National Museum of the American Indian opens

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The National Mall in the United States capital was jammed with some 80,000 people on the morning of Sept. 21 as close to 25,000 Indigenous people from throughout the Americas and beyond-many in their traditional regalia-celebrated the opening of the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) with a spectacular procession down the middle of the Mall.

After several days of intermittent rain, as the fallout of this year's unusually harsh crop of tropical storms made their presence felt in the Washington area, the morning of the big day was breath-taking, with sunny, almost cloudless skies and temperatures approaching 30 degrees Celsius.

The procession was a true spectacle that lasted almost two hours, but all the activity was designed to celebrate something for the ages, the Smithsonian's 18th museum.

Large sections of downtown Washington were closed to traffic for the day that began with the procession and ended with the official opening of the NMAI's doors shortly after the dignitaries completed the opening ceremony. Well, it didn't really end with the opening of the doors. A festival of Indigenous culture continued all day long and for several days afterward. The museum itself stayed open all night that first day.

Windspeaker got an advanced look at the NMAI on Sept. 17. Workers were feverishly putting the finishing touches on the $199 million (US) structure. It cost another $20 million for exhibits, public programs and opening events. The museum raised $214 million toward the construction and opening. The fundraising was led by Richard West, the Cheyenne director of the NMAI.

The Canadian Embassy got into the spirit of the opening, screening Canadian Aboriginal films throughout six days of celebrations. An Aboriginal art display compiled by the Canada Council was also available for visitors to tour in the embassy.

Foreign Affairs Canada donated a work by Sto:lo artist Susan Point to the NMAI. It will be a prominent feature of the main floor, near the central rotunda. The work is a two-metre-high cedar sculpture entitled "The Salmon and the Mink." It is inspired by Coast Salish stories about mink bringing salmon to the rivers.

In a press release, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said he was "delighted and proud to be presenting this exceptional work to the Smithsonian on behalf of all Canadians.

"This sculpture showcases Canadian Aboriginal culture at this extraordinary museum, which promises to be one of the leading cultural destinations in the world," he added.

Point and family members and Dene Secretary of State for youth Ethel Blondin Andrew were in the museum for the presentation ceremony.

The Canadian influence was hard to miss all week long. The design of the building is unmistakably the work of Alberta Aboriginal architect Douglas Cardinal. He designed the building but parted ways with the museum after a dispute. He refused to attend the opening.

There are four direction stones that come from Native communities in the Americas places around the site of the NMAI. The northern stone is from the Northwest Territories. Forty grandfather rocks are placed throughout the grounds. They come from Aylmer, Que. Before the rocks were moved to Washington, a group from the Montagnais Nation held a blessing ceremony to ensure that the rocks would have a safe journey and carry the cultural messages of past generations to future generations.

St. Laurent Metis from Manitoba showed up in large number to celebrate their inclusion in the museum. The St. Laurent fiddlers participated in the procession and performed at the Canadian Embassy, located just blocks from the new museum. Their way of life is celebrated with an exhibit that includes an old Bombardier snowmobile, the kind the St. Laurent Metis use to cope with northern Manitoba winters.

Exhibits related to the communities of Kahnawake and Sagkeeng cover Canadian First Nations and there's an Inuit ehibit as well that features an Inukshuk made out of television monitors that is eye-catching.

Dr. Gerald McMaster, special assistant to the director for mall exhibitions at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is a citizen of the Siksika Nation (Alberta) but he grew up on the Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan. Previously, he was the curator-in-charge of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Que. He is also a well known artist.

McMaster provided visiting Canadian journalists with a guided tour of the museum prior to the official opening.

He explained the significance of the exhibits. The museum is dedicated to being different from traditional museum exhibits that display Indigenous peoples as quaint relics of the past, he said.

"We're not just passive victims of change. We've survived."

In the past, the authority for deciding how Indigenous peoples would be depicted in museums rested with the museums. Now it rests with Indigenous peoples, he said.

"You'll hear a Native voice; you're in a Native place. Indian people will be showing you their world views and we don't all think alike."

The building is visually striking, finished with multilinear, honey colored Kasota dolomithic limestone. The five storey, 250,000 square foot museum is surrounded by an eastern lowland landscape and Indigenous vegetation. The entrance faces east towards the rising sun.

The pieces of Kasota vary in size and surface treatment, giving the building the appearance of a stratified stone mass that has been carved by wind and water. Washingtonians of all walks of life seem to approve of the uniqueness and freshness of the newest structure on the Mall.

Inside, after you pass the welcome wall that features an electronic photo montage greeting visitors in 150 Native languages, the most striking visual feature is the Potomac, a central rotunda that rises more than 30 metres (100 feet) to form a dome of concentric circles. Crystal prisms fae south and use sunlight to create a light show inside the Potomac. McMaster said they're designed to converge on June 21, the summer solstice. Around the floor of the Potomac is a metal sculpture, a circular wall of woven metal that pays tribute to basket weaving cultures.

The NMAI rests on a 4.25 acre site east of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum where you can see moon rocks, Neil Armstrong's spacesuit from the historic first lunar landing, Charles Lindberg's Spirit of St. Louis and the Skylab orbital workshop, among a host of other exhibits. NMAI is located just south of the U.S. Capitol Building whose gleaming white dome dominates the city's skyline. The Washington Monument is a couple of blocks south of the museum, the White House a few blocks away to the southwest.

The Lelawi Theater, 120-seat circular theatre on the fourth floor offers a 13-minute multi-media experience entitled "Who we are" and prepares visitors for what awaits them elsewhere in the museum.

The Cultural Resources Centre houses objects not on display at NMAI, and is located in Suiteland, Maryland. Only 8,000 objects out of the total collection of 800,000 are in the NMAI. Those objects are a matter of some controversy. They were accumulated by George Gustav Heye, a wealthy non-Native New York investment banker who, beginning in 1903, travelled throughout North and South America acquiring Indigenous artifacts. Upon his death in 1957, an act of congress was passed turning the collection over the original Museum of the American Indian which was founded by Heye in 1916.

That museum was not accessible to the public and drew few visitors. Many American Indians see the new museum as being a continuation of that cultural appropriation.

Oneida comic Charlie Hill, in a performance at the Kennedy Centre the night before the museum opening, showed just how bitter the sentiment is in some corners. He suggested the objects should be given back to their owners and earned loudapplause from the mostly Native audience.

There was a Canadian element involved in the comedy show as well. Hill shared the bill with Alexander First Nation (Alberta) comic Don Burnstick. Curve Lake Ojibway Drew Hayden Taylor was the master of ceremonies.

The content of the museum itself is seen as a little tame by many. There is no in-your-face reminder of the injustices visited upon American Indians by the newcomers. West told the Washington Post that will come in time but it's not something that would have helped get the NMAI established.

Windspeaker asked Canadian artist Mary Anne Barkhouse, a member of the Nimpkish First Nation (Kwakiutl Nation on Vancouver Island) what she thought of the museum. The artist's "The Beaver" was on display on the Canadian Embassy.

"Where's the dissent," she asked.