Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche) is an author and an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian.Berry, Carol. "Paul Chaat Smith and His Pal Irony Offer a Dose of Indian Reality." Indian Country Today. 12 Dec 2011. Accessed 26 Feb 2014.National Museum of the American Indian website:  "Curator Biographies" He writes and lectures frequently on American Indian art and politics.Bio: "Paul Chaat Smith", Banff Centre

Early life Paul Smith was born in Texas, the son of Clodus and Pauline Rosalee (Chaat) Smith. His mother Pauline Rosalee (née Chaat) (1928–2017) was Comanche. His father Clodus R. Smith is Choctaw, and has served as president of several colleges. Paul's grandfather was Rev. Dr. Robert Paul Chaat, Sr., President of the National Fellowship of Indian Workers.

After Texas, the family moved to Ithaca, New York. In 1959 they moved to Maryland and next to Cleveland, Ohio. Paul's parents were both dedicated to education. They created the Clodus and Pauline (Chaat) Smith American Indian Scholarship at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Career

Curatorial practice Smith has been an associate curator for the National Museum of the American Indian since 2001. In 2004, he was responsible for setting up the museum's permanent history gallery.Lonetree, Amy and Amanda Cobb. The National Museum of the American Indian: Critical Conversations. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. , p. 454 He curated the ten-year exhibit Americans that opened in 2017."The Most American Thing Ever Is in Fact American Indians", Primer. 20 Sept 2017. Accessed 27 Aug 2020.

In 2005, Smith worked with fellow curator Truman Lowe (Ho-Chunk) to sponsor and produce an exhibition by performance and installation artist James Luna at the 51st Venice Biennale, which included a performance dedicated to Pablo Tac."James Luna's "Emendatio" Opens in New York", Art Daily. 7 Jan 2008. Accessed 27 Feb 2014.

In 2008 and 2009, he organized a major retrospective for Fritz Scholder, called Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian.

In 2009 and 2010, Smith produced a show for Canadian artist Brian Jungen, called Strange Comfort.National Museum of the American Indian website: "Jungen Show Credits"

Smith has worked to promote the work of many other Native American and Aboriginal Canadian artists, including Richard Ray Whitman, Faye HeavyShield, and Kent Monkman.Benson, Al. "Comanche author, essayist, curator to speak at Aurora U. Nov. 4", TribLocal Aurora. 18 Oct 2010. Accessed 27 Feb 2014.

Writing Smith is the author, with Robert Allen Warrior (Osage), of Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (1996). This account of American Indian activism "has already become a classic and essential interpretive work".Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, The Great Sioux Nation (University of Nebraska Press, 1977, p. 13) p. viii The book focuses on three pivotal events in Native American activism, the 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz, the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties to Washington, DC, and subsequent takeover of the Department of Interior headquarters, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) offices were occupied; and the 1973 Wounded Knee Occupation at Pine Ridge Reservation.Like a Hurricane. Publishers Weekly. 1 Aug 1996. Accessed 26 Feb 2014.

He put together his humorous but informative book, Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong (2009), over 16 years. The book is described by its publisher, University of Minnesota Press, as essays that combine "memoir and commentary."

In 2025, Smith was awarded a Rabkin Prize for his work as a writer and curator from the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation.

Other work Smith has lectured at such institutions as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Getty Center in Los Angeles."Indigenous Art and Museums." Hemispheric Institute. Accessed 27 Feb 2014. He served as an academic advisor for the PBS series, We Shall Remain, Episode 5: Wounded Knee. NMPBS. Accessed 26 Feb 2014.

Personal Paul Chaat Smith's sister, Marti Chaatsmith (Comanche-Choctaw), is the associate director of the Newark Earthworks Center at Ohio State University, Newark. She is dedicated to preserving Ohio's pre-Columbian earthworks constructed by ancient Native Americans.

Publications Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) . With Robert Allen Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (The New Press, 1997) .

References

External links

"Faculty Biography" at Banff Centre with Paul Chaat Smith by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s