Comanche
The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...
) is an author and an associate
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
at the
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.
The museum has three ...
Indian Country Today
''ICT News'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations.
It was founded in 1981 as a weekly print newspaper, ''The ...
.'' 12 Dec 2011. Accessed 26 Feb 2014. He writes and lectures frequently on American Indian art and politics.
Early life
Paul Smith was born in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, the son of Clodus and Pauline Rosalee (Chaat) Smith. His mother Pauline Rosalee (née Chaat) (1928–2017) was
Comanche
The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...
. His father Clodus R. Smith is
Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
, and has served as president of several colleges. Paul's grandfather was Rev. Dr. Robert Paul Chaat, Sr., President of the National Fellowship of Indian Workers.
After Texas, the family moved to
Ithaca, New York
Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...
. In 1959 they moved to
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
and next to
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
. Paul's parents were both dedicated to education. They created the Clodus and Pauline (Chaat) Smith American Indian Scholarship at
Cameron University
Cameron University is a public university in Lawton, Oklahoma. It offers more than 50 degrees through both undergraduate and graduate programs. The degree programs emphasize the liberal arts, science and technology, and graduate and professional ...
in
Lawton, Oklahoma
Lawton is a city in and the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Ce ...
.
Career
Curatorial practice
Smith has been an associate curator for the
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.
The museum has three ...
since 2001. In 2004, he was responsible for setting up the museum's permanent history gallery. He curated the ten-year exhibit ''Americans'' that opened in 2017.
In 2005, Smith worked with fellow curator
Truman Lowe
Truman Tennis Lowe (January 19, 1944 – March 30, 2019) ( Ho-Chunk) was an American sculptor and installation artist. A professor of fine art at the University of Wisconsin, Lowe also served as a curator of contemporary art at the National Muse ...
(
Ho-Chunk
The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hoocągra or Winnebago (referred to as ''Hotúŋe'' in the neighboring indigenous Iowa-Otoe language), are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iow ...
) to sponsor and produce an exhibition by performance and installation artist
James Luna
James Luna (February 9, 1950March 4, 2018) was a Payómkawichum, Ipi, and Mexican-American performance artist, photographer and multimedia installation artist. His work is best known for challenging the ways in which conventional museum exhibiti ...
at the 51st
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
, which included a performance dedicated to
Pablo Tac
Pablo Tac (1822–1841) was a Luiseño (''Quechnajuichom'' also spelled "Qéchngawichum") Indian and indigenous scholar who provided a rare contemporary Native American perspective on the institutions and early history of Alta California. He cre ...
.
In 2008 and 2009, he organized a major retrospective for
Fritz Scholder
Fritz William Scholder V (October 6, 1937 – February 10, 2005) was a Native American artist. Scholder was an enrolled member of the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians, a federally recognized tribe of Luiseños, a California Mission tribe. Schold ...
, called ''Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian''.
In 2009 and 2010, Smith produced a show for Canadian artist Brian Jungen, called ''Strange Comfort''.
Smith has worked to promote the work of many other Native American and Aboriginal Canadian artists, including
Richard Ray Whitman
Richard Ray Whitman (born 1949) is a Yuchi-Muscogee multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, and actor. He is enrolled in the Muscogee Nation and lives in Oklahoma.Lester, 619Lippard, 216
Early life and education
Whitman was born in Claremore, Okl ...
,
Faye HeavyShield
Faye HeavyShield (born 1953) is a Kainai-Blood sculptor and installation artist. She is known for her repetitive use of objects and writing to create large-scale, often minimalist, site-specific installations.
Background
HeavyShield, the third ...
, and
Kent Monkman
Kent Monkman (born 13 November 1965) is a Canadian First Nations artist of Cree ancestry. He is a member of the Fisher River band situated in Manitoba's Interlake Region. He is both a visual as well as performance artist, working in a variety ...
.
Writing
Smith is the author, with
Robert Allen Warrior Robert Warrior (born 1963, Osage), is a scholar and Hall Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Kansas. With Paul Chaat Smith, he co-authored ''Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded K ...
(Osage), of ''Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee'' (1996). This account of American Indian activism "has already become a classic and essential interpretive work". The book focuses on three pivotal events in Native American activism, the 1969
Occupation of Alcatraz
The Occupation of Alcatraz (November 20, 1969 – June 11, 1971) was a 19-month long protest when 89 Native Americans and their supporters occupied Alcatraz Island. The protest was led by Richard Oakes, LaNada Means, and others, while John T ...
, the 1972
Trail of Broken Treaties
The Trail of Broken Treaties (also known as the Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan and the Pan American Native Quest for Justice) was a 1972 cross-country caravan of American Indian and First Nations organizations that started on the West Coast of ...
to
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
(BIA) offices were occupied; and the 1973
Wounded Knee Occupation
The Wounded Knee Occupation, also known as Second Wounded Knee, began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 Oglala Lakota (sometimes referred to as Oglala Sioux) and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupied ...
at Pine Ridge Reservation.
He put together his humorous but informative book, ''Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong'' (2009), over 16 years. The book is described by its publisher,
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
Press, as essays that combine "memoir and commentary."
Other work
Smith has lectured at such institutions as the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
in Washington, DC and the
Getty Center
The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion center opened to the public on December 16, 1997 and is well known for its architecture, gardens, and views over ...
in Los Angeles. He served as an academic advisor for the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
series, ''
We Shall Remain
''We Shall Remain'' (2009) is a five-part, 7.5-hour documentary series about the history of Native Americans in the United States, from the 17th century into the 20th century. It was a collaborative effort with several different directors, writ ...
* ''Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong'' (
University of Minnesota Press
The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018.
Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its book ...
, 2009) .
* With Robert Allen Warrior, ''Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee'' (
The New Press
The New Press is an independent non-profit public-interest book publisher established in 1992 by André Schiffrin"Faculty Biography" at
Banff Centre
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...