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National Museum of the American Indian

 
US History Encyclopedia: National Museum of the American Indian
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The National Museum of the American Indian of the Smithsonian Institution (NMAI) began as the private collection of a wealthy New York banker, George Gustav Heye (1874–1957). In 1903 Heye began a half century of voracious acquisition of Native American artifacts, during which he dispatched agents throughout the Western Hemisphere to obtain objects and collections from Native peoples. In the first decade, Heye worked in collaboration with the University Museum in Philadelphia and with Franz Boas at Columbia University. In 1916, however, Heye established, over Boas's strenuous objections, his independent institution in Manhattan: the Heye Foundation and the Museum of the American Indian. The goal of the new museum was as simple as it was comprehensive: "the preservation of everything pertaining to our American tribes." Over the next fifteen years Heye established a publication series, an anthropological library, a storage facility in the Bronx, and a research and collecting agenda in archaeology and ethnography.

The death of two of Heye's major benefactors in 1928 and the onset of economic depression a year later effectively ended Heye's ambitious program of acquisition. Over the next twenty-five years Heye continued collecting and sponsoring expeditions, but on a greatly reduced level. After his death in 1957, Heye's institution fell into disrepair; when the museum's sad state came to public attention in the mid-1970s, nearly fifteen years of debate and negotiation ensued. This resulted finally, in 1990, in the transfer of the Heye artifact collection, archives, and library in their entirety to the Smithsonian Institution, where they constitute the core of the National Museum of the American Indian. The transfer also stipulated that human remains and funerary objects from the Heye collection be repatriated to Native peoples where possible.

Building upon its core collection of nearly one million artifacts, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian preserves, studies, and exhibits the histories and cultures of Native American peoples; the NMAI also works in close collaboration with Native peoples to protect, sustain, and reaffirm traditional beliefs and encourage artistic expression.

There are several NMAI facilities. Opened in 1994, the George Gustav Heye Center of NMAI, located at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in lower Manhattan, is an educational and exhibition facility with public programs of music, dance, and film. The Cultural Resources Center outside Washington, D.C., in Suitland, Maryland, invites Native and non-Native scholars to utilize its library and archival collections. The central facility—the Smithsonian's last museum on the Mall—was scheduled to open in 2003 and serve as the major exhibition space, as well as a venue for ceremony and education. Finally, a "virtual museum" is available through the NMAI Web sites.

Bibliography

Force, Roland W. Politics and the Museum of the American Indian: The Heye and the Mighty. Honolulu, Hawaii: Mechas Press, 1999.

"The History of the Museum." Indian Notes and Monographs, Miscellaneous Series No. 55. New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1956.

Kidwell, Clara Sue. "Every Last Dishcloth: The Prodigious Collecting of George Gustav Heye." In Collecting Native America, 1870–1960. Edited by Shepard Krech III and Barbara A. Hail. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999, 232–258.

National Museum of the American Indian. Home page at http://www.nmai.si.edu.

National Museum of the American Indian Act, Public Law 101– 185, 101st Congress (28 November 1989).

Wallace, Kevin. "Slim-Shin's Monument." New Yorker (19 November 1960).

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Columbia Encyclopedia: National Museum of the American Indian
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National Museum of the American Indian, institution devoted to the collection, preservation, and presentation of the culture of the indigenous populations of the Western Hemisphere, a division of the Smithsonian Institution. It was established by an act of Congress in 1989 with the collections of the former Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation, in New York City. That museum was founded in 1916 by George G. Heye (1874-1957) and was opened to the public in 1922. The museum currently comprises the main museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., a contemporary building designed by Native American architect Douglas Cardinal (opened 2004); a research center in Suitland, Md.; and the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City, which incorporates a film and video center. The museum's collection, which includes more than 800,000 items of historical, aesthetic, cultural, and religious significance and spans some 10,000 years of native heritage, includes ceramics, masks, dolls, wood and stone carvings, textiles, clothing, featherwork, baskets, beadwork, jewelry, traditional works on paper and canvas, and contemporary prints and paintings. The collection also features photographic images, historical administrative records, and videos, films, and audio recordings.

Wikipedia: National Museum of the American Indian
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National Museum of the American Indian
National Museum of the American Indian is located in District of Columbia
Established 1989-2004
Location Fourth Street and Independence Avenue, Southwest, Washington D.C.
Director Kevin Gover
Website National Museum of the American Indian

Coordinates: 38°53′18″N 77°00′59″W / 38.888333°N 77.016389°W / 38.888333; -77.016389

The 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. Operating under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, it has three facilities: the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., which opened on September 21, 2004, on Fourth Street and Independence Avenue, Southwest; the George Gustav Heye Center, a permanent museum in New York City; and the Cultural Resources Center, a research and collections facility in Suitland, Maryland.

Contents

Locations

National Mall

The site on the National Mall 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, 250,000-square-foot (23,000 m2), curvilinear building is clad in a golden-colored Kasota limestone designed to evoke natural rock formations shaped by wind and water over thousands of years. The museum is set in a 4.25 acres (17,200 m2)-site and is surrounded by simulated wetlands. The museum’s east-facing entrance, its prism window and its 120-foot (37 m) high space for contemporary Native performances are direct results of extensive consultations with Native peoples. Similar to the Heye Center 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 and project designer is the Canadian Douglas Cardinal (Blackfoot); its design architects are GBQC Architects of Philadelphia and architect Johnpaul Jones (Cherokee/Choctaw). 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.

National Museum of the American Indian seen from the North.

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), the Native American Design Collaborative, and Polshek Partnership Architects of New York City; Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi) and Donna House (Navajo/Oneida) also served as design consultants. The landscape architects are Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects Ltd. of Seattle and EDAW, Inc., of Alexandria, Virginia.

Museum viewed from United States Capitol dome.

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 E. 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."[1] 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 Native Foods Cafe 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, Chickasaw, Cherokee and Seminole, 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 in Lower Manhattan. The Beaux Arts-style building, designed by architect Cass Gilbert, was completed in 1907. It is a designated National Historic Landmark and a New York City landmark. The center’s exhibition and public access areas total about 20,000 square feet (2,000 m2). 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

Interior view looking down toward the entrance.

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 (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. When the National Museum was created in 1989, a law governing repatriation was drafted specifically for the museum, upon which NAGPRA was modeled.[2]

The museum has programs in which Native American scholars and artists can view NMAI's collections to enhance their own research and artwork.

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.[3] Other museum visitors were pleased to see a focus on living Native Americans as opposed to documenting history. NMAI's unique ongoing exhibit, "Our Lives" showcases eight indigenous communities at a time, from North and South America. The museum works closely with the communities so that they are able to chose how they are represented. "Our Lives" explores Native self-identity–how the community sees themselves, how they dress, what they think, and how they see themselves within the world today.[4]

Museum director

Kevin Gover is the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian as of Dec. 2, 2007. He is a former professor of law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in Tempe, an affiliate professor in its American Indian Studies Program and co-executive director of the university’s American Indian Policy Institute. Gover, 52, grew up in Oklahoma and is a member of the Pawnee and Comanche tribes. He received his bachelor’s degree in public and international affairs from Princeton University and his law degree from the University of New Mexico. He was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from Princeton University in 2001.[5]

Gover succeeds W. Richard West Jr. (Southern Cheyenne), who was the founding director of the National Museum of the American Indian (1990-2007).[5]

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, [6] and many within the Native American community offered defenses of West and his tenure.[7]

American Indian
Editor-in-Chief Eileen Maxwell
Frequency quarterly
Circulation 52,640
Publisher Smithsonian Institution
First issue 2000
Country USA
Website http://www.AmericanIndian.si.edu/
ISSN 1528-0640

Museum architect

The museum was designed by Douglas Cardinal, a North American Native American architect educated at the University of British Columbia, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Magazine

The museum also publishes a quarterly magazine, called the American Indian, which focuses on a wide range of topics pertaining to Indian County. American Indian won the Native American Journalists Association's General Excellence awards in 2003 and 2002. The magazine's mission is to: "Celebrate Native Traditions and Communities."[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ Francis Hayden, "By the People", Smithsonian, September 2004, pp. 50–57.
  2. ^ "NMNH - Repatriation Office - Frequently Asked Questions". Smithsonian Institution. http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/repatriation/faq/index.htm#general04. Retrieved 2007-05-04. 
  3. ^ Jim Adams, "National Museum of the American Indian reviews: Ceremonies were nice but critics pan content", Indian Country Today, October 8, 2004
  4. ^ Current Exhibitions in Washington, DC. National Museum of the American Indian. (retrieved 13 March 2009)
  5. ^ a b St. Thomas, Linda and Eileen Maxwell. Kevin Gover Named Director of Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian Institution. 11 Sept 2007 (retrieved 13 March 2009)
  6. ^ "Museum Director Spent Lavishly on Travel", Washington Post, 27 Dec 2007, accessed 4 Aug 2008
  7. ^ Paul Apodaca, "Under West's wing, NMAI made history," Indian Country Today (Jan 18, 2008), http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/28404104.html
  8. ^ American Indian Magazine. National Museum of the American Indian. (retrieved 13 March 2009)

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