Angel DeCora Memorial Museum/Research Center

The Angel De Cora Museum and Research Center’s mission is to identify, preserve, protect, and promote the history, art, culture, accomplishments and sacrifices of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and its people. The museum also provides the community and public an opportunity to explore, learn, and experience the rich and unique history and culture. We are entrusted with the protection and revitalization of our Hōcąk traditions and are tasked with documenting lifeways, the retention of traditional knowledge, and other aspects of our cultural heritage.

The museum is named after Hōcąk tribe member Angel De Cora (Hinųk Mą̄xiwi Kerenąka). Born circa 1869-1871, Angel would become one of the first nationally known Native American artists. As a little girl, she was taken to the Hampton Indian School in Virginia. After completing her time there, she went on to study and graduate from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts . She continued to study art at other schools including the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, Cowles Art School, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. and she would help create the first Native American Arts class at Carlisle Indian School where she later met and married her husband William Henry Dietz. At Carlisle, Angel worked with native students and helped them maintain and reconnect with their cultural roots through art, she would work at the school for nine years. In the 1910s De Cora was a member of the Society of American Indians and a figure in the early Native rights movement. Angel passed into the spirit world in 1919 after succumbing to pneumonia. As a boarding school survivor, artist, educator, & activist, we are honored to have her as our namesake.