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November 2024

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Features

OPENER - Phil Little Thunder, a great-great-grandchild of the Lakota chief whose village was attacked in 1855. An ancient cottonwood known as the Witness Tree, right, still stands.

The Living Memory of Blue Water

After the U.S. Army ruthlessly attacked a Lakota village, dozens of plundered artifacts ended up in the Smithsonian. How recovering the history of a little-known atrocity is forging a path toward reconciliation

Penguin

Birds on the Brink

From fish smoothies to oral antibiotics, researchers are taking matters into their own hands in a radical effort to save New Zealand’s yellow-eyed penguins

a man and woman rehearse a scene

The Role of His Life

After the Nazis forced Leo Reuss off the stage in 1934, the Jewish actor found a daring way to hide in plain sight

a man crouched down in  wilderness

Relearning the Language of the Land

Humans perfected the art of wildlife tracking over millennia. Now researchers are rediscovering its exceptional worth

OPENER - Still life

The Fruit Detective

Renaissance paintings, medieval archives, cloistered orchards—how one Italian scientist is uncovering secrets that could help combat a growing agricultural crisis

Departments

Discussion

Your feedback on the First Continental Congress, Douglas MacArthur and England's tangled history

The Global Story of Slavery in the Americas Comes to the Smithsonian

"In Slavery's Wake," an international exhibition set to debut next month, illuminates the unfinished work of securing freedom

Floating on Air

A century on, the country’s most beloved Thanksgiving spectacle reaches new heights

Drawing In the Vote

During and after the Civil War, inventive artistry turned American ballots into powerful propaganda

Queen of the Klondike

With flinty perseverance and a golden touch, Belinda Mulrooney created an unlikely empire in the frozen north

The Truth of the Matter

The early polygraph machine was considered the most scientific way to detect deception—but that was a myth

One for the Books

The savvy college librarian who helped create an iconic New York museum

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