Alan Michelson: Wolf Nation

Four hundred years ago, when the Dutch arrived in what is now Manhattan, there was a Lenape fishing and planting site called Sapponckanikan (tobacco field), near what is currently the foot of Gansevoort Street close to the Museum. The tobacco the Lenape grew here was not the commercial strain cultivated for the European, and later the American market, and it was not casually smoked. It was, and remains, a sacred herb used ceremonially by Native people across Turtle Island, the Indigenous name for North America.

Sapponckanikan (Tobacco Field), an interactive, site-specific augmented reality installation in the lobby, recalls and honors the Lenape and their tobacco field. 

This artwork was produced with artist Steven Fragale.

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