Address: Fourth Street & Independence Ave., S.W.
Pricing: Free
Phone: 202-633-1000
Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. daily except Dec. 25
How To Get There:
From Washington National Airport, take the ramp onto George Washington Memorial Pkwy. Take the exit onto I-395 N toward Washington. Take the 12th St exit toward L'Enfant Promenade. Slight right toward D St SW. Slight right at D St SW. Take the 1st left onto 7th St SW. Take the 3rd right onto Independence Ave SW.
Parking:Extremely limited street parking
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National Museum of the American Indian – A close-up look at our native peoples
Jan 8, 2010
The very newest in a long line of Smithsonian Institution museums, the National Museum of the American Indian is a museum dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history and arts of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
The museum was established in 1989 by Congress and operates under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. The structure, which opened on Sept., 2004, on Fourth Street and Independence Avenue, S.W., between the U.S. Capitol building and the National Air & Space Museum, is the first national museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans.
The five-story, 250,000-square-foot, curvilinear building is clad in a golden-colored Kasota limestone designed to suggest natural rock formations shaped by wind and water over thousands of years. The museum is set in a 4.25 acre-site and is surrounded by simulated wetlands.
The museum's extensive collections, assembled largely by George Gustav Heye (1874–1957), encompass a vast range of cultural material—including more than 800,000 works of astonishing aesthetic, religious, and historical significance, as well as articles produced for everyday, utilitarian use. The collections span all major culture areas of the Americas, representing virtually all tribes of the United States, most of those of Canada, and a significant number of cultures from Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.
The National Museum of the American Indian consists of three facilities, each designed following consultations between museum staff and Native peoples. In all of its activities, the National Museum of the American Indian acknowledges the diversity of cultures and the continuity of cultural knowledge among indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere and Hawai'i, incorporating Native methodologies for the handling, documentation, care, and presentation of collections. NMAI actively strives to find new approaches to the study and representation of the history, materials, and cultures of Native peoples.
Tour tips: The museum’s Rasmuson Theater offers daily free films (closed some Wednesdays). No tickets are required; check show times at the information desk. Also, check out the museum’s two stores, which are distinguished by a 20-foot-tall Tlingit totem pole. Investigate the museum’s complete web site for special events and lectures.
- by Jim Brown , Washington Reporter for HelloMetro
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Jim Brown Jim Brown is a longtime freelance aviation, travel and destination writer and communications professional. A former reporter for Aviation Daily, Air Safety Week and World Airline News, Jim served for more than 15 years as a senior public relations executive for American Airlines, TWA and AirTran Airways.
