Research

The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Museum Research and Scholarship Group aims to advance understanding of Native knowledge, history, culture, art, and self-determination in collaboration with Native communities and scholars through research, scholarship, and repatriation.

The NMAI seeks to be a center for the conduct and presentation of original scholarship by staff members, scholars from other institutions, and Native community scholars. To achieve this end, the museum’s curators, researchers, and scholars engage in dialogues with and solicit the contributions of both respected Native community cultural authorities and academic specialists. Focal points for the museum’s research and scholarship program include: giving greater breadth and perspective to themes that guide the museum’s exhibitions, publications, and public programs; increasing and making widely available knowledge about the museum’s collections; providing electronic access to collections for researchers, teachers, and the public via networked technologies and other online tools; and addressing important historical and contemporary issues affecting Native Americans.


RESEARCH INQUIRIES
COLLECTIONS INQUIRIES
DIGITAL IMAGE REQUESTS



Collections Research

Ann McMullen
Head of Collections Research and Documentation
mcmullena@si.edu

  • PhD and MA, anthropology, Brown University; BA, anthropology, Dartmouth College
  • Research interests: Native American ethnology, history, and material culture; ethnohistory; Indigenous historiography; history of museums; history of ethnographic research and collecting; Museum of the American Indian and NMAI history and collections development; 20th-century Native American art/craft; invention of tradition/cultural revitalization; ethnicity, identity, and material culture

L. Antonio Curet
Curator
cureta@si.edu

  • PhD, anthropology (archaeology), Arizona State University; MS and BS, magna cum laude, chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
  • Research interests: Caribbean and Mesoamerican archaeology; social and cultural change in ancient times; household archaeology; paleodemography; ceramic analysis; history of museums

Maria Galban
Museum Specialist
galbanm@si.edu

  • MA, anthropology with museum training, George Washington University; BA, anthropology, Penn State University
  • Research interests: museum anthropology; Museum of the American Indian history; 20th-century collectors of Native American art, archaeology, and ethnology


History and Culture

Michelle Ann Delaney
Assistant Director for History and Culture
delaneym@si.edu

  • PhD, history, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow; MA, American studies, George Washington University; BA, American studies, Manhattanville College
  • Research interests: American visual culture and the history of photography; Native American photography; Daguerreian-era photography 1839–1860; 19th- and 20th-century art photography; White House photography and photojournalism; mass entertainment in America and Wild West shows, including advertising images and posters

James Ring Adams
Senior Historian, Managing Editor, American Indian Magazine
adamsjr@si.edu

  • PhD, government, Cornell University; BA, history, Yale College
  • Research interests: history of Contact; liminality; North Atlantic studies; Northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and southeastern tribes; Indigenous legal and political theory

Patricia Jollie (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes)
Museum Technician
jolliep@si.edu

  • BFA, Corcoran School of Art
  • Research interests: fine arts; Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere

Halena Kapuni-Reynolds (Kanaka ‘Ōiwi/Native Hawaiian)
Associate Curator
kapuni-reynoldsh@si.edu

  • ABD, American studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; MA, anthropology, University of Denver; BA, anthropology and Hawaiian studies, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo
  • Research interests: Indigenous anthropology; museum anthropology; Indigenous museology; Native Hawaiian social history; Native Hawaiian arts; public history; place-based learning; community-based archiving

Anya Montiel
Curator
montiela@si.edu

  • PhD, American studies, Yale University; MA, American studies, Yale University; BA, Native American studies and anthropology, University of California at Davis
  • Research interests: 20th-century Native American history; North American Native American art; global arts and crafts; Indigenous feminisms

Christopher Lindsay Turner
Cultural Research Specialist
turnerc@si.edu

  • ABD, American studies, Purdue University; MA, cultural studies, The Boston Graduate Consortium (conferred by Simmons College); BA, The State University of New York
  • Research interests: cultural politics of land, history, and environmental issues; Native American governmental relations and contemporary issues; Haudenosaunee history and culture

Cynthia L. Vidaurri
Folklorist
vidaurric@si.edu

  • MA, sociology (folklore), Texas A&I University; BS, government, University of Texas
  • Research interests: Cuba, Mexico, Texas, and US Southwest; general folklore; traditional medicine; traditional belief systems; cultural/heritage tourism; traditional culture in marketing; ranching culture; cultural politics of land, history, and environmental issues; Native American governmental relations and contemporary issues; Haudenosaunee history and culture


Native Arts

Emil Her Many Horses (Lakota)
Associate Curator
hermanyhorsese@si.edu

  • ABD, studies in philosophy, Loyola University; BA, business administration, Augustana College
  • Research interests: Northern Plains tribal arts

Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche)
Curator
smithpc@si.edu

  • High Point High School, Beltsville, Md.
  • Research interests: Northern Plains tribal arts

Rebecca Trautmann
Research Specialist
trautmannr@si.edu

  • BA, humanities, University of Texas, Austin
  • Research interests: modern and contemporary Native American art; Plateau baskets


Repatriation

Jacquetta (Jackie) Swift
Repatriation Manager
swiftj@si.edu

  • MA, American Indian studies, University of Tucson; BA, Native American studies, University of Oklahoma
  • Research interests: domestic and international repatriation; Indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights; repatriation policy and development

Risa Diemond Arbolino
Repatriation Research Specialist
arbolinor@si.edu

  • PhD, archaeology, Southern Methodist University; BA, anthropology, Columbia University
  • Research interests: repatriation; prehistoric agricultural practices; archaeology of the American Southwest

Samantha Hixson
Repatriation Research Specialist
hixsons@si.edu

  • MA, ethnology, University of New Mexico; BA, anthropology, New Mexico State University
  • Research interests: domestic and international repatriation; diffusion and role of the horse in Native North America; archives and collections; community collaboration

Nancy Kenet Vickery
International Repatriation Specialist
vickeryn@si.edu

  • MA, Latin American studies, American University; BA, Spanish, Western Washington University
  • Research interests: international repatriation and Indigenous community development; Latin America and the Caribbean


Outreach & Engagement Planning

Jennifer A. Shannon
Outreach & Engagement Planning Manager
shannonja@si.edu

  • PhD, sociocultural anthropology, Cornell University; MA, social science, University of Chicago; BA, anthropology and biology, Bowdoin College
  • Research interests: museum ethics; collaborative anthropology; anthropology of museums; Indigenous and community-centered museology; public scholarship and social science communication; Indigenous rights and representation; Indigenizing and decolonizing methodologies; NAGPRA and repatriation; Native North America