American Indians claim their place on National Mall

WASHINGTON -- As a child, William Walker was sent off to boarding school and forbidden to speak his native Mono Indian tribe language.

So it was with a sense of vindication that Walker watched colorful pageantry of American Indian culture mark Tuesday's opening of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, located at the foot of the Capitol.

"This represents freedom, recognition," said Walker, 75, whose tribe is from central California. "It's long overdue."

Walker joined thousands of Indians from Alaska to South America in a half-mile procession along the National Mall. The flags, feathers and bright native clothing made for a multicolored display, and the air was filled with the smell of burned sage and the sounds of drums, bells and music.

Museum officials estimated the crowd at 30,000 to 40,000 people.

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, who sponsored the Senate bill authorizing the museum, said he was motivated by a sense that American Indians had been unrecognized in the nation's capital.

"In this city of monuments there was no statue, no monument, honoring the first Americans," Inouye told the assembled crowd as dragonflies darted about in the bright sunshine. "This monument to the first Americans is long overdue."

Smithsonian Institution secretary Larry Small said the museum will be around for generations of American Indians to enjoy.

"And that is a promise that we will keep," he said to applause, as American Indians recognized a reference -- deliberate or not -- to promises the U.S. government had made and then broken to Indian tribes in the past.

Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican and member of the Chickasaw Nation, read a statement from President Bush calling the museum "a powerful reminder of the spirit, pride and vitality of our native peoples."

Added museum director Richard West, wearing a Cheyenne Indian headdress, "Today Native America takes its rightful place on the National Mall in the very shadow of the nation's Capitol building itself."

The Capitol provided a stunning visual backdrop to the speakers at the dedication ceremony.

Not everyone was in a celebratory mood. The American Indian Movement, a sometimes militant group, issued a statement claiming the museum failed to display "the sordid and tragic history of America's holocaust against the native nations and peoples of the Americas."

The museum's design is unlike any other structure in Washington's wealth of monuments and museums. Built at a cost of $214 million, the sweeping lines represent a communing with nature as the country's tribal peoples did.

It houses 8,000 objects from across the Western Hemisphere. Four million visitors a year are expected to see the museum's movies and music; paintings, photographs and sculptures; masks, weapons and animals; jewelry and medals; even food and plants.

Before the procession, the mall was filled with Indians dancing to drumbeats and traditional music.

A group of five White Mountain Apache Indians from White River, Ariz., added to the drumbeat with shaking metal balls around their shoes. Four had their chests painted black with white lettering while the fifth was painted white with black lettering. Wooden headgear reached two feet above their heads, which were covered in masks.

Nearby, Aztec Indians from San Francisco danced with feathers stretching six feet above their heads.

The museum opened to the public in the afternoon, and musicians, dancers and storytellers began the First Americans Festival, which will last the rest of the week. The museum is open overnight the first night to handle the crowds.

------

On the Net:

Museum of the American Indian: http://www.americanindian.si.edu/