http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforksherald/news/opinion/9762899.htm

Posted on Sun, Sep. 26, 2004

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN : An overdue honor

By Mary Annette Pember

WASHINGTON - On Sept. 22, virtually every daily newspaper in the United
States ran a photo or a story about the previous day's opening of the
National Museum of the American Indian in Washington.

As I read about the opening events, procession and celebrations, I realized
that for the first time in my 40-plus years I've seen Indian people being
featured prominently in the news not in relation to substance abuse,
poverty or crime, but rather as vital members of this country.

As an Indian woman, this fact alone makes this a day for me to celebrate.

More than 25,000 American Indians representing more than 400 tribes
participated in the procession along the National Mall. Some dressed in
traditional regalia while some chose to wear contemporary garb representing
their tribal schools or sports teams, underscoring the diversity of Indian
communities.

Over the decades, Indians have traveled to Washington in droves from its
beginning, seeking justice, recognition and basic considerations for their
communities. Our ancestors trekked in delegations to the city of the Great
White Father.

Historical "before" photos show them dressed in traditional regalia.
"After" photos show them dressed in modern Western clothing.

The notion that changing clothing would change Indians and their culture
goes to the heart of the often pathological relationship between Indians
and the United States.

Washington in many ways has come to symbolize these historical and cultural
differences. How divinely ironic and poetic it is, then, that the National
Museum of the American Indian, the16th museum of the Smithsonian Institute,
now occupies one of the prime sites on the Mall.

W. Richard West, a Cheyenne member and the director of the National Museum
of the American Indian, insists "no subject will be dodged."

That is a tall promise. The eyes and ears of American Indians are fixed on
the museum's activities from its glamorous opening ceremonies and events to
its continuing events and shows. After all, Indians have extensive
experience seeing our history dodged, whitewashed, romanticized and, worst
of all, denied.

The museum world has often served as an apologist for a culture that
declared us unfortunate victims of an inexorable but righteous "Manifest
Destiny." Museum curators sometimes put our ancestors' remains, funerary
and ceremonial objects on display alongside other archaeological animal
finds, furthering the notion that we were part of a long dead, barely
human, past.

Placing our culture behind glass shows how easy it has been for mainstream
America to ignore the genocide upon which this country was built.

At the basis of Indian philosophy is the constancy of change and the
interconnected nature of life. As I once heard an elder remark, "A culture
that doesn't change is a culture that dies."

Public support of the National Museum of the American Indian reflects a
glimmer of hope that America is open to re-examining the underlying wisdom
of this path. Indians are stepping out from behind the museum glass to
offer this country important and vital knowledge. My great hope is that
America will hear it.

Pember, a Red Cliff Ojibwe, is past president of the Native American
Journalists Association.