In 1725, five Native American diplomats representing the Otoe, Osage, Missouria, and Illinois (Peoria) Nations traveled from the Mississippi Valley to France. Their journey culminated in an official reception at the court of King Louis XV at the Palace of Versailles, marking a significant alliance between these Native nations and France.
Three centuries later, this diplomatic event is being commemorated with a new museum exhibit at Versailles titled “1725: Native American Allies at the Court of Louis XV.” The exhibit opens on November 25—the anniversary of the original meeting—and will run through May 3, 2026. It highlights research by Elizabeth Ellis, associate professor of history at Princeton University and a citizen of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. Ellis served as a member of the exhibit’s scientific committee and provided expertise for both her tribe and Princeton.
The exhibition includes artifacts and artwork from the 17th and 18th centuries acquired by French colonists. These objects help illustrate how alliances between France and Native nations shaped French influence in Louisiana—a legacy that continues today. Among its featured items are deer hide robes known as minohsayaki. These robes were gifted or traded during French-Native exchanges such as those that took place at Versailles in 1725.
Ellis noted that these painted hide robes are “one of the few sets of surviving material culture items” from that diplomatic era. She explained that they not only display distinctive Indigenous aesthetics—such as the angular, minimalist style found in Peoria designs—but also document what was considered important for diplomatic gifts and trade.
Other items showcased include a chief’s headdress, colonial maps of Louisiana, and a feathered peace pipe paired with another painted robe. The delegation’s activities in 1725 included touring Versailles, delivering speeches to the royal court, and hunting with King Louis XV at Château de Fontainebleau.
Ellis emphasized that “Native nations have been dealing as nations with foreign powers for hundreds of years,” adding that this history predates the formation of the United States. The Versailles exhibit is accompanied by an academic symposium held at Paris’s Musée du Quai Branly (MQB), where additional research on these historic relationships is being shared.
Paz Núñez-Regueiro, head curator for Americas Collections at MQB and co-curator of the exhibit, commented: “The relations that we study in the past are in dialogue with the relations that we are building in the present.”
The collaboration behind this exhibition involves several partners: MQB; Versailles; six Native nations including Peoria; Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; Quapaw Nation; Miami Tribe of Oklahoma; Osage Nation; Otoe–Missouria Tribe; as well as MQB’s Royal Collections of North America Project. This project encourages knowledge exchange between Indigenous communities and academic institutions.
Ellis described how recent changes in scholarship have shifted historians toward working with communities rather than conducting extractive research on them: “That’s something that has transformed…how we understand these histories…the significance of stories like these.” She added: “It’s also been really wonderful to be here at Princeton and be in a position where I have been supported by my University in pursuing what we could think of as public history research—or tribally engaged research…that involves tribal publics, European publics and American publics.”
Princeton University has increased its support for Native American studies recently. In May it announced a new minor program in Native American and Indigenous studies to begin through its Effron Center for the Study of America starting in academic year 2026–27.
The idea for this tricentennial exhibit grew out of shared interests among MQB curators, Native scholars including Ellis, and researchers from multiple tribes who visited collections together as part of ongoing projects such as Robert Morrissey’s “Reclaiming Stories Project.” Ellis hopes more museums will follow MQB’s example by engaging experts from living Indigenous communities to broaden understanding about their collections’ historical significance.
She said: “It’s really…a project of reclamation. The community’s interested in revitalizing hide robe painting…and our understanding of our past.” She added that MQB seeks updated interpretations informed by Indigenous perspectives.
Reflecting on her experience collaborating across institutions and communities Ellis concluded: “One of the things that’s been really amazing for me is…the way these relationships have begun to gradually open doors to help us figure out what else is in the French national collections…where there are other hidden pieces of our history.”
