Indigenous Motivations
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There still exists a largely invisible story of America—how African and Native peoples came together across space and time to create shared histories, communities, and ways of life. Through centuries of struggle, slavery, and dispossession, then by self-determination and freedom, African American and Native American peoples have become, more often than publicly recognized, indivisible.
—Gabrielle Tayac (Piscataway)
IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas accompanies the groundbreaking exhibition of the same title developed by the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in partnership with the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). Through the concepts of policy, community, creative resistance, and lifeways, the exhibition and publication examine the long overlooked history of Native American and African American intersections in the Americas.
The book features a foreword by NMAI Director Kevin Gover and NMAAHC Director Lonnie G. Bunch, III, essays by leading scholars, and approximately 100 object images, documents, and photographs. IndiVisible illuminates a history fraught with colonial oppression, racial antagonism, and the loss of culture and identity. Uncovered within that history, however, are stories of cultural resurgence and the need to know one’s roots. Guided by NMAI historian Gabrielle Tayac, five Native scholars served as curatorial advisors for the exhibition and contributors for the publication: Angela A. Gonzales, Robert K. Collins, Judy Kertész, Penny Gamble-Williams, and Thunder Williams. In addition to the curatorial advisors, esteemed authors Theda Perdue, Tiya Miles, Richard Hill, Sr., Herman J. Viola, and Ron Welburn—among the book’s many expert voices—discuss race relations in the Jim Crow South, creative resistance, the relationship between African Americans and the Haudenosaunee, the famed buffalo soldiers of the American West, and the roots of jazz and blues. Taken together, the book’s essays and images create a portrait of a vital American subculture. |
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Foreword
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. This book—and the exhibition it complements—tells some of those stories. Many museums see it as their primary role to serve as a repository for beautiful objects. This is important work. We are also proud stewards of very important collections. But that is only a part of the work of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. We represent hundreds of dynamic contemporary communities, and as such we serve as forums for conversations of all kinds. The topic of African-Native Americans is one that touches an enormous number of us through our family histories, tribal histories, and personal identities, and a conversation with and about them is long overdue. With this in mind, we have assembled IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas—a multi-voice project that acknowledges and honors the histories and contemporary lives of our African-Native American brothers and sisters.
This volume explores how Native and African American lives have been inextricably linked by the binds of systematic oppression, the freedom offered in the expression of creativity, and the displays of bravery by countless individuals who chose to define family, love, or simply themselves differently than those around them dared. It affirms how blacks and Indians see one another in our shared histories of genocide and our alienation from our ancestral homelands, and it acknowledges the strength and resilience we recognize in one another today.
We believe this book is both timely and vastly important, not only in terms of illuminating our past and present, but also in terms of what our communities intend to become. We also have no doubt that the project as a whole will be questioned and debated in multiple circles, and we welcome that. IndiVisible is not so linear in its approach, nor does it offer tidy solutions. Material drawn from so near the heart seldom is tidy. But it begins to plumb great depths, examining the complicated and very human concept of identity: who we are and where—and to whom—we belong. We are very pleased that the National Museum of the American Indian, in partnership with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, has engaged in a conversation that will help lead to a greater appreciation of African-Native American peoples. And we emphasize that this is the beginning of that conversation. Additional research and programming, together with the multi-city tour organized by our project partner, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), will lead to an increased understanding of these members of our community and the most excellent vitality that they bring to our national cultural fabric.
As Mwalim (Morgan James Peters [Barbados/Mashpee Wampanoag]) points out, “The big myth of the United States is that the races are kept separate.” Looking at the face of Native America today, we know that this is, indeed, a “myth.” There is a multitude of perspectives to be shared in any conversation about being Indian, about being black, and about being both, and we realize that IndiVisible can only hope to scratch this surface. But from a place of respect and gratitude, we say: This is a beginning.
—Kevin Gover (Pawnee), Director, National Museum of the American Indian, and Lonnie G. Bunch, III, Director, National Museum of African American History and Culture
© 2009 Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved.
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