For one of the groups, where a lot of the men go to New York City to work as iron workers

This might be the Cherokee--I read a Silhouette romance about ten years ago that had the hero be one of these iron workers. (Who says you don't learn stuff from romantic fluff?)

This might be the Cherokee--I read a Silhouette romance about ten years ago that had the hero be one of these iron workers.

I totally read that one too. Assuming it's the same one.

Also, for the historical exhibits, there was a wall showing the "community curators" for each group -- people from that people who were involved in community historical and cultural stuff and had worked with the museum in setting up the exhibit.

(Who says you don't learn stuff from romantic fluff?)

I used to read a lot of regency romances, especially when I was getting my doctorate and wanted fun reading on the side. I'm now reading a history of the extended Regency and I'm amazed at how much is familiar, from people and places to clothes and carriages.

I totally read that one too. Assuming it's the same one.

Ironheart by Rachel Lee, one of her Conard County books (most of which were very intense and quite opressively dark, overall).

Yep! Most of the books in that series, or at least the three or four I read, are actually pretty good.

Oh, they're very good, which is why they survived the Great Romance Book Purge of 2006--I got rid of about 70 percent of my romances, but kept most of my Rachel Lees and Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quicks, all of my Nora Roberts and Loretta Chases, and various and sundry other titles.

Dark and oppressive romances don't mean they're not good. Kathleen Korbel (aka Eileen Dreyer for her mysteries) writes depressing romances that are fascinating to read but you really have to be ready for it--they deal with parental abuse, adult illiteracy, Downs' Syndrome, Vietnam nurses suffering from PTSD, suicidal thoughts on the parts of the hero/heroine, just to name a few.

High steel workers are usually from tribes of the Mohawk Nation, which is native to the Northeast, where much of early to mid-20th Century high construction was concentrated.

Eastern Cherokee Nation tends more to the southeast mountains, Western Nation to the southwest; neither area has a high concentration of high steel construction. Some, but not a lot.

Mohawk! Yes, the steel workers were part of a Mohawk exhibit. It was a bit more specific than that -- a particular group within the Mohawk nation -- but I don't remember the group name, just that it was about 20 letters long.

According to, among others, this article it was the Kahnawake and Akwesasne Mohawks. They are minorly famous.