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# Americans Companion Book

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*Officially Indian: Symbols That Define the United States* explores the nation’s habit throughout its history of using images of American Indians to distinguish itself from other countries and to define itself for its citizens. In 46 brief, illustrated essays, museum curator Cécile R. Ganteaume discusses the meaning and social significance of early European, colonial American and U.S. government uses of images of Native Americans. The book reveals how deeply embedded American Indians are in the United States’ sense of itself as a nation.

Shown in chronological order, the images range from map cartouches to political broadsides, presidential peace medals, coins, stamps, paintings, sculptures, murals, White House decorative arts, photographs of national political events and military weapons and insignia.

*Officially Indian*focuses on American Indians as central to debates over what it means to be American and who shares in the benefits of democracy. The imagery covers such foundational American experiences as the struggles of the colonists, fraternal patriotic societies, the Civil War, capitalism, presidential inaugurations and U.S. involvement in foreign wars. The author argues that the varied, continuous and ongoing use of American Indian imagery provides a fresh perspective on the United States as a nation engaged in an ongoing “democratic experiment.”

**Book Details**

Author: Cécile R. GanteaumeForeword by Colin G. CallowayAfterword by Paul Chaat Smith50 full-color reproductions of objects, paintings, engravings and photographs7 by 10 inches; 184 pages; hardcoverPublication date: October 2017Published in association with the National Museum of the American Indian’s “Americans” exhibitionDistributed by the University of Minnesota Press

# # #

SI-685-2017
Media Only
Bethany Bentley

202-633-8293

bentleyb@si.edu

Janice Kaplan

202-277-5461

janicelkaplan@janicelkaplan.com
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