BEADS: NATIVE CULTURE.

To see contemporary expressions of American Indian beadwork, attend one of the hundreds of powwows around the country held on most weekends, especially during summer. But to see the most diverse examples of historical American Indian beadwork, visit the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in downtown Manhattan. Its exhibition, First American Art: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of American Indian Art, on display through October 31, 2005, features more than 200 pieces from the Dikers' private collection of some 350 items, including clothing from the Great Plains and Eastern woodlands, baskets and pottery from the Southwest and California, and Plains ledger drawings.