The largest gathering in Washington, D.C. history of Native peoples from across the Americas assembled September 21 on the National Mall to witness the grand opening of the Smithsonain Institution's National Museum of the American Indian (see cover story, Sep/Oct 2004 issue). Beneath a blue sky and bright sunlight reflecting off the nearby U.S. Capitol, some 25,000 Natives who participated in the opening procession and thousands of non-Native friends assembled for this historic occasion.
Hundreds of dragonflies flitted overhead as stirring speeches were made by NMAI Director Richard West, U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence Small, and the Native president of Peru, Alejandro Toledo. Toledo told the audience that he was the first indigenous leader of his nation in more than 500 years, but expressed hope that a new day was dawning in his country for Native people, and he called on those present to forge a new bonds of solidarity, mutual respect and cooperation between the Native and non-native worlds.
His simple but powerful words were reflected and amplified majestically in the nearby new museum itself. The handsome building, adjacent to the Capitol and occupying the last open space on the Mall, provides a fitting home for the American Indian story to be told. It is not a simple tale and varies from tribe to tribe, voice to voice.
In this regard, the museum does a masterful job of conveying the range of experiences the American Indian has undergone in the past 500 years-from the songs of greeting the morning sun to tales of emergence, tools of trade, war, food preparation, the tragic stories of mass famines and epidemics, how Indians are cataloged and numbered by blood quantum, the Spanish conquistadors and the U.S. Cavalry, and the reemergence in recent years of flourishing arts and commerce. The effect of the 8,000 objects on view and the many films, videos and recordings is sometimes almost overwhelming as they seem to lack a thread tying them together, which resulted in more than one major media art critic slamming the facility's opening exhibitions.
However, it is this very diversity, the allowance of specific tribes to shape their story in the way they felt best represented them, and the lack of linear, chronological organization that best represents the Native viewpoint-where past, present and future can exist simultaneously and symbiotically. Perhaps most effective are the specific tribal displays (which will be replaced over time with other tribal profiles), which allow the larger historical arcs to be told on a personal level.
While tens of thousands of visitors moved in awestruck columns through the limestone-sheathed museum, out on the Mall hundreds of Native singers, dancers, storytellers, demonstration artists and other entertainers drawn from Chile to Chicago to Canada held large audiences under their spell at the First Americans Festival. With multiple stages in use, simultaneously one could catch the sweet sounds of Joanne Shenandoah emanating from one area while Peruvian musicians occupied another stage and Grammy Award winner Mary Youngblood stood on yet another! Elsewhere in Washington, Indian artists were hosting major exhibitions and sales of their fine artwork at a variety of galleries and hotel ballrooms, the Cherokee National Youth Choir took the stage at the Kennedy Center, conference participants left a forum hosted by the World Bank, pow wow dancers boarded the subway to head back to their hotels, and tired babies slumbered in beaded cradleboards. It was a day to remember.
Senator Inouye, who played a major role in securing the location and funding for the $214 million museum, recalled in his speech the motivation that drove this massive effort forward. He said he once noticed that "in this city brimming with monuments to presidents, statues of generals and memorials to heroes of American history you could search in vain for a single tribute to the First People of this land." Long overdue, through the vehicle of NMAI, the time has come for recognition and tribute to the Indian cultures of the Americas, opening a new door to cross-cultural understanding, honoring and acceptance. Even President Bush got in on the act, stating at a White House reception, "Like many Indian dwellings, the new museum building faces east toward the rising sun. As we celebrate this new museum, we look to the future and can say that the sun is rising on Indian country."
Details: NMAI-Fourth St. at Independence Ave. SW; 202/633-1000 or www.AmericanIndian.si.edu.
