ARUN RATH, HOST:
For centuries, treaties have defined the relationship between Native American nations and the U.S. They reflect a history of many broken promises. Hansi Lo Wang, of NPR's Code Switch team, reports on a rare exhibit in Washington, D.C., that looks back at this history.
HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: One of the first treaties between the U.S. and Native American nations was signed in 1794. It's on display now at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian - a movie poster-sized contract stitched together from pieces of parchment.
That's very big.
KEVIN GOVER: Literally, writ large.
WANG: Kevin Gover, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, is the museum's director. He points to some notable names on the Treaty of Canandaigua, also known as the Pickering Treaty, between the U.S. and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, or the Six Nations, based in New York. There's the signature of Seneca Chief Cornplanter and President George Washington, who starts the treaty with the greeting.
GOVER: To all, to whom these presents shall come, whereas a treaty of peace and friendship between the United States.
WANG: The treaty secured an ally for the young U.S. government after the Revolutionary War and returned more than a million acres to the Haudenosaunee. Their territory has been cut down over the years, but more than two centuries later, the U.S. has kept one promise.
GOVER: Article 6 says that they will provide goods in the amount of $4,500, which shall be expended yearly forever.
WANG: Every year, those goods from the U.S. government include bolts of cloth to distribute to tribal citizens. Haudenosaunee leaders have said that cloth is more important than money because it's a way to remind the U.S. of the treaty terms, large and small. At least seven other original paper treaties will be featured in the museum exhibit, which will rotate about every six months. For now, the ones not on display are kept at the National Archives, where one almost forgotten treaty is stored underground.
JIM ZEENDER: We're looking at one of the unratified California treaties.
WANG: Well, it's smaller than I expected.
Jim Zeender, of the National Archives, pulls out a treaty from 1852 that will be on display next fall. Its light-blue pages are signed without ratifying seals or ribbons, like 17 other unratified treaties signed by representatives of the U.S. government and Native American nations in California. Suzanne Shown Harjo, of the Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee Indian nations, curated the museum exhibit. She says many American Indians in California suffered without treaty protection.
SUZANNE SHOW HARJO: They were not only scattered from their lands and lots of people murdered during the gold rush, but they were erased from history.
WANG: California lawmakers pressured the U.S. Senate not to approve ratification for the treaties, which promised reservation land to the Native American nations. And there was one reason driving their decision, according to Harjo.
HARJO: Gold - the answer is always gold. And if it's not gold, it's silver. And if it's not silver, it's copper. And if it's not, go right through the metal chart (laughter).
WANG: Harjo says while many treaties resulted in tragedies, she hopes museum visitors will take away the full spin of this diplomatic history.
HARJO: People always think of broken treaties and the bad paper and the bad acts and that is our reality, but it didn't begin there. It began on an honorable footing.
WANG: And anyone who wants a strong footing in American history, Harjo adds, needs to understand the history of these treaties. The exhibit "Nation To Nation" runs at the National Museum of the American Indian until fall of 2018. Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News.