National Museum of the American Indian
By LEA TERHUNE
The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian opened in September last year in Washington, D.C. It is a treasure- house dedicated to preserving and promoting the culture of indigenous people.
A few months ago a new jewel was added to the sparkling array of museums that line the Mall in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), 15 years in the making, is about the ancient roots of America. It is the first national museum to be devoted exclusively to the American Indian, and is unique in its presentation of history from the indigenous peoples' perspective. Native Americans from diverse tribes steered its development from the outset, planning exhibits, architecture and landscaping, all of which reflect tribal values.
Besides being a showcase for the thousands of objects collected by the Smithsonian through the years, NMAI highlights contributions of modern American Indians. The museum's founding director, W. Richard West, Jr., who himself is a Cheyenne Indian, said at the inauguration, "Visitors will leave this museum experience knowing that American Indians are not part of history. We are still here and making vital contributions to contemporary American culture and art." Modern works may be found in the museum alongside precious treasures from the past, West emphasized. "For example, one gallery is devoted solely to modern, groundbreaking American Indian artwork, and we have a number of landmark pieces commissioned by the Smithsonian throughout the museum. In addition, we have thousands of our priceless objects-from our collection of 800,000-in the three inaugural exhibitions and elsewhere in the museum." These "landmark" objects include a six-meter carved totem pole by a carver from the Tlingit tribe of the Pacific Northwest and other examples of modern paintings, sculpture, carving and weaving by artists from different tribes.
The fluid, curving lines of the sand-colored, Kasota limestone-clad museum building powerfully evoke the rugged terrain many Southwest American Indians inhabit. It was co-designed by architect Douglas Cardinal, a Blackfoot Indian of Ottawa, Canada, architect Johnpaul Jones, a Cherokee/Choctaw Indian, and GBQC Architects of Philadelphia. Among the several architectural firms on the project was Table Mountain Rancheria Enterprises, Inc., named after and operated by California Indians. Innovative use of light is one of the NMAI's striking features, notably the acrylic prisms facing true south that catch the changing angle of the sun's rays and reflect rainbows of light upon the interior of the 36-meter high Potomac atrium. The total construction cost of the museum is $199 million, plus $20 million for inaugural events, exhibitions and other programs.
The natural world and spirituality are intertwined in American Indian cosmology: each plant, animal and rock formation is imbued with its own spirit, and it behooves the human who shares the land to live in harmony with these sentient beings. So it's no surprise that landscaping covers more than 70 percent of the 1.7-hectare site, and is meant to give the visitor a sense of the typical environment of the Indians of the mid-Atlantic region. Four distinct habitats were created: an upland hardwood forest, lowland freshwater wetlands, meadows and croplands. Trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants utilized by indigenous peoples surround the museum. Plants such as wild rice and sunflowers were important foods, while buttercup and marsh marigold have medicinal uses. Food and medicinal plants are grown on the croplands, where traditional irrigation and agricultural techniques are used, such as the ingenious interplanting of the "three sisters"-corn, beans and squash. The beans are twined on the cornstalk, the corn is nourished by the nitrogen produced by the beans, while the ground-covering leaves of squash provide a natural mulch. Forty boulders, called "grandfather rocks" because they are believed to hold the oldest memories of the earth, mark the entrance to the museum grounds. A nearby fire pit and offering area is a place for traditional ceremonies. Navajo/Oneida Indian ethnobiologist Donna House conceptualized and developed the landscape with a local landscape firm.
The purpose of the NMAI is communication of culture, through exhibitions, educational outreach, performances of music and dance, films, and other events. It is a focal point of scholarly research on American Indian history and traditions. Museum outreach programs to Native communities aim to help revive and sustain their cultural heritage. Food is part of culture, too, and there is even a café that serves updated versions of typical Native American dishes. This multifaceted experience has authenticity because it is communicated through Native American voices.
The opening of the museum realizes a dream that has great significance to American Indians. To many it is a move toward healing the breach created by hundreds of years of bloodshed during which American Indian tribes were decimated by war and disease, moved from their native homelands to reservations, and their lands appropriated by European settlers. As Colorado Senator and Northern Cheyenne Indian Ben Nighthorse Campbell told the assembled crowd, "To all our Native American friends here today I say, The sacred hoop has been restored. The circle is complete." He added, "The re-emergence of the Native people has come true." Thousands of members of tribes from North and South America, Pacific Polynesia and the Caribbean attended the event. Some were participants, marching in the inaugural Native Nations Procession in their tribal dress, some 25,000 strong. Some were performers in the six-day "First Americans Festival"-fancy dancers wearing their finest beaded, butter-soft buckskin costumes and feathered ornaments; storytellers, transmitting precious oral history, tradition and rituals; musicians and artists, weavers of distinctive tribal carpets, blankets and baskets. The heritage is rich, coming as it does from diverse places, from the Inuit of the icy Arctic, from the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho of the Plains, from the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni of the Southwest deserts, and from the Seminole in tropical Florida. Nearly 600 tribes still exist throughout the Western Hemisphere, an estimated 40 million people.
The National Museum of the American Indian opens at a time of renaissance for some tribes which, after more than 100 years of desperate poverty, have taken advantage of federal and state laws that allow them to open gambling casinos and other enterprises on reservation lands. They have reformed corrupt tribal governments. Tribes that were struggling and squabbling over precious little a few decades ago are now able to provide important benefits such as health and child care for tribe members. There are new job opportunities, because business is booming. Gambling is legal in only a few states, like Nevada and New Jersey, but American Indian reservations are exempt from anti-gambling laws, so casinos are springing up on American Indian lands from coast to coast. So are American Indian-run factories and supermarkets.
Although life has improved immensely for many American Indians, not all have benefited. Reservations are still poverty pockets, some of the worst in the United States, where poor nutrition has led to epidemic diabetes, and hopelessness to alcohol and drug addiction. Yet the opening of a museum honoring American Indian culture, one that is a major national museum housing the largest collection of American Indian artifacts in the world, is an indicator of a change in perception as well as an opportunity to change perceptions; it is a matter of pride and a place for coming together for both American Indians and non-Indians alike.
"We want all who enter this Native place in the political core of the United States to understand the deep and wide cultural continuum that is Native America, honoring, to begin with, the great time depth of the cultures and communities of the first citizens of the Western Hemisphere. How many know, for example, that, at the time of initial European contact in the Americas, two of the five largest cities in the world were located in this hemisphere? Or that, during Europe's Middle Ages, a city called Cahokia, near what is now St. Louis, and with a population estimated at some 50,000 people, was much larger than London, England, at the very same time? Or that, during approximately the same period of history, the knowledge of astronomy and geometry in several Native civilizations in North and South America, matched or exceeded anything known in Western Europe?"
-W. Richard West, Jr.
NMAI Director and Cheyenne Peace Chief