Visit the Paawats Family Activity Room, which is part of the Listening to Our Ancestors exhibition. Paawats means "bird's nest" or "place where learning takes place" in the language of the Nuu-chah-nulth people. In this part of the gallery, you can handle fishing tools, practice weaving, play a matching game, learn a story, and try lots of other fun activities!

Visit the Welcome Desk the day of your visit for more information.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian will host the National Museum of the American Indian Art Market on December 8, 9 & 10, 2006, at two indoor venues: at the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and at the museum's George Gustav Heye Center in New York City.

At each location, the Art Market will feature works by 35 Native artists including: jewelry; ceramics; fine apparel; handwoven baskets; traditional beadwork; dolls in Native regalia; and paintings, prints and sculpture.

James Riding In (Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma) Ph.D., is Associate Professor of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University. He received a Master's in American Indian Studies and a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has played a prominent role in the development of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University and he is the editor of Wicazo Sa Review: A Journal of Native American Studies. His research about repatriation as well as historical and contemporary Indian issues has appeared in various books and scholarly journals. Moderated by Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee).

Reception and book signing in the Potomac Atrium will follow the program.

For evening program, please enter the museum at the south entrance on Maryland Avenue near 4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW.

Christmas in the Clouds (2001, 90 min.) Director: Kate Montgomery. Actors: Sheila Tousey, Graham Greene, Wes Studi, and M. Emmet Walsh. A delightful concoction of mistaken identity and would-be love, Christmas in the Clouds is a romantic comedy of errors set in a struggling tribally owned and operated ski resort.

Visit the Paawats Family Activity Room, which is part of the Listening to Our Ancestors exhibition. Paawats means "bird's nest" or "place where learning takes place" in the language of the Nuu-chah-nulth people. In this part of the gallery, you can handle fishing tools, practice weaving, play a matching game, learn a story, and try lots of other fun activities!

Visit the Welcome Desk the day of your visit for more information.

Thomas Peacock (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) M. Ed., is currently the Associate Dean of the College of Education and Human Service Professions at University of Minnesota Duluth. Peacock has his M.Ed. and Education Doctorate from Harvard University. He has authored and coauthored a number of books on Native education and Ojibwe history, including his most recent book The Four Hills of Life: Ojibwe Wisdom (Afton Historical Society Press, 2006). Moderated by Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee).

Reception and book signing in the Potomac Atrium will follow the program.

For evening program, please enter the museum at the south entrance on Maryland Avenue near 4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW.

Canadian choreographer Santee Smith (Mohawk) presents her latest captivating work, Here on Earth. This contemporary dance piece is an exploration of spiritual connection to the land, Earth as living organism, Earth as Mother, Earth as sacred. The content of the new work is drawn from the Iroquoian Creation Story with the existence of the Sky World, and the Water World/Turtle Island. The work embraces the belief that humans were originally Sky Dwellers who dream their existence on earth.

The originally commissioned music is by acclaimed World Music composer Donald Quan with David Maracle, and percussionist Rick Shadrach Lazar. Presented in partnership with The Smithsonian Associates.

Tickets required. TSA/NMAImembers - $20; Senior Members - $18; General Admission - $25, and Students - $15. For tickets please call 202-357-3030.

For evening program, please enter the museum at the south entrance on Maryland Avenue near 4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW.

On the 30th anniversary of its original publication, Penguin announces the paperback release of a special new edition of Ceremony. Author Leslie Marmon Silko was born in Albuquerque of mixed Laguna Pueblo, Mexican, and white ancestry. She grew up on the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. Her other books include Almanac of the Dead, Storyteller, and Gardens in the Dunes. She is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Grant.

Co-sponsored by Penguin. Moderated by Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee). Reception and book signing in the Potomac Atrium will follow the program.

Gerald Vizenor (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation) is Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico, and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of more than twenty books on Native histories, critical studies, and literature. His most recent books include Fugitive Poses: Native American Indian Scenes of Absence and Presence (University of Nebraska Press, 2000), two novels, Chancers (Red River Books, 2001), and Hiroshima Bugi: Atomu 57 (University of Nebraska Press, 2003), and a narrative poem, Bear Island: The War at Sugar Point (University of Minnesota Press, 2006).

Moderated by Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee). Reception and book signing in the Potomac Atrium will follow the program.