National Museum of the American Indian – A close-up look at our native peoples
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.
Posted by Jim Brown
