The Palace of Versailles and the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac are hosting a new exhibition dedicated to the visit of Native American allies to the court of Versailles. In 1725, four Native American chiefs and a Native American woman from the Mississippi Valley were received in France on a diplomatic trip and met Louis XV. The exhibition looks back at this momentous encounter and explores the links between France and the indigenous nations of North America in the 18th century.
1725. Native American allies at the court of Louis XV
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With the creation of the Louisiana colony, relations between the French and their Native American allies grew stronger. A cultural dialogue developed, giving rise to hybrid objects that were both European and Native American: headdresses decorated with fleurs-de-lis, necklaces made of imported pearls, European knives in Native American sheaths. The richly decorated peace pipe became one of the symbols of this shared diplomacy.
During the trip, the delegation was invited to participate in the royal hunt. The guests took part in their own way, on foot and armed with their bows. The exchange of gifts (calumets, headdresses, bows, gold medals) sealed this encounter. The exhibition presents these objects, accompanied by portraits of the main participants, including that of a Miami Native American, never before shown in France.
A series of works on exceptional loan from the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac paints a different picture of these societies, one that differs greatly from the image conveyed by colonial narratives.
The exhibition
With the creation of the Louisiana colony, relations between the French and their Native American allies grew stronger. A cultural dialogue developed, giving rise to hybrid objects that were both European and Native American: headdresses decorated with fleurs-de-lis, necklaces made of imported pearls, European knives in Native American sheaths. The richly decorated peace pipe became one of the symbols of this shared diplomacy.
During the trip, the delegation was invited to take part in the royal hunt. The guests participated in their own way, on foot and armed with their bows. The exchange of gifts (calumets, headdresses, bows, gold medals) sealed this encounter. The exhibition presents these objects, accompanied by portraits of the main participants, including that of a Miami Native American, never before shown in France. Through a series of works on exceptional loan from the Musée du Quai Branly, another image of these societies emerges, very different from that conveyed by colonial accounts.
At the end of the exhibition, an audio guide gives the floor to the indigenous members of the exhibition's scientific council. They evoke the living memory of this alliance and its echo in the current relations between France and their nations.
Learn more about the exhibition at the Palace of Versailles.
The CRoyAN Project
The exhibition has been developed as part of the CRoyAN research project – Royal Collections of North America, coordinated by the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, in dialogue with four Native American nations: the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the Quapaw Nation, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, and the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.
The CRoyAN research project is a major project focusing on the museum's “royal collections” from North America. The Musée du Quai Branly has nearly 250 items from what are now Canada and the United States, collected between 1650 and 1850 and incorporated into the French royal and then national collections. They constitute the oldest material evidence of North American Indian production, which underwent profound changes in the 19th century in the face of Western colonization. This collection is unique in the world and is frequently requested on loan.
Although significant research has already been conducted on this collection in the past, knowledge of it remains very limited. The research project proposes the first major interdisciplinary study of this exceptional corpus, with a view to advancing our understanding of the peoples of the North American Plains, the Great Lakes, and the Southeast, and their relationship with their European counterparts.
Around the exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac
- November 19 and 20, 2025, international symposium “Sharing collections, co-writing history.” Find out more Find out more
- November 20, 2025, screening of the documentary “So Surreal: Behind the Masks.” Find out more November Find out more
- 21, 2025, discussion on the latest issue of Gradhiva magazine, “The Nations of the Great River: A Shared History of Colonial Louisiana.” Find out more
This symposium is supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Ministry of Culture, The Rock Foundation, and the Consulate general of France in Vancouver.