WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

I want to create enough interest in water through my work

that others will begin to share the same beauty and the same understanding that I have.

What the work of renowned indigenous organizations and the same understanding that I have.

What the work of renowned indigenous artist Truman Lowe reveals about the story of American art. It's Friday, May 1st, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBOR, Boston.

I'm Shiko Thé Uli.

Today on the show, we continue our series examining 25 objects that help tell the story of America in honor of the country's 250th birthday,

including an essential relic of the past that helped predict the future.

Before the dawn of broadcast, Americans got their weather reports at a frequented neighborhood fixture.

And because at the time, most rural Americans were having to go to the post office to pick up their mail,

it had the forecast and the synopsis of what would happen the day before.

But first, American history is often told through dates and documents.

But in a new exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Indian, it's told through running water and dense forests.

The exhibit titled Water's Edge showcases the work of the late Ho-Chunk artist Truman Lowe.

Rebecca Troutman is the curator of this new exhibit and tells Indira Lachmanon about feather canoe.

It's a minimalist sculpture made of willow saplings, feathers, and copper wire.

Yes, so it's a very kind of delicate, minimalist sculpture made using peeled willow branches

or saplings with white feathers suspended within. It's made in the shape of a canoe, but Truman Lowe is

kind of reducing, simplifying the shape of the canoe to its essence. It has an openness and an airiness to it

that really gives the sense of floating or of suspension in the air. And to give listeners who

can't see it an idea, I just want to say that it's the size, it's life size, like a real canoe,

and it's just beautiful.

...