Intertribal Life Newspaper -

Pawhuska, Okla.-In May, the Osage Nation Museum (ONM) will celebrate its 80th anniversary. Taking its place as America's first tribal museum, the museum is dedicated to preserving and exhibiting Osage art, history, and culture on the Osage campus in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

The celebration May 2 will also be the unveiling of the new exhibit: Wedding Clothes and the Osage Community: A Giving Heritage which will run through December 1st, 2018.

This exhibition will examine Osage Wedding traditions in the early nineteenth century and the incorporation of elements from the material culture of these weddings into the "Paying for the Drum" ceremonies of the modern I'loⁿ Schka Dances. The celebration will also be the debut of items loaned to the ONM from the Oklahoma Historical Society, including the war shield of Chief Ta-Wa-Hie (Arrives at the Village), which was the inspiration for the design of the Oklahoma State flag, adopted in 1925. 

Ongoing highlights of the museum include an extensive photograph collection, historical artifacts, and traditional and contemporary art. Founded in 1938, the ONM is the oldest tribally owned museum in the United States.