Washington, D.C., played host to tens of thousands of American Indians, Native Hawaiians, and visitors and dignitaries of all backgrounds this week as the National Museum of the American Indian opened its new facility on the National Mall.
The American Indian Museum looks nothing like any of the other structures on the Mall. Its giant slabs of rounded stone evoke the rock dwellings, buttes and canyons of the American Southwest. The inside spaces feature a cavernous central meeting and performing space and information categorized around history, spirituality, and current peoples and events.
Canadian Blackfoot Douglas Cardinal was the principal architect of the museum. He tried to stay away from designing yet another mausoleum paying tribute to dead cultures and cold objects. He says this space has “empathy for the people [who] are using the space, and doesn’t just address the past, but addresses the present and the future.”
The physical location of the new museum is an apt metaphor for the many roles that native peoples have played in this country. The central site speaks to their presence on this continent long before modern Europeans, Asians and Africans made their way to these shores. The welcoming of native leaders from South, Central and North America to the opening ceremony was a reminder of the diversity that abounds within a group of peoples who are too often simplified into a trick-or-treat costume featuring a feathered war bonnet and grease paint.
The U.S. Supreme Court, the Capitol and the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial just to the east of the new museum represent the many ways that native peoples and the United States government were interconnected over the years. While Grant himself felt concern for American Indians who were being mistreated and dying of diseases brought by settlers, many U.S. soldiers over the course of several centuries mistreated, forcibly relocated and killed them. Congress ratified laws diminishing American Indian land and other rights, and the Supreme Court was often the place where claims for justice by native peoples went unanswered.
The nearby Voice of America building and the Library of Congress remind us that the stories we tell people about our proud history of freedom are based on an initial injustice: The land this country was built on was stolen, taken and swindled from the indigenous people. Past brutality, genocide and ecocide, as described in Rethinking Columbus and other publications, were made possible not only because of gunpowder and superior armaments but equally because of stereotypes of native peoples as savages who did not understand or deserve human rights.
The resurgence of American Indian consciousness and the rise of liberation movements over the last 40 years, comparable to the rise of Asian Pacific American consciousness, led to the festivities. American Indians proudly put past injustices and current inequities aside and marched past members of Congress and many foreign and domestic leaders to declare that they at last had a spiritual and physical home on the Great Mall of the American republic.
Among the APA connections to this event were the participation of the Native Hawaiian community and the key leadership role played by Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawai‘i) in the planning and advocacy for the development of the NMAI. Inouye thought of the idea of using the last open spot on the National Mall for the NMAI and used his role as a leader on the Senate’s Committee on Indian Affairs to marshal support and funding for this national tribute to the first people living in the Western Hemisphere.
Sen. Daniel Akaka and other Native Hawaiians were included among the over 16,000 marchers in a parade and opening ceremony. A sacred conch shell was blown by a Native Hawaiian to kick off the festivities, and Native Hawaiians were featured as boat builders in the galleries and as faces on the wall of 84 contemporary photographs. Filipino Americans were also represented on the wall in the faces of individuals who were of mixed APA and American Indian ancestry.
After this initial week of festivities, the museum will reach out beyond its new structure by using the Internet to bring educational materials to libraries, museums, schools, reservations and tribal organizations all across the country. For more information, go to www.nmai.si.edu.