Museum of the American Indian: Robert Houle Retrospective, part 1

One of the first pieces that you encounter in the exhibit is an instillation.  Along with a nearby video animation, the piece was inspired by one of the forgotten encounters between indigenous people of the Americas and Europeans.  Between 1845 and 1848 a small group of 11 members of the Mississauga Anishinaabeg people of Ontario toured the major cities of Europe like Paris performing cultural dances, etc.  In the course of the tour 6 members of the group contracted small pox and died including the leader's wife and three children.  The piece "Paris/Ojibwa" depicts a Parisian salon with four figures: Shaman, Warrior, Dancer, and Healer on panels on the walls.  Each looks away from the room to a distant homeland, while ornately represented in the wainscoting below are images of the small pox virus. 

A Daguerreotype c. 1846 of members of the group attributed to the painter, George Catlin, whose career was made on the production of portraits and scenes of indigenous peoples accompanies the wall text.