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.

Next Meeting of the Potomac Corral: Early Autumn 2011

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

	Movie: A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys are all that stand in their way. COWBOYS & ALIENS is directed by stars Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, and Olivia Wilde. Jon Favreau, who also directed IRON MAN, directs; Ron Howard is the producer. Arriving the theatres on Friday, July 29. Check local listings for movie times.
	Musical: Rodgers and Hammerstein's OKLAHOMA! The best-selling show in Arena Stage's 60-year history is back for 12 weeks only! This is not your mother’s Oklahoma!. Inspired by the toughness of the prairie, Artistic Director Molly Smith sets her production in the robust world of territory life filled with a dynamic cast as rich and complex as the great tapestry of America itself. With Rodgers and Hammerstein’s timeless music, Oklahoma! celebrates the vigor of America’s pioneering spirit with athletic dance and boot-stomping energy. Chock full of classic tunes such as “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” and “People will Say We’re in Love,” this muscular production will thrill audiences young and old. July 8 - October 2, 2011 at the Arena Stage at 1101 Sixth Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024.
	Exhibition: In celebration of the seventh annual National Day of the Cowboy, the Department of the Interior’s Office of the Civil Rights, in cooperation with the Interior Library and Interior Museum, will present "Images of an American Icon: The Cowboy." The exhibit features the art of visual artist Elizabeth C. Pester and the photographs of anthropologist Sabiyha Prince.  Both will be on hand to answer questions about their works.  Also on hand will be Frederick E. Carter, also known as "The Zydeco Cowboy." Mr. Carter is a radio personality at WPFW Radio 89.3FM here in Washington, DC, as well as a local horse trainer and lecturer. The exhibition is Wednesday, July 27, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Stewart L. Udall Main Interior Building at 1849 C Street, NW, in Washington, DC.  Be sure to bring a photo ID.
	Exhibition: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Warriors: Photographs by Gertrude Käsebier. In 1898, inspired by a grand parade of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West troupe en route to New York City’s Madison Square Garden, photographer Gertrude Käsebier (1852-1934) began a project to photograph Sioux Indians traveling with the show. On view are approximately 60 original platinum and gum-bichromate photographs printed from original glass negatives, pictograph drawings made by the Sioux Indians while in the studio, historic camera and studio equipment, and items representing Buffalo Bill’s Wild West from collections of the museum and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. The exhibition runs from mid-April 2011 to mid-June 2011 at the Smithsonian's Ripley Center (International Gallery).
	Exhibit: The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian will open “R.C. Gorman: Early Prints and Drawings, 1966–1974,” an exhibition of 28 drawings and lithographs by internationally renowned Navajo artist R.C. Gorman Jan. 13, 2011. The exhibition will represent his early work with the female form and the Indian “madonnas” that later brought him global acclaim. The exhibition will remain on view in the second-level Sealaska Gallery through May 1, 2011.
	Artist Visit: Eddie Morrison visits DOI Indian Crafts Shop on April 15 & 16, 2011. Visit The Indian Craft Shop and meet Eddie Morrison, a noted Cherokee sculptor from Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Eddie will be visiting The Indian Craft Shop from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. each day to meet visitors and talk about his art. Eddie Morrison has become well recognized for his sculptures in both wood and stone, particularly sculptures carved from his ‘recycled’ Kansas limestone fence posts, as well as using fallen cedar wood. The Indian Craft Shop is located on the first floor of the Main Interior Building (room 1342), 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Telephone: 202-208-4056. Be sure to bring a photo ID.
	Report: The Western History Association has complied a 50-year anniversary report discussing the state of the organization and making recommendations for future changes. WHA members are invited to comment on this report.  Send your comments to the following email address: westernhistoryassociation@gmail.com. The comment period is open from January 25 to March 16, 2011. The comments received to date are posted on the WHA's "archives" page. A letter from twenty-one past WHA presidents on Montana The Magazine of Western History is also posted.
	Awards: Each year Westerners International conducts an award and scholarship program. The winners are announced at the annual Westerners International Breakfast and Book Auction at the fall meeting of the Western History Association. Unless otherwise noted, awards are given in each category for First, Second and Third place. The deadline for the entries is always April 30th. Entry forms are available on the WI website. To enter, you must be a member of WI.
	Awards: The Western History Association offers a wide range of awards recognizing outstanding scholarship on the American West. These awards are numerous, and cover public history, published articles, and books. Please view the awards here. Several of these have been named for individuals who have also won the Potomac Corral's Dykes Award, such as John C. Ewers, Francis Paul Prucha, and Robert Utley.
	Lecture: Felix Cohen: Father of Federal Indian Law. Felix Solomon Cohen joined the U.S. Department of the Interior Solicitor's Office in 1933. Learn how Cohen's experiences as a Jewish American and the persecution of European Jews before and during World War II shaped his career and legal philosophy. Dalia Tsuk Mitchell, Professor of Law and History at The George Washington University will discusses how his philosophy was inextricably bound to debates concerning the place of political, social, and cultural groups within American democracy. Wednesday, December 1, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Sidney R. Yates Auditorium, at the Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20240.
	IMAX Movie: Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk. The Smithsonian IMAX presents a story of the worldwide water crisis and the great drought now plaguing the American Southwest. Audiences will join a team of explorers on an exhilarating Colorado River whitewater adventure through the Grand Canyon as they seek important answers about water conservation. Check website for showtimes. Samuel C. Johnson IMAX Theater, National Museum of Natural History, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20560.
	Lecture: GO EAST, Young Man (or Woman)!: American Indians, Education, and Turn-of-the-Century America. In the late nineteenth century, an increasing number of American Indians left rural communities in the American West to attend boarding schools, like Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, or institutions of higher learning, like Dartmouth and Yale. Dr. Francis Flavin will discuss individuals like Charles Eastman (Wahpeton Sioux), Henry Roe Cloud (Winnebago), Gertrude Bonin (Yankton Sioux), and Carlos Montezuma (Yavapai) and their ideas about the issues facing Indian people at the turn of the century. Wednesday, November 3, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., Rachel Carson Room, Department of the Interior Building, 1849 C St., NW, Washington, DC, 20240. Special Assistance – For those in need of special assistance (such as an interpreter for the hearing impaired) or inquiries regarding the accessible entrance, please notify museum staff at (202) 208-4743 in advance of the program. Special needs will be accommodated whenever possible.
	Lecture: America's Dangerous Volcanoes. It has been thirty years since Mount Saint Helens reawakened, but what other volcanoes pose the threat of lava flows, toxic gases, volcanic ash, and mudflows? Bill Burton of the U.S. Geological Survey Volcano Hazards Program will discuss the efforts being made by the federal government to monitor volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, and Yellowstone for eruptive activity. Wednesday, September 1, 2010, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Rachel Carson Room, Main Interior Building, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Special Assistance – For those in need of special assistance (such as an interpreter for the hearing impaired) or inquiries regarding the handicapped entrance, please notify museum staff at (202) 208-4743 in advance of the program.
	Exhibition: Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction. Georgia O'Keeffe is one of canonical figures in 20th century American art. She is perhaps most famously associated with New Mexico and the American Southwest, where she resided in later life. Included in the exhibition are more than 100 paintings, drawings, and watercolors by O'Keeffe, dating from 1915 to the late 1970s, and 12 photographic portraits of her by her husband, Alfred Stieglitz. February 6 through May 9, 2010, at the Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St., NW, Washington, DC.
	Exhibition by Potomac Corral Member: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Warriors: Photographs by Gertrude Käsebier, by Michelle Delaney. The exhibition is the result of a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.  The exhibition opened on April 10, 2010 and will be on view until August 8, 2010. There are plans for the exhibition to travel back to the National Museum of American History this fall.
	Obituary: Wilma Mankiller, the woman to be elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in modern times, whose leadership on social and financial issues made her tribe a national role model, died April 6, 2010, at her home in Oklahoma. She was 64 years old. Wilma Mankiller led the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma from 1985 to 1995. President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998, and she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. See the Washington Post's obituary for more information.
	Exhibition: Framing the West. Timothy H. O'Sullivan (1840–1882) was a photographer for two of the most ambitious geographical surveys of the nineteenth century. He traversed the mountain and desert regions of the western United States under the command of Clarence King and Lt. George M. Wheeler for six seasons between 1867 and 1874. O'Sullivan developed a forthright and rigorous style in response to the landscapes of the American West, and returned to Washington, D.C. with hundreds of photographs that revealed an artist whose reach far surpassed the demands of practical documentation. February 12, 2010 - May 9, 2010 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
	Lecture: When Art Worked: Art, the New Deal, and Democracy. Roger Kennedy, former Director of the National Park Service, and Director Emeritus of the National Museum of American History, will discuss how the New Deal put the arts, including painting, music, theater, and architecture, to work and its influence on the development of the National Park Service. Wednesday, March 10, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., U.S. Department of the Interior Auditorium, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC (view map). Photo ID required. Please call please call museum staff at (202) 208-4743 for any further questions.
	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 19, 2009, 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.
	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.