Museum of Indians to open
It's a tribute that's long overdue, said the secretary of the Smithsonian.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- The National Museum of the American Indian opens its doors Tuesday, marking not only a grand addition to Washington's grassy Mall, but in the eyes of many native peoples, a powerful symbol of respect and inclusion.
On a spectacular site near the U.S. Capitol, the curvy and flowing American Indian museum showcases artifacts and stories from the first inhabitants of North and South America -- as well as vivid reminders that Indian culture lives today in a thousand rich and varied forms.
"It is much more than a celebrating of the past; it's an ongoing living testimony to the vitality of native cultures," said Lawrence Small, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Dedication to begin
It took 15 years and $219 million to reach this moment, and tribes have begun gathering to make the opening unforgettable. A six-day dedication begins Tuesday with a procession featuring more than 15,000 Indians, many adorned in ceremonial outfits, representing native people from the Arctic Circle all the way to the tip of South America. Then will come dance and song, prayer and storytelling.
"Tears of joy will be shed, I have no doubt in my mind, and tears of laughter also," said Bonnie Wallace, a member of the Fond Du Lac band of Chippewa from Minnesota. "Seeing that many native people from North and South America will be a very emotional moment."
The museum promises to offer different things for different visitors. For American Indians, it evokes strong ties to the natural and the spiritual, underscored by its opening during the autumn equinox. For non-Indians, it offers a window to the spectrum of native cultures through exhibits, storytelling and artifacts, all told from the American Indian perspective.
Erasing stereotypes
That's a different way of telling the Indian story from how it's been done before in Washington. It's one reason that museum director W. Richard West, a Southern Cheyenne, calls it "a truly native place." Yet it's also an attempt to erase old portrayals that many Indians have found offensive, racist or simply wrong.
"People on the East Coast, they rarely see Indians. Of course they see the Hollywood version, the Walt Disney version of American Indians, but they have no idea that there were hundreds of tribes and thousands of variations of dialects," said Floyd Jourdain, the chairman of the Red Lake band of Chippewa Indians in Minnesota.