Fortunately, there's a "resource center" open seven days a week where visitors can find out more of the history and culture of different tribes, and where they can be aimed to find still further information. We can hope that future exhibitions will draw on disciplines to broaden the search.
Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, the only American Indian in the Senate, is largely responsible for the legislation creating the museum. He calls his people "America's first endangered species," but many of the Indians represented here prefer to think of themselves as joyous survivors.
It all worked on opening day. Under an expansive blue sky and a warm yellow sun, exhilaration was the emotion of the hour among the Indian, white, black and Hispanic visitors. All were animated by pride that this museum was finally on the mall after 17 years of wrangling and controversy. Reconciliation trumped grievance.
More than 20,000 Indians, young and old, representing 500 tribes, came to the nation's capital for the opening. They formed a procession bursting with the color of tribal costumes decorated with beads, stones, nuts and flowers, elk teeth and turquoise, singing and dancing to the rhythms of tom-toms, rattling gourds and guitars. Children in baseball caps mingled with tribal leaders in imposing headdresses of many feathers.
Some dressed as Indian warriors, others in modern battle fatigues. They carried American flags, Canadian flags, flags from a variety of Latin American countries, Confederate battle flags (Indians of four tribes fought for the South under Stand Watie, a Cherokee; others fought for the North). They all marched to their Museum, the 18th and last public building designated for the Mall.
If the museum can be faulted for the simplicity of its presentation, the building is breathtaking in its beauty, its gentle limestone curves suggesting the weathered natural rock formations of the cliff dwellers of Colorado's Mesa Verde. Nestled between the National Air and Space Museum and the U.S. Botanic Gardens, it faces to the east to catch the rising sun. A clear view of the Capitol mixes the past with the present, with the memory of ancient tragedies softened by the prospect of new possibilities.
Richard West, the director of the museum, offered a simple and eloquent welcome: "I say to those who descend from native ancestors who were here, 'Welcome home.'"