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Designed to Balance Historical with ContemporaryThe newest Smithsonian museum is gathering ancient ceramics, intricate beadwork and modern art to illustrate the past and present of native peoples spread across the Western Hemisphere for some 20,000 years.
"It's a set of cultures with a deep past, but at the same time communities that are thoroughly contemporary - they're here right now too," said museum director W. Richard West Jr. "There are 30 to 40 million native people living in the Western Hemisphere."
When the National Museum of the American Indian opens Sept. 21, it will seek to give the appropriate weight to injustices suffered at the hands of white settlers - but will not make that the focus of a history that sweeps over millennia.
"The truth is what it is," said West, who is of Southern Cheyenne extraction. "The history between Native Americans and Euro-Americans has been quite tragic. We do not propose to skirt that tragedy."
But, he said, the museum will show "so much good and so much positive along with the tragedy."
"This is exactly what the first Americans need to demonstrate - that we have a rich history and culture, and it's still alive and well," said Kathy Wesley Kitcheyan, chairwoman of San Carlos Apache in Arizona, after a recent tour.
The five-story museum took the last remaining spot on the grassy National Mall between th
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August 19, 2004 | Viewed 23,783 time(s)
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