November 5
Fry Bread Kick-Off Event for NAHM
3:30 - 5 p.m.
Museum of Anthropology, Lowry Mall Entrance Lawn
Free
Join MU’s 4 Directions student organization and the Museum of Anthropology as we kick off the celebrations for Native American Heritage Month!
November is Native American Heritage Month and MU’s student group Four Directions has partnered with the Museum of Anthropology to host a month filled with fun activities. Join us for the Kick-Off event, November 5th, 3:30 pm to 5 pm on the lawn in front of the Museum’s Lowry Mall entrance to sample fresh hot fry bread courtesy of Four Directions.
What is fry bread? Made with simple ingredients, generally wheat flour, water, and salt, fry bread can be eaten alone or with various toppings, such as powdered sugar, honey, jam, or savory items such as venison or beef. Fry bread has a complex cultural history. The ingredients for fry bread were provided to Native Americans to prevent them from starving when they were removed from their homelands where they could grow and forage their traditional foods, to areas that did not have or provide their original food sources. Fry bread is a symbol of resilience among Native Americans and is served both in homes and at gatherings.
November 10
Osage Artists Today: Art, Culture, and Connection to Place
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
SHSMO Center for Missouri Studies, 605 Elm Street
This presentation will explore how contemporary Osage artists express, celebrate, and critically engage with our history through their artistic practices. Artworks of Norman Akers will be on display in the William Guitar Little Missouri Gallery of Art inside SHSMO’s Center for Missouri Studies building during the fall 2026.
Norman Akers, Osage artist and educator from Oklahoma will speak on Osage artists and the art that moves our culture forward. Osage Artists Today will examine a selection of contemporary Osage artists and how their work serves as a bridge between our history and cultural practices and the present. The Osage people experienced forced removal from Missouri and Arkansas in the early 1820s and subsequently settled on the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma in 1872. This displacement has led some to assert that there was a loss of culture and traditional practices. However, for many artists, our art engages with a sense of place that continues to include the ancestral lands of the Ozark region.
Presenter
Norman Akers, Osage Nation, Professor of Art, KU
November 12
NAHM Lecture: Indigenous Archaeology at the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
6:30 pm
110 Tate Hall
Join the MoA and MU’s Department of Anthropology for the 2026 Native American Heritage Month Lecture, Indigenous Archaeology at the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, with MU Alum Dr. Ian Thompson of the Choctaw Nation. Refreshments will be served at 6:30 followed by the lecture at 7 pm in 110 Tate Hall.
Abstract: Native American Tribes have always been stewards of heritage. Weaving together a series of Tribal projects that span from improving archaeological site file data, to reverse engineering the manufacture of Clovis points, to heritage landscape restoration work, this presentation shares the ways that the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is using and adapting archaeology. What emerges is a community driven form of research that becomes increasingly multidisciplinary, experimental, collaborative, and synergistic as it develops to meet the evolving heritage preservation needs of a living community.
Presenter
Ian Thompson PhD, RPA Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Senior Director Historic Preservation Dept. Wheelock Academy Historic Site, Tvshkahomma Capitol Museum
November 13
NAHM Traditional Pottery Workshop with Dr. Ian Thompson
3 - 5 p.m.
Museum of Anthropology, Research Room
Free - Registration is required.
MU Alum, Dr. Ian Thompson of the Choctaw Nation will be hosting a traditional Native American pottery workshop for MU students on Friday, November 13th. Learn the process and create your own piece from sand-tempered clay. This workshop is open to current MU students only.
This is a hands-on workshop with two sessions available. Space is limited to 20 students per session.
Session 1: 3 pm - 4 pm
Session 2: 4 pm- 5 pm
Registration opens October 27th.
Instructor
Dr. Ian Thompson is an alum of MU and member of the Choctaw Nation.
Sponsored by the Museum of Anthropology and Four Directions Student Organization.
November 17
Powwow People | Free film screening
6:00 pm
Ragtag Cinema, 10 Hitt Street
Join us at Ragtag Cinema for a free screening of the documentary film, Powwow People in celebration of Native American Heritage Month and as part of the “American Music on Screen” series.
This program is brought to you by the Budds Center for American Music Studies, the MU Museum of Anthropology, and MU’s Four Directions.
ORGANIZERS
