This program is free to all; masks are required in Joslyn's Witherspoon Concert Hall.

Join us for a public conversation with Gerard Baker (Three Affiliated Tribes) and Annika K. Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Curator of Native American Art, about life in the Mandan and Hidatsa earth lodge villages of Karl Bodmer’s era.

Come early! At 6:30 pm, Upstream Singers, a Native American drum group, will perform in the Storz Fountain Court.

Gerard Baker grew up on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, home to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. His career working for the National Park Service began close to home in 1979, at the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site. Baker has advocated for Native American voices in the interpretation of numerous historic sites, notably as superintendent of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, and the Lewis and Clark National Historical Trail. Baker retired from his position as assistant director of American Indian relations at the National Park Service in 2010. 

Upstream Singers (right), a Native American drum group, was established in 2015 led by Israel Tamayo and is composed of singers from all four directions of Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth). The group aims to revitalize traditional Native ways of life by sharing teachings of the Native American drum through composing and reintroducing their tribal songs to the next generation as well as the community-at-large.