The Fort Winnebago Indian Agency House, built in 1832 as an embassy between the U.S. Government and the Ho-Chunk Nation, embodies important stories from a weighty period of the past.

At the 37th annual Phagwah parade in early March in Richmond Hill, Queens, spectators danced to tassa drums, tossed brightly colored powders over the crowd and smeared each other’s faces with paint, ...