Explore with us!

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First day to see Americans, a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian, which explores how deeply intertwined American Indians are in the history, pop culture, and identity of the United States.

• Homemade honey and jams by Bridgett Addy (Black River Tribe of Winyah-Dawhee)
• Salves and jewelry by Stephanie Peak (Tuscarora Indians of Kahtenuaka Territories)
• Copper jewelry by Steve Peak (Tuscarora Indians of Kahtenuaka Territories)
• Pottery by Joshua Shumak (Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians)

While many are familiar with the devastation endured by the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears, this is just part of a larger story. In the 1830s and '40s, the United States forcibly expelled 80,000 Native Americans from their homelands east of the Mississippi River. This historic undertaking fundamentally reshaped the United States and Native nations across eastern North America. Learn more about the motivations, resistance, and legacy of the many Indian Removals taking place in early U.S. history. Lecture by Dr. Evan Nooe, USC Lancaster Assistant Professor of History & NASC Historian. Presented in person and virtually.

Few figures loom as large in the story Americans tell about the nation’s beginnings as Pocahontas. Yet the woman known as Matoaka, Amonute, Pocahontas, and later Rebecca Rolfe has often been obscured by the mythology built around her. This talk explores how Pocahontas became a foundational American figure—cast as peacemaker, convert, cultural mediator, and symbolic “mother” of the nation—and how generations of Americans reshaped her story to explain and justify colonization, expansion, and national identity. Lecture by Dr. Kristalyn Shefveland, Assistant Dean, College of Liberal Arts, University of Southern Indiana. Presented virtually. 

Communal Pen will collect audio, written, and video stories, where participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences of the exhibit, or tell a story in response to a collection of prompts. If participants choose, stories will be published on the Communal Pen website and a short publication. Communal Pen showcases the dynamic stories of South Carolina. We create space to amplify and connect unheard voices through storytelling workshops, publications, and our digital platform. Communal Pen is a partnership between The Athenaeum Press at Coastal Carolina University and the South Carolina Arts Commission.

Catawba artist Alex Osborn discusses his research and artistic process in creating his portrait of 18th century Catawba elder Sally New River. Presented in person and virtually. 

Bring artifacts for possible identification by our guest archaeologist, or ask questions about artifacts on display.

Dr. Stephen Criswell, USC Lancaster Director of Native American Studies and Folklorist, presents a workshop on how to record your family or community oral histories.

Dr. Brooke Bauer, Associate Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, presents a lecture about her family’s experience at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Presented virtually.

We have much to celebrate in this 250th year of the American story, yet we need also to recognize and honor the ongoing efforts for Indigenous Nations to obtain their full rights as Nations within our Nation.  The year 1876 saw the last triumphs of Indian martial power in the American West, as well as the painful loss of independence in Indian Country.  Yet we may also claim this as a pivotal moment toward to rebirth of Indigenous political innovation, activism, and assertion of right to autonomy and self-determination.  This illustrated talk looks at how the collapse of Reconstruction in the Deep South prefigured a century of rebirth and survivance among the 575 Indian Nations resident in our United States today. Lecture by Dr. James F. Brooks, Carl and Sally Gable Distinguished Professor of History, University of Georgia. Presented in person and virtually.

• Catawba pottery and paintings by Sierra Cauthen (Catawba Nation)
• Beadwork and canned goods by Marie George (Catawba Nation)
• Catawba pottery by Robbins Family Pottery (Catawba Nation).