Wednesday, July 8, 2026 – Trump administration escalates attack on Native American museum narratives
A new 162-page report just released by the White House flags a museum exhibition for what it says is “radical, activist ideology” that “seeks to teach disdain and inspire disgust of our great country.” The report faults Native land acknowledgements, mentions of stolen land, and the use of the term “genocide” connected to an ongoing exhibition by the National Museum of the American Indian (https://americanindian.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item?id=934) (NMAI). The report by the White House Domestic Policy Council (https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/07/saving-americas-story/) argues leaders at the Smithsonian Institution have pushed an agenda of social justice advocacy instead of objective historical research. We’ll talk with Native historians and curators about this new escalation of the Trump administration’s drive to change existing narratives about Native history.
GUESTS
Suzan Shown Harjo (https://www.amacad.org/person/suzan-shown-harjo) (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and Hodulgee Muscogee), a founding trustee of NMAI, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the first Native woman elected to the oldest learned societies in the U.S. – the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Rick Hill Sr. (https://niagaraacademy.org/) (Tuscarora), vice president of the Niagara Academy for Indigenous Relations
Dr. Samuel Torres (https://niagaraacademy.org/) (Mexica/Nahua), deputy CEO of the National Native America Boarding School Healing Coalition
Sierra Biidaaban Nadeau (https://niagaraacademy.org/) (Kchi Wiikwedong Anishinaabe), author of “What the Ancestors Say”, award-wining journalist, and reporting specialist for Miigwech Inc.
Break 1 Music: War Dance Song 1 (song) Burton Fisher, George Fisher, Charles Little Oldman, & Clifford Bighead (artist) 12 Northern Cheyenne Songs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClvvWNHuXJ4) (album)
Break 2 Music: Medicine Wheel (song) Logan Staats (https://www.loganstaats.ca/) (artist) Rainwater (album)
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