Finding Common Ground

The National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian are two national museums reframing our views of American history as more multifaceted than previously depicted. As such, how do we talk about the intersections of various peoples, the shared histories?

In February, the program, Finding Common Ground, moderated by Michel Martin, weekend host of NPR’s All Things Considered, focused on the complex, sometimes fraught, history of African Americans and Native Americans, and how these intertwined stories have become an essential part of our American identity. Speakers explored how African Americans and Native peoples have energized each other’s movements both historically and in contemporary times. Collective actions have been shaped by cooperation, conflict, accommodation, oppression, and resistance. “Finding common ground” is not always easy but it is a vital necessity in the realization of American democracy. Distinguished speakers included Lonnie Bunch, Kevin Gover (Pawnee), Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation), Tiya Miles, and Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche). Cosponsored with the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The First and the Forced: Tracing Historical Overlaps in Native and Black America
Tiya Miles’ presentation offers an overview of key moments of overlap in Native American and African American histories. As “the first and the forced” Americans, indigenous and African-descended people have time-traveled together, contending with forces of radical change, suffering  traumas of displacement and violence, and shaping short- and long-term survival strategies. Their histories have touched in significant ways that colored their group and individual experiences, impacted the development of the United States as a nation, and continue to influence contemporary life experiences.

This talk explored two key moments in this history of red and black overlap: slavery (the enslavement of Native people by Euro-Americans and the enslavement of black people by Euro-Americans as well as Native Americans) and schooling (the use of education to “civilize” Indians and “uplift” blacks). Exploring these key moments serves as a means of explicating the argument that Native Americans and African Americans mattered to one another—for better and for worse. And in addition, the intersectional nature of these groups’ position in American history mattered to the origins, growth, and staying power of the United States—the very nation that authorized their subjugation as racialized populations. At the center of the talk was the question: what is at stake when marginalized peoples come into contact with one another, often forming relational ties across generations in the compromising context of pain and loss?

In March, The Smithsonian Magazine featured highlights from Tiya Miles’ panel presentation at Finding Common Ground, an event hosted by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Tiya explains the reasoning behind Native American ownership of black slaves based on “meticulously laid out primary-source evidence” that she presented at Finding Common Ground. Read “How Native American Slaveholders Complicate the Trail of Tears Narrative: The Smithsonian’s new exhibition ‘Americans’ at the National Museum of the American Indian “prompts a deeper dive for historic truths”.

“Americans” will be on view at the National Museum of the American Indian through 2022.