The Art of Ceremony: Regalia of Native Oregon

Experience a groundbreaking exhibition of historic and contemporary ceremonial regalia from all nine of Oregon’s federally recognized Native American tribes. The exhibit showcases rarely seen artifacts, many of which are on loan from tribes all across the state. The exhibit will be on display at the Oregon History Museum through the end of 2009.

The Art of Ceremony – which was Oregon’s 2008 National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces project – is an exhibition of historic and contemporary Native American regalia, showcasing the diversity of regalia between tribes. It includes handcrafted dance outfits, jewelry, staffs, headdresses, musical instruments, and a 21-foot cedar canoe. The regalia demonstrate how tribes utilized prizes materials indigenous to their respective areas, including objects made of buckskin, beadwork from the Plateau region of eastern Oregon, objects with condor feathers from the Columbia River Gorge, and objects with feather and abalone shell decoration from the Oregon Coast.

The Art of Ceremony is showing in conjunction with a complimentary Native American exhibit, Oregon Is Indian Country.