Indigenous Peoples

The fight for civil rights for the nation's more than 4 million indigenous peoples affects and reflects on all Americans. The fight to preserve tribal sovereignty and treaty rights has long been at the forefront of the Native American civil rights movement. Native Americans also suffer from many of the same social and economic problems as other victims of long-term bias and discrimination--including, for example, disproportionately high rates of poverty, infant mortality, unemployment, and low high school completion rates.

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American Indian Museum Launches Online Collection

February 5, 2009 - Posted by The Leadership Conference

Two small oval ceramic pieces with a smiling face roughly painted on; with several long tufts of fur sticking out around the sides.

Dance fans at the National Museum of the American Indian.

This week, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) launched the first phase of a project that will display all of its 800,000-plus item collection online.

The NMAI Collections Search, part of the museum's regular website, currently includes more than 5,500 items and photographs, along with information about each item such as origin, materials, and how the museum acquired the item.

The online display is part of the museum's "Fourth Museum" project, which will make the museum's collection available to people who are unable to visit its three locations in Washington, D.C., Suitland, Md., and New York City.

"Most Americans will never see the Smithsonian, and Native Americans aren't any different," said Kevin Glover, director of the NMAI.

The museum expects to have its entire collection online within four years. Items available online during the first phase include some of the museum's most popular items, such as photos of Geronimo, a Chiricahua Apache leader who fought against U.S. and Mexico expansion into tribal lands in the 1800s.

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