The Potomac Corral is a local organization for people interested in the American West. It is one of a number of similar chapters in the loosely-knit society known as Westerners International.

The Potomac Corral is like a cross between a learned society and a Lions Club. Here, scholars, policy-makers, enthusiasts, and the merely curious meet on neutral ground and in mutual respect. An appreciation for the American West is, of course, their common denominator and shared passion.

The Potomac Corral has been one of the most productive and active corrals. Washington, D.C., has attracted distinguished experts on Western subjects to work in various federal agencies, academic institutions, museums, libraries, archives, and other institutes and businesses. Of course, the city has been home to many former residents of the West, and others who simply appreciate the American West and all that is associated with it. Indeed, it is probably the case that Washington, D.C., is the best place to study the West, east of the Mississippi.

Other special items of note and Washington, DC, area events:

	Film Screenings: Reel Portraits: John Ford’s Frontier. John Ford’s films helped shape America’s memory and imagination of the West. Ford also helped create an indelible portrait of the American cowboy in the form of John Wayne. See the West—and westerns—anew, at the National Portrait Gallery with hosts Frank Goodyear and Francis Flavin. Friday, November 20, at 7:00 p.m.: Fort Apache (1948). Saturday, November 21, at 2:00 p.m.: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). Saturday, November 21, at 5:00 p.m.: The Searchers (1956). The events are free and open to the public. The National Portrait Gallery Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, Eighth and G Streets, NW, Washington, DC.
	Lecture: Each week, a staff member of the National Portrait Gallery or a special guest speaker brings visitors face-to-face with a portrait by offering an insight into one person whose portrait hangs at the National Portrait Gallery. Join Department of the Interior historian Francis Flavin for a Face-to-Face gallery talk about Lakota social critic and public intellectual, Zitkala-Ša (Gertrude Bonnin). The lecture is free and open to the general public. Thursday, October 29, 2009, 6:00 – 6:30 p m. Meet at F Street Lobby.
	Lecture: Join Potomac Corral member Jill Jonnes for a PowerPoint talk and book signing followed by film (in English) "Sur les Traces de Gustave Eiffel." Her new book, Eiffel’s Tower, set in Belle Epoque Paris, tells the story of the tallest tower, the World’s Fair of 1889, art, Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, Indians, Edison, French esthetes, Americans in Paris, and the rise of colonial empire. The event will be at Letelier Theater, 3251 Prospect Street, NW, Georgetown, on Friday, September 18, at 6:30 p.m. The cost will be $12 for non-members of Alliance Française, and $8 for seniors. For reservations call (202) 234-7911. The event will be hosted by Alliance Française.
	Lecture: Join Erika Doss of the University of Notre Dame for a lecture "Indians, Corn, and the American West: Maynard Dixon’s New Deal Mural for the U.S. Department of the Interior." Doss will highlight the complexities surrounding government-funded art projects during the 1930s and discuss how American Artist Maynard Dixon negotiated with New Deal tastemakers in his depiction of modern American Indians and the American West. In 1937, the Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture, a New Deal arts program, commissioned a two-panel mural for the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in the Main Interior Building. Saturday, September 19th, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. in the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum classroom, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Please bring a photo ID. Contact Diana Ziegler at (202) 208-4743 for further information.
	Corral News: Joseph Medicine Crow, former recipient of the Potomac Corral's Dykes Award, honored by President Obama. On Wednesday, August 12, 2009, President Obama bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Joseph Medicine Crow and 15 other luminaries. Joseph Medicine Crow is a member of the Crow Tribe of Montana. The Potomac Corral presented Medicine Crow with the Dykes Award in 2000 to recognize him for his outstanding contribution to Western affairs. Corral member Herman Viola worked with Medicine Crow to write Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond, a history of Joseph Medicine Crow's life.
	The 2009 annual meeting of the Western History Association will be in Denver, Colorado, on October7-10, 2009. Please feel welcome to attend the event, even if you are not a member of the WHA.
	Exhibition: Faces of the Frontier: Photographic Portraits from the American West, 1845-1924. The American West was dramatically reconstituted during the 80 years between the Mexican War and the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924. This exhibition tells the story of these changes through 100 portrait photographs of the defining men and women of this period. National Portrait Gallery, September 25, 2009 through January 24, 2010.
	PBS Documentary: The National Parks: America's Best Idea. Ken Burns filmed this documentary over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales — from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska. The National Parks: America's Best Idea is nonetheless a story of people from every conceivable background — rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy. Coming to PBS September 27, 2009.
	Lecture: Documenting the American West - Edward Curtis's Contributions to American Indian Culture and Artistry. Edward Curtis's photographs are appreciated for their artistic merit and their ability to reveal the personality, traditions, and culture of the subject. Marian Hansson, Bureau of Indian Affairs Curator, will explore Curtis's work and how his photographs have contributed to Indian artistry, genealogical research, and legislation. Wednesday, August 5, 2009, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., at the Interior Museum Classroom at the Department of the Interior, 1849 C. St., NW, Washington, D.C. Be sure to bring a photo I.D.
	Lecture: Contemporary Landscape Photography and the Legacy of Ansel Adams. For the past four decades, landscape photography has attempted to negotiate the space between Ansel Adam's vision of an Arcadian wilderness and the details of the neighboring landscape. Toby Jurovics, Curator of Photography at the Smithsonian America Museum, relates how contemporary photography is driven by the same concern and affection for the American landscape. Saturday, June 20, 2009, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., at the Department of the Interior Museum, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
	Theater Performance: Adapted from the American classic by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edna Ferber, GIANT is a daring new musical. Epic in vision and scope, swept with passion and violence, touched by humor and sorrow, Giant is the powerful story of a Texas rancher and his Virginia-born wife as they face increasing challenges in their marriage and family in an ever-changing American landscape. Through May 31, 2009, at the Signature Theater in Arlington, Virginia.
	Television Documentary: We Shall Remain is a groundbreaking mini-series and provocative multi-media project that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history. Five 90-minute documentaries spanning three hundred years tell the story of pivotal moments in U.S. history from the American Indian perspective. Coming April 2009: check local PBS listings for more information.
	Exhibition: Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West examines how photography has pictured the idea of the American West from 1850 to the present. Photography's development coincided with the exploration and the settlement of the West, and their simultaneous rise resulted in a complex association that has shaped the perception of the West's physical and social landscape to this day. Into the Sunset brings together over 120 photographs made by a variety of photographers, including Robert Adams, John Baldessari, Dorothea Lange, Timothy O'Sullivan, Cindy Sherman, Joel Sternfeld, Edward Weston, and Carleton E. Watkins. March 29 through June 8, 2009, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
	Lecture: One Hundred Summers: Kiowa Calendars and History Keeping will present one of those pictorial records, a recently discovered calendar kept by the Kiowa artist Silver Horn covering one hundred years of his tribe’s history from the summer of 1828 to the winter of 1928-29. The talk will explore how Kiowa concepts of representation and intellectual property have shaped the pictorial record. National Museum of the American Indian, Mall Museum Board Room, 5th Floor: Thursday, February 12, 12:00-1:30 p.m.
	Lecture: Dr. Michael Brodhead, member of the Potomac Corral, will deliver the lecture at the next meeting of the National Capital Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, February 10, 2009. Dr. Brodhead will speak on the life of Elliot Coues, who studied the flora, fauna, and history of the American West. The Sumner School Museum and Archives, located at 1201 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., will host the event. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., lecture starts at 7:00 p.m.
	The Indian Craft Shop at the Department of the Interior will hold its Annual Sale from February 17 to February 27, 2009. The Indian Craft Shop is located at the U.S. Department of the Interior / 1849 C Street, NW / Washington, DC 20240 / (202) 208-4056. Please bring a photo ID for entrance to the building.
	Exhibition: A Century Ago - "They Came as Sovereign Leaders" On view at the National Museum of the American Indian are photographs of six great Native chiefs who participated in President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 inaugural parade: Buckskin Charlie (Ute), American Horse (Oglala Sioux), Quanah Parker (Comanche), Geronimo (Chiricahua Apache), Hollow Horn Bear (Brule Sioux), and Little Plume (Piegan Blackfeet). While the chiefs were invited to add color to the parade, they arrived with their own concerns and actively sought President Roosevelt's attention to the needs of their people. The exhibition is on display January 14, 2009 - February 17, 2009.
	Conference: Wyeth Foundation for American Art Conference, December 4-5, 2008. This conference is co-organized by the National Gallery of Art and the National Museum of the American Indian. This conference is held on the occasion of the exhibitions George de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian, National Museum of the American Indian. Sessions are as follows: Images of the American Indian, 1600-2000, December 4 at 3:00PM (National Museum of the American Indian); and December 5 at 10:00AM (East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium, National Gallery of Art). (View a PDF program)
	Gallery Talk: Corral member Francis Flavin will deliver a gallery talk at the National Portrait Gallery on Thursday, November 20, from 6:00 - 6:30 p.m. The talk is entitled "Commanders and Chiefs: Portrait of Sequoyah Face-to-Face Portrait Talk." Attendees should meet in the F Street lobby shortly before 6:00 p.m.
	Book Program: Warriors in Uniforms, Veteran's Day special program. Book panel discussion and book signing. Native Americans have served in the U.S. military since the American Revolution and by percentage, serve more than any other ethnic group in the armed forces. Historian and Corral member Herman Viola has included these heroic and unforgettable stories in his latest book, Warriors in Uniforms: The Legacy of American Indian Heroism (National Geographic, November 2008). The book program includes a panel discussion moderated by former senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell with Native American veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. A book signing will follow. Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m., in the Rasmuson Theater at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.
	November is National American Indian Heritage Month. To commemorate American Indian Heritage, the Smithsonian Institution is offering a variety of programs. Please visit their American Indian Heritage Month page or their events calendar for more information.
	The program for the 2008 annual meeting of the Western History Association is now available on-line. The meeting will be in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 22-25, 2008. Please feel welcome to attend the event, even if you are not a member of the WHA. (Links: conference program (12mb) | WHA main site | Salt Lake City conference site)
	Exhibition: George de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings Combining extraordinary technical skills acquired in Paris with firsthand experience living among the Arapahoe, Shoshone, and Crow in Wyoming and Montana, George de Forest Brush (1854/1855 - 1941) created an important series of paintings of American Indians much celebrated by his contemporaries but rarely seen since. Many of these works were quickly acquired by major American collectors and have remained in private hands through several generations. The accompanying catalogue, incorporating new research, is the first scholarly study of this series. This exhibition will be on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from September 14, 2008 to January 4, 2009.
	Exhibition: Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities. This exhibition celebrates the deep commitment to the American landscape by these two iconic artists—and how both artists intensely focused their attention on beauty in nature. The exhibition includes 43 paintings from public and private collections and 54 photographs borrowed primarily from the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona. The exhibition runs from September 26, 2008 through January 4, 2009, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
	Open House: The Department of the Interior Library is hosting an Open House on Tuesday, September 9, 2008, from 9:30 am to 11:30 am, and 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. The open house will feature electronic vendor presentations, library tours, and a special lecture on George Catlin, painter of the American West and American Indains. The director of the library is corral member George Franchois, and Francis Flavin, a DOI historian and corral member, will deliver the lecture on George Catlin.
	Exhibition: Beyond Tradition: The Pueblo Pottery of Tammy Garcia. Pueblo Artist Tammy Garcia will be featured at the National Museum for Women in Art in Washington, D.C. The exhibition features a select group of Garcia's most important pots and will be the first exhibition of her work at The National Museum of Women in the Arts. The NMWA is located at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. The exhibition runs from August 22, 2008 - February 3, 2009. Learn more about Tammy Garcia at the Blue Rain Gallery in Taos, New Mexico.
	The Journal of the West has issued a Call for Papers for its forthcoming issues. Corral members interested in submitting articles or reviewing books for the journal should read the attached message.
	The Traditional Cowboy Arts Association has released its winter 2008 newsletter. The TCAA was founded in 1998 by a group of practicing gear makers with the intention of preserving the skills of their trades and setting uncompromising standards of craftsmanship. Members contribute their time to educate craftspeople, collectors and the public, as well as serve as specialized advisors to museums and collectors.