Showcases the Native artifacts collected by Lewis and Clark during their epic exploration of North America. This illustrated book shows Native Americans as active participants in the outcome of the expedition, selecting objects of significance to bestow as gifts or use in trade, and skillfully negotiating their own strategic interests.

Far from being participants in a "First Encounter," as the Lewis and Clark expedition is so often portrayed, the objects tell a story of Native peoples already deeply engaged in a far-reaching exchange of goods and materials - sophisticated traders and cultural brokers with networks of exchange that spanned the globe from eastern Europe to the South Pacific decades before the arrival of Lewis and Clark.As historian James P. Ronda writes in his Foreword, "Built on the best historical and anthropological sources, and informed by current critical theory, Arts of Diplomacy gives voice to seemingly mute objects and lets readers hear Native voices in the expedition conversation." Castle McLaughlin is a social anthropologist who writes frequently on the American West, past and present, and Native American art and visual culture. She is associate curator of Native American ethnography at the Peabody Museum.