Smithsonian Museum on Main Street exhibit ‘Americans’ coming to Michigan

LANSING, Mich. — A new Smithsonian Museum on Main Street exhibit, “Americans,” will come to Michigan in 2026, Michigan Humanities announced.

Based on a major exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., “Americans” explores how deeply intertwined Native Americans are in the culture of the United States. The exhibition highlights the ways in which Native Americans have been part of the nation’s identity since before the country began and offers a new way of understanding a few familiar events:

— Thanksgiving was a modern invention.

— Pocahontas was a key figure in the country’s founding.

— The Trail of Tears was a vast national project that reshaped the entire country.

Americans will bring diverse humanities programming to local communitie