Experience Botany of Nations, a groundbreaking exhibition that provides a new perspective on the legendary Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. Co-curated with Enrique Salmón, PhD, an ethnobotanist and author of IWÍGARA: The Kinship of Plants and People, and developed with contributions from Indigenous cultural historians, Botany of Nations offers a culturally layered view of the plants of North America.

Collected on the famous expedition, some of the oldest plant specimens in the country today are housed in the Academy’s own Lewis and Clark Herbarium. Learn how the Native Nations Meriwether Lewis met on the trail shaped America’s plant knowledge long before Western scientists claimed these “discoveries.” Centering the voices of Native Nations who have protected and cared for the lands for thousands of years, Botany of Nations presents plants as portals to Indigenous storytelling and knowledge. You will:

• See 18th and early 19th century scientific instruments, original journals, maps and herbarium sheets that illuminate the role of natural science on the Corps of Discovery.
• View Native American peace pipes as well as Corps of Discovery peace medals.
• Navigate prairie, plains, plateau and Pacific coast landscapes within a model of the trail as you learn about the importance of plants such as tobacco and chokecherry through film, interactive media, cultural artifacts, sensory experiences and contemporary voices.
• Watch a newly produced film about how Indigenous traditional land practices and cultural systems surrounding food provide contemporary solutions to today’s biodiversity and climate challenges.
• Experience a native plant garden on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to learn how you can grow heritage plants that foster biodiversity.

About Enrique Salmón
Professor and Chair, Department of Ethnic Studies, California State University, East Bay

Enrique Salmón is a Rarámuri (Tarahumara). He has dedicated his studies to Ethnobiology, Agroecology and Ancestral Ecological Knowledge to better understand his and other cultural perceptions of culture, landscapes and place. Salmón is the author of Eating the Landscape, which focuses on small-scale Native farmers of the Greater Southwest and their role in maintaining biocultural diversity, and the ethnobotanical book Iwigara: The Kinship of Plants and People. He is currently authoring a new book focused on Kincenteric Ecology and Indigenous plant foods. Salmón has a B.S. from Western New Mexico University, an MAT in Southwestern Studies from Colorado College, and a PhD. in anthropology from Arizona State University. Dr. Salmon is the tribal liaison for CSUEB and the NAGPRA coordinator.

Exhibition Opening and Reception

Friday, March 27, 2026

• 4–6 p.m.
  Exclusive Preview Reception (by invitation only)
• 5:15 p.m.
  Opening ceremony led by Nakia Williamson Cloud (by invitation only)
• 6–9 p.m.
  Exhibition Public Opening
• 6:30 p.m.
  Opening remarks by Enrique Salmón, PhD

Celebrate the opening of Botany of Nations, where plants hand-collected by Meriwether Lewis during the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery (1804-06) become portals into Indigenous knowledge. Co-curated with ethnobotanist and agroecologist Enrique Salmón, PhD, this groundbreaking exhibition reveals how the “discoveries” of Western science are grounded in millennia of Native Nations’ cultural insight.

Thanks to extensive collaboration with ethnobotanists and Indigenous cultural leaders, Botany of Nations highlights seven plants from the Academy’s historic Lewis and Clark Herbarium. Film, interactive media, sensory experiences and cultural heritage materials convey the natural science context of the Corps of Discovery, as well as the profound cultural and ecological wisdom that Indigenous communities have stewarded for generations.

During an exclusive preview before the public opening, Nez Perce Cultural Resources Director Nakia Williamson Cloud will add the final cultural heritage item to the exhibition.

Later in the evening, join Salmón in the auditorium to learn more about “kincentricity,” the term he coined to convey the interrelatedness of all living things. Enjoy a night full of plant-forward activities and culinary delights throughout the museum.

Pricing:
Members: $15
Non-members: $25