Current Exhibits

Come visit the wild west, a world where American whiskey sparked a Mexican rebellion!

The C. E. Smith Museum of Anthropology invites you to take a step back in time to when the Southwest was under Mexican control, its resources eyed greedily by settlers from the United States. As the U.S. expanded westward, the frontier quickly became a more complicated place. Local Mexican and Indigenous populations were faced with the prospect of sharing their scarce resources with American newcomers. One such easterner, a merchant named Simeon Turley, established a whiskey distillery in northern New Mexico, producing a ripple effect that would end in bloody rebellion. Visit our exhibit now to learn about daily life at Turley’s Mill and the Taos Rebellion of 1847 through artifacts, documents, and oral histories!

Location : Hayward Campus, Meiklejohn Hall 4047

Previous Dates:  March 11- May 10, 2024, & October 14 - December 13, 2024

Restoring Indigenous Burning in California

Fall 2022 postcard

Wildfire is enshrouding California in unprecedented ways: destroying homes, taking lives, and toxifying the air. Yet, fire is a necessity for humanity. From time immemorial, Indigenous peoples of California developed positive and reciprocal relationships with fire. Learn about how Indigenous peoples intentionally set fires to maintain critical foods, fibers, and connections to place, while reducing wildfire severity and spread. These practices have profound effects on ecological and cultural revitalization, and have the potential to repair the harm of past land and fire management.

Location : Hayward Campus, Meiklejohn Hall 4047

Learn more:

• From Fear To Respect: How Indigenous People Use Fire
• Fire Dendrochronology and Chronology

Previous Dates: January 30 - May 6, 2023, October 22 - December 9, 2022,

March 11- May 10, 2024, & October 14 - December 13, 2024

Photo of the Klamath River Prescribed Fire Training Exchange by Stormy Staats

A gallery highlighting traditions and technologies of mud and mud-brick construction

Of Land, Sky, and Humanity

Fall 2022 postcard

Fundamental to working with adobe is creating adobe structures as a community.

Our exhibition honors this long tradition, and showcases the practice of Joanna Keane-Lopez, an artist and adobera who sees working with adobe as a way of bringing people together. Explore her latest collaboration in this long tradition, which involves working with Cal State East Bay and UC Berkeley students to build hornos (ovens). Visit the museum to discover the process of creating adobe, learn how adobe connects people to the land and sky, and see how adobe installations reveal the beauty in mud, through strength and simplicity.

Location : Hayward Campus, Meiklejohn Hall 4047

 Previous Dates: January 30 - May 6, 2023,  October 22 - December 9, 2022,

March 11- May 10, 2024, & October 14 - December 13, 2024