The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College invites the public to “Rhetoric of Rarity: Accession Language and Tarahumara Collections in the Smithsonian” with guest speaker Joshua K. Salyers on Monday, November 9th at 6:00 p.m. in the Center’s Lyceum Room. Many people experience indigenous cultures for the first time in museum exhibitions. Why do museums like the Smithsonian accept some artifact collections and not others? What influences these decisions by museum curators and how do these influences affect the portrayal of culture in museums? This presentation explores the language of rarity in the accession process, or the process of adding to a museum collection, to answer these questions for the Smithsonian’s Tarahumara collection. Salyers is the 2015-16 Center of Southwest Studies doctoral fellow in Southwest history. The fellowship is a collaborative effort between the Center and the graduate program in the history department at the University of Arizona. Salyers will spend the academic year in residence at the Center performing dissertation research and writing, in addition to teaching in the College’s department of history. This lecture is free to the public, and is the final presentation of the Center’s fall programming schedule.