Paul Chaat Smith ( Comanche) 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: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, the son of Clodus and Pauline Rosalee (Chaat) Smith. His mother Pauline Rosalee (née Chaat) (1928–2017) was Comanche. His father Clodus R. Smith is Choctaw, 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 ...
. 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. 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 ...
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 ( Ho-Chunk) to sponsor and produce an exhibition by performance and installation artist James Luna 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 cr ...
.
In 2008 and 2009, he organized a major retrospective for Fritz Scholder, 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, Faye HeavyShield, 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 ...
(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 ...
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 occupie ...
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 land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
Press, as essays that combine "memoir and commentary."
Other work
Smith has lectured at such institutions as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Getty Center in Los Angeles. He served as an academic advisor for the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
* ''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 boo ...
, 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 ...