A new exhibition at the State Historical Society of Missouri invites visitors to explore how Native American people have been represented in art and how Indigenous artists have reclaimed and reshaped those portrayals across generations.
Indigenous Identities Today: Art, Culture, and Connection to Place brings together 36 lithographic portraits from History of the Indian Tribes of North America (1836–1844), created by Euro-American artists Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall, with works by Indigenous artists from the early 20th century to today.
Featured artists include Standing Bear, a Dakota artist of the early 20th century, and contemporary Osage artist Norman Akers of Oklahoma, Iowa ceramist Reuben Ironhorse Kent, and Oto-Missouria/Cherokee creator Tom Farris. Together, these works encourage visitors to consider how representation, power, and perspective shape historical understanding.
The public is invited to a presentation by Akers on Nov. 10 at noon at the State Historical Society of Missouri, 605 Elm St., Columbia. His talk will examine contemporary Osage artists and how their work bridges history, cultural practices and the present. A public reception with Akers will be held the same day from 4:30-6:30 p.m.
The Osage people experienced forced removal from Missouri and Arkansas in the early 1820s and subsequently settled on the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma in 1872. Despite this displacement, Osage artists continue to draw connections to their ancestral lands, including the Ozark region. Akers’ presentation will explore how contemporary art sustains these connections and moves Osage culture forward.
Both the presentation and reception offer opportunities to engage with Native American history and culture through the perspectives of Indigenous artists, whose work challenges assumptions about cultural loss, identity and the enduring connections between people and place.
Indigenous Identities will be on display through February 20, 2027, at the William Guitar Little Missouri Gallery of Art inside the State Historical Society of Missouri Center for Missouri Studies.