NMAI exhibit featuring Littlefield contributions opens

PRLog (Press Release) - Nov 11, 2009 -
On November 10, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) hosted the opening of the traveling exhibit “IndiVisible:  African-Native American Lives in the Americas.”  The exhibit is the product of a number of years of planning and work by NAMI, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services.
   Kevin Gover, Director of NMIA and Lonnie Bunch, Director of NMAAHC, have said about the exhibit’s content:  “Since the early days of U. S. history, Native Americans and African Americans have been linked by fate, by choice, and by blood.  Terrible and remarkable things have passed over and between our communities, as well as the communities we have created together.”  To encourage discussion and public awareness of the subject, the exhibit focuses on four themes:  Race and Policy, Community, Creative Resistance, and Lifeways.
   Organizations and institutions throughout the United States can apply to host the exhibit.  To encourage public discussion, viewers of the exhibit may purchase a book titled IndiVisible:  African-Native American Lives in the Americas, edited by Gabrielle Tayac and published by NMAI.  The book consists of 27 essays and more than 100 illustrations that amplify the content of the exhibit panels.
   Sequoyah Research Center Director Daniel Littlefield was a member of the planning team who determined the structure and content of the exhibit.  An essay by Littlefield, “The Cherokee Freedmen:  Cherokee Citizens by Treaty,” appears in the section on Community.
   In the 1970s and 1980s Littlefield published four books on African-descended people in Indian Country and is today considered one of the world’s leading authorities on African-Indian history.