Indigenous History

This year, The Henry Ford took steps toward building community with Indigenous nations by expanding the institution’s Artists in Residence program, offered annually in Greenfield Village. To kick off Celebrate Indigenous History programming, we welcomed Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe) as the inaugural Indigenous Artist in Residence.

How does one interpret art? How does one view activism or protest? These concepts have merged for centuries to convey a message and drive change. “Activist Art,” as defined by the Tate Museum in London, is “a term used to describe art grounded in the

Navajo, Creek, and Greek artist Anna Tsouhlarakis created “Portrait of An Indigenous Womxn [Removed]” to raise awareness of MMIW and tell the stories that are not often told.

The Paris of the Midwest. That was the phrase used to describe Detroit in the late 19th century. It was a city designed with a mission, and that mission was to impress, which it did. But the city and the land surrounding it were home to thousands of

The presence of Indigenous Americans was purposefully erased from the story of Yellowstone National Park through most of the park’s history, but this has recently begun to change.

Two posters from our collection, designed by artist Mer Young, support land stewardship and Native American voter participation in the 2020 presidential election.

Two sides fought the Revolutionary War — the Patriots and the British. One was angry about not being represented in Parliament. The other became intent on keeping the colonies under British rule. Both demanded control of North American land. But another group is often left out of the historical conversation — the Indigenous nations who had called this land home for millennia. Seeking to protect their lands, Indigenous nations fought on either side.