented Presley with the eagle-feather headdress on behalf of Native people living in Los Angeles, whose numbers had dramatically increased after the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. McGuire chose the headdress, and to dress like a Plains Indian himself, because most Americans associate Plains Indian clothing with all American Indians.
49. AMAMGA_180120_326.JPG: Miss Tallahassee advertises Pepsi-Cola Always competing with rival soft-drink brands, Pepsi-Cola here scored a perfect all-American trifecta: a bathing beauty; a red, white, and blue logo; and an eagle-feather headdress.
50. AMAMGA_180120_329.JPG: "Arrow-head" poster Native American actresses such as "Arrow-Head" were sometimes featured in Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows. They were promoted as "olive-skinned representations of Oriental beauty." Organizers believed that even an Indian-hating settler would appreciate an exotic American Indian beauty.
51. AMAMGA_180120_331.JPG: Collier's magazine cover J. C. Leyendecker painted more than 400 magazine covers in the course of his 54-year career. For the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, he brought us America's first cover girl -- Pocahontas.
52. AMAMGA_180120_340.JPG: Hollow Horn Bear postage stamp The United States has chosen Indians to represent the country on medals, currency, stamps, seals, and other official items countless times over the past two centuries. Although labeled generically American Indian, this stamp features the well-known Lakota political leader Hollow Horn Bear. He fought in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, became a spokesman for his people, and rode in President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade in 1905. The Apache leader Geronimo was also in that parade. He was an enemy of the state until he wasn't. This was an expensive stamp. In 1923, you could mail a letter for just two cents.
53. AMAMGA_180120_346.JPG: Red Squadron shoulder insignia This United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (better known as SEAL Team Six) insignia is worn by the Red Squadron. Ironically or not, it continues a 100-year-old military tradition of associating American Indians with valor, courage, and defense of homeland.
54. AMAMGA_180120_350.JPG: Pontiac sign The General Motors Pontiac brand featured a hood ornament in the form of an Indian-head profile. It was used from 1926 to 1955, longer than any other symbol in the automotive industry. This metal sign probably hung in a garage or Pontiac dealership.
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- 2020_DC_AmerInd_Patriot: DC -- Natl Museum of the American Indian -- Exhibit: Patriot Nations: Native Americans in Our Nation’s Armed Forces (75 photos from 2020)
- 2019_DC_AmerInd_Trail: DC -- Natl Museum of the American Indian -- Exhibit: Trail of Tears: A Story of Cherokee Removal (39 photos from 2019)
- 2019_DC_AmerInd_Section14: DC -- Natl Museum of the American Indian -- Exhibit: Section 14: The Other Palm Springs, California (70 photos from 2019)
- 2019_DC_AmerInd_REDress: DC -- Natl Museum of the American Indian -- Exhibit: The REDress Project (12 photos from 2019)
- 2018_DC_AmerInd_Tears: DC -- Natl Museum of the American Indian -- Exhibit: Trail of Tears: A Story of Cherokee Removal (78 photos from 2018)
- 2018_DC_AmerInd_Nation: DC -- Natl Museum of the American Indian -- Exhibit: Nation to Nation (33 photos from 2018)
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(Smithsonian) American Indian Museum] [Display ALL (Smithsonian) American Indian Museum photos] [Indians] [Museums (History)]
2018 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Trips this year: Civil War Trust conferences in Greenville, NC, Newport News, VA, and my farewell event with them in Chicago, IL (via sites in Louisville, KY, St. Louis, MO, and Toledo, OH), three trips to New York City (including New York Comic-Con), and my 13th consecutive trip to San Diego Comic-Con (including sites in Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles). Number of photos taken this year: about 535,000.
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Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].