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National Museum of the American Indian

 
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National Museum of the American Indian
 
 
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The Smithsonian’s 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.






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National Museum of the American Indian
Interior of the National Museum of the American Indian
The Smithsonian’s 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. It was established in 1989 through an Act of Congress
Act of Congress

An act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States government....
. Operating under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its Financial endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazine....
, it has three facilities: the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall
National Mall

The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the Capital of the United States. Officially termed by the National Park Service the National Mall & Memorial Parks, the term commonly includes the areas that are officially part of West Potomac Park and Constitution Gardens to the west, and often is taken to...
 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....
, which opened on September 21, 2004 on Fourth Street and Independence Avenue Southwest; the George Gustav Heye Center
The George Gustav Heye Center

The George Gustav Heye Center is the branch in New York City of the National Museum of the American Indian, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution....
, a permanent museum in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
; and the Cultural Resources Center, a research and collections facility in Suitland, Maryland.

Locations


National Mall

The site on the National Mall
National Mall

The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the Capital of the United States. Officially termed by the National Park Service the National Mall & Memorial Parks, the term commonly includes the areas that are officially part of West Potomac Park and Constitution Gardens to the west, and often is taken to...
 opened in September 2004. Fifteen years in the making, it is the first national museum in the country dedicated exclusively to Native Americans. The five-story, , curvilinear building is clad in a golden-colored Kasota limestone
Kasota limestone

Kasota limestone or simply, 'Kasota stone,' is a dolomite limestone found in southern Minnesota. This sedimentary rock is part of the Oneota Dolostone Formation of southern Minnesota and is approximately 450 million years old ....
 designed to evoke natural rock formations shaped by wind and water over thousands of years. The museum is set in a -site and is surrounded by simulated wetland
Wetland

File:Mangrove trees in Everglades.JPGA wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water....
s. The museum’s east-facing entrance, its prism window and its high space for contemporary Native performances are direct results of extensive consultations with Native peoples. Similar to the Heye Center
The George Gustav Heye Center

The George Gustav Heye Center is the branch in New York City of the National Museum of the American Indian, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution....
 in Lower Manhattan, the museum offers a range of exhibitions, film and video screenings, school group programs, public programs and living culture presentations throughout the year.

The museum’s architect
Architect

An architect is trained and licenced in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e....
 and project designer is the Canadian
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 Douglas Cardinal
Douglas Cardinal

Douglas Joseph Cardinal, Order of Canada is a Canada architect.Born in Alberta of M?tis people and Blackfoot heritage, Cardinal is famous for flowing architecture marked with smooth lines, influenced by his Aboriginal peoples in Canada heritage as well as European Expressionist architecture ...
 (Blackfoot
Blackfoot

The Blackfoot Confederacy or Niits?tapi is the collective name of three First Nations in Alberta and one Native Americans in the United States Tribal sovereignty in Montana....
); its design architects are GBQC Architects of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population city in the United States. It is the fifth-largest metropolitan area and fourth-largest urban area by population in the United States, the nation's fourth-largest consumer media market as ranked by the Nielsen Media Research, and the 49th-most...
 and architect Johnpaul Jones (Cherokee
Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native Americans in the United States people orginally from the Southeastern United States . They are linguistically connected to speakers of the Iroquoian language....
/Choctaw
Choctaw

The Choctaw are a Native Americans in the United States people originally from the Southeastern United States . They are of the Muskogean languages group....
). Disagreements during construction led to Cardinal's being removed from the project, but the building retains his original design intent. His continued input enabled its completion.

The museum’s project architects are Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects Ltd. of Seattle and SmithGroup of Washington, D.C., in association with Lou Weller (Caddo
Caddo

The Caddo Nation is a confederacy of several Southeastern tribes Native Americans in the United States tribes, who, in the 16th century, inhabited much of what is now East Texas, western Louisiana and portions of southern Arkansas and Oklahoma....
), the Native American Design Collaborative, and Polshek Partnership Architects
James Polshek

James Stewart Polshek is an American architect based in New York City. He is founder and senior design counsel of Polshek Partnership architects....
 of New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
; Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi
Hopi

The Hopi are American Indians in the United States people who primarily live on the 12,635 km? Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi Reservation is entirely surrounded by the much larger Navajo Reservation....
) and Donna House (Navajo
Navajo people

The Navajo or Din? of the Southwestern United States are the largest Native Americans in the United States tribe of North America....
/Oneida
Oneida tribe

The Oneida are a Native Americans in the United States/First Nations people and are one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois in the area of upstate New York....
) also served as design consultants. The landscape architects are Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects Ltd. of Seattle and EDAW, Inc., of Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the United States Census 2000, the city had a total population of 128,283....
.

In general, American Indians have filled the leadership roles in the design and operation of the museum and have aimed at creating a different atmosphere and experience from museums of European and Euro-American culture. Donna House, the Navajo and Oneida botanist who supervised the landscaping, has said, "The landscape flows into the building, and the environment is who we are. We are the trees, we are the rocks, we are the water. And that had to be part of the museum." This theme of organic flow is reflected by the interior of the museum, whose walls are mostly curving surfaces, with almost no sharp corners.

The Mitsitam Café is divided into Native regional sections such as the Northern Woodlands, South America, the Northwest Coast, Meso-America, and the Great Plains. The only Native American groups not represented in the café are the south eastern tribes such as the Choctaw
Choctaw

The Choctaw are a Native Americans in the United States people originally from the Southeastern United States . They are of the Muskogean languages group....
, Chickasaw
Chickasaw

The Chickasaw are Native Americans in the United States people originally from the Southeastern United States . They are of the Muskogean linguistic group....
, Cherokee
Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native Americans in the United States people orginally from the Southeastern United States . They are linguistically connected to speakers of the Iroquoian language....
 and Seminole
Seminole

The Seminole are a Native Americans in the United States people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation was formed in the 18th century and was composed of Native Americans from Georgia , Mississippi, and Alabama, most significantly the Creek people, as well as African Americans who escap...
, many of which supported the United States through out the tribe's history.

George Gustav Heye Center

The Museum’s George Gustav Heye Center occupies two floors of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House

The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is a building in New York City, built 1902 - 1907 by the federal government to house the duty collection operations for the port of New York....
 in Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the New York City....
. The Beaux Arts-style building, designed by architect Cass Gilbert
Cass Gilbert

Cass Gilbert was a pioneering American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers in works like the Woolworth Building, Gilbert was also responsible for numerous museums and libraries , state capitol buildings as well as public architectural icons like the United States Supreme Court building....
, was completed in 1907. It is a designated National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, :wiktionary:site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States for its historical significance....
 and a New York City landmark. The center’s exhibition and public access areas total about . The Heye Center offers a range of exhibitions, film and video screenings, school group programs and living culture presentations throughout the year.

Cultural Resources Center

In Suitland, Maryland, the National Museum of the American Indian operates the Cultural Resources Center, an enormous, nautilus-shaped building which houses the collection, a library, and the photo archives.

Collection

The National Museum of the American Indian is home to the collection of the former Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. The collection includes more than 800,000 objects, as well as a photographic archive of 125,000 images. The collection, which became part of the Smithsonian in June 1990, was assembled by George Gustav Heye
George Gustav Heye

George Gustav Heye was a collector of Indigenous peoples of the Americas artifacts. His collection became the core of the National Museum of the American Indian....
 (1874–1957) during a 54-year period, beginning in 1903. He traveled throughout North and South America collecting Native objects. Heye used his collection to found New York’s Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation and directed it until his death in 1957. The Heye Foundation’s Museum of the American Indian opened to the public in New York City in 1922.

The collection is not subject to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , , , is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native Americans in the United States cultural items and human remains to their respective peoples....
. When the National Museum was created in 1989, it adopted procedures upon which NAGPRA was modeled.

When the museum opened in October 2004, there was widespread criticism that the exhibits presented an unevaluated hodge-podge, with little or no attempt to explain the meaning of the objects, or even to label them.

Museum director

W. Richard West, Jr.
W. Richard West, Jr.

Walter Richard West, Jr. was the founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. He retired in 2007. He is also a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma and a Council of Forty-four of the Southern Cheyenne....
, a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes
Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes

The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes are a united, Federally recognized tribes tribe, comprising the Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne in Oklahoma....
 of Oklahoma and a Peace Chief
Council of Forty-four

The Council of Forty-four was one of the two central institutions of traditional Cheyenne Indigenous peoples of North America tribal governance, the other being the Cheyenne military societies such as the Dog Soldiers....
 of the Southern Cheyenne, is founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Before becoming director of the National Museum of the American Indian in 1990, West was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP is an international law firm with offices in New York City, Washington, DC, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Shanghai....
, and, subsequently, in the Indian-owned Albuquerque law firm of Gover, Stetson, Williams & West, P.C. He served as General Counsel
General Counsel

A general counsel is the chief lawyer of a legal department, usually in a corporation or government department. The term is most used in the United States....
 and Special Counsel to numerous tribes and organizations.

West was strongly criticized in 2007 for having spent $250,000 on travel in four years and been away from the museum frequently on overseas travel. This was official travel funded by the Smithsonian, and many within the Native American community offered defenses of West and his tenure.

Magazine

The museum also publishes a quarterly magazine with the same title.

See also

  • American Indian College Fund
    American Indian College Fund

    Based in Denver, Colorado, The American Indian College Fund provides scholarships and other support for the nation's 32 tribal colleges and universities....
  • Live Earth concert, Washington, D.C.
    Live Earth concert, Washington, D.C.

    The Live Earth concert in Washington, D.C., officially known as "Mother Earth" , was held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., USA and was sponsored by and held on the premises/venue of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian....


External links