As President Donald Trumpattempts to reshape the Smithsonian Institute, his administration has included a museum for review that chronicles Native American culture and history, including their displacement by a growing United States. The National Museum of the American Indian is one of the eight sites the Trump administration has said they plan to review firstas a part of a wider assessment of the Smithsonian's offerings. Trump hasblasted the museum system as "woke" and "OUT OF CONTROL" and a space "where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been," according to a social media post. The goal of the review, a letter the administration sent to the Smithsonian said, was to "celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions." USA TODAY visited the National Museum of the American Indian,along with four other Smithsonian locationsthat are among the first to undergo review by the Trump administration, to document and describe the exhibits. Here's what we found: The National Museum of the American Indian is one of the Smithsonian's more recent projects on the National Mall. It was previously a private museum in New York City before President George H.W. Bush signed legislation in 1989 that transferred the collection to the federal government. It would be more than a decade later in 2004 when the museum first opened its doors in Washington. The Smithsonian still runs the museum in New York. Guests walk by a babbling water feature on their way to the entrance of the circular building. Museumgoers are greeted by several recreations of wooden boats used by Native Americans. They can peer up at the spiraled ceiling that lets light pour into the building. On the ground floor, tribal flags from sovereign Indian nations, both domestic and international, hang. It's the top floors that are home to what some might consider a challenging history. One of the most prominent exhibits is "Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations." It examines several treaties between the growing United States and Native American tribes, which the museum described as "often broken, sometimes coerced." It explains the different ways Native Americans and settlers perceived ownership of land and how each party made formal agreements. It also explains what the tribes expected to get from working with the United States and how those promises were often broken. Many of the examples are stark, like the Potawatomi Nation which had negotiated with the federal government in hopes of staying in their homelands in the upper Midwest. An initial deal did grant the tribe that, but the federal government pressured the tribe to sign several new agreements, according to the exhibit, the last of which forced them to move west. The tribe of about 860 was eventually forced to march more than 600 miles to Kansas. More than 40 people died. Another notable exhibit, "Americans," examines how Native Americans are seen and portrayed in popular culture. They're sometimes mascots for cigarettes, sports teams or motor vehicles. They're used to advertise the American Southwest, hotels and corn starch. The "Americans" exhibit also offers context on notable events in Native American and U.S. history like the Trail of Tears or The Battle of Little Bighorn. A similar examination focuses on the legacy of Pocahontas and John Smith. "In 1607, she was eleven years old, and she was not in the middle of a love affair with John Smith," the exhibit at one point states. No one interviewed by USA TODAY outside the museum felt that it needed to change to address "wokeness." Some did wonder if the treaties exhibit might capture the administration's attention, but museumgoers generally felt it presented a balanced view of history as was the case for Margo Nadeau and Jo LaNasa. The friends were both wearing some form of American flag on their outfits and were visiting from Syracuse, New York. They're on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Nadeau likes Trump. LaNasa does not. But they both feared political interference in the museum. "I think history needs to say all of the hard stuff," Nadeau said. LaNasa echoed her friend's concern while adding an ignorance of history will lead to its repetition. Lior Dahan, from Boston, visited the museum with friend Jack Myers. The two, both wearing matching rainbow sunglasses, said they both knew a museum about Native Americans in the United States would cover heavy topics. Still, it didn't feel like it pushed a message, Dahan said. "You draw your own conclusions," he said, "whatever they might be." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:What to know about the National Museum of the American Indian
