Cynthia Chavez Lamar becomes the first Native woman to lead a Smithsonian museum

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The Smithsonian Institution has tapped Cynthia Chavez Lamar to become the director of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., which has one of the largest collections of Native and Indigenous items in the world.

She will be the first Native woman to serve as a Smithsonian museum director, the institution announced Wednesday.

Currently the museum's acting associate director for collections and operations, Chavez Lamar said in a statement that she was excited to begin her new job and work with the museum's experienced staff.

"Together, we will leverage the museum's reputation to support shared initiatives with partners in the U.S. and around the world to amplify Indigenous knowledge and perspectives all in the interest of further informing the American public and international audiences of the beauty, tenacity and richness of Indigenous cultures, arts and histories," she said.

Chavez Lamar is an enrolled member at San Felipe Pueblo, and her maternal ancestry includes Hopi, Tewa and Navajo.