National Museum of the American Indian Opens

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian opened its doors to the public on September 21, 2004. The museum is the first national museum in the country to be dedicated exclusively to Native Americans, and the first to present all exhibitions from a Native viewpoint. American Indians played a key role in the design of the building, in selecting items for display, and in writing the wall text and video scripts that accompany the objects. The five-story curvilinear building, located between the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and the U.S. Botanic Gardens, is made of rough limestone that evokes natural rock formations and is set in a four-acre landscaped site that includes a wetlands area and more than forty boulders known as “grandfather rocks.” The building’s special features&emdash;an entrance facing east toward the rising sun, a prism window and a 120-foot-high entrance called the Potomac&emdash;were designed in consultation with many Native Americans over a four-year period.

An electronic photo montage welcome wall greets visitors in approximately two hundred Native languages, conveying the significant presence and diversity of Native peoples throughout the Americas. This message is again reinforced in the Lelawi (leh-LAH-wee) Theater, a 120-seat circular theater located on the fourth floor offering a thirteen-minute multimedia experience that prepares museumgoers for their visit.

Approximately 8,000 objects from the museum’s permanent collection are on view at the museum. Several major exhibitions are complemented by a contemporary art exhibit and landmark works of art&emdash;historic and contemporary&emdash;placed throughout the building.

• The “Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World” exhibition features a star-filled canopy to evoke the night sky and objects including beadwork, baskets and pottery from the tribes of Native communities of North and South America.
• “Our Peoples: Giving Voice to Our Histories” focuses on historical events told from a Native point of view. It includes a spectacular “Wall of Gold,” featuring 408 gold figurines dating back to 1490, along with European swords, coins and crosses made from melted gold. The focal point is an area in the center called “The Storm” with glass walls that change with shifting color and light to showcase artifacts.
• “Our Lives: Contemporary Life and Identities” is divided into two main sections, one created by museum curators and the other by individuals in tribes and Native communities in North and South America. Videos, wall labels, photographs and 300 objects work together to bring important Indian issues to the forefront. The exhibition also deals with the turbulent times of the 1960s and 1970s when the “Red Power” movement was born.
• The “Window on the Collections” exhibition offers a view into the vast National Museum of the American Indian collections by showcasing 3,500 objects arranged in seven categories. Objects include works with animal decorations, dolls, peace medals and beaded objects. The boat-building exhibition is a long-term public program about Native boat-building traditions.

Established in 1989 through an Act of Congress, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is an institution of living cultures dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history and arts of the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. The museum includes the new National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall; the George Gustav Heye Center, a permanent museum in lower Manhattan; and the Cultural Resources Center, a research and collections facility in Suitland, Md. With the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian comprises eighteen museums and galleries and the National Zoo. For more information about the museum, visit <http://www.nmai.si.edu/>.