http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=5194

Notes from Indian Country
A museum should show the bad along with the good

By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji), Guest Columnist to Native Times 9/29/2004

When asked why an Indian museum, Rick West, the man who was the driving
force behind the idea said, "To affirm our length of existence in this
hemisphere."

A huge part of the credit must go to Mr. West, a member of the Cheyenne and
Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma (transplanted there after their participation in
the annihilation of George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry) who stuck
by his guns and fought tooth and nail to make the museum a reality.

Mr. West’s personal efforts helped to raise much of the $219 million it
cost to construct the museum.

An email to me by a member of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York State
conveyed a sense of pride and an admonishment to me for questioning the
tribe I referred to as "Johnny-come-lately. The email proudly stated that
there was a room at the new museum for the Oneida Nation.

Of course there’s a room for the Oneida. This casino rich Tribe had the
money to donate $10 million to the construction of the museum and demanded
a room to display their art, artifacts and history in payment for their
generosity. The combined nine tribes of the Great Sioux Nation would’ve had
a difficult time raising $10 thousand dollars. You can bet that there is no
single room dedicated to them. Money talks, poverty walks.

I have not visited the museum yet, but I would venture to say that other
tribes that donated huge sums of money also have large areas of the museum
reserved for their history. The Mashantucket Pequot and the Mohegan Tribes
of Connecticut also donated $10 million each to the museum’s construction.

I questioned these outlandish donations in a column I wrote because I live
in the land of the poorest of the poor, the land of the Great Sioux Nation.
A $30 million donation to help alleviate their poverty made more sense to
me than a donation of $30 million to construct a building made of stone.

Mark Brown, the leader of the Mohegans, wrote a scathing letter to a
Connecticut newspaper accusing me of not knowing their history and worse
yet, of being a racist. He was angry because in a previous column I
mentioned I was surprised to see African American Indians amongst the
tribes of Connecticut. Is the fact that I was surprised reason enough to be
labeled as racist?

Well, it does bother me that the newborn tribes, by virtue of recent
federal recognition, are raking in millions of dollars while the tribes
such as those of the Great Sioux Nation, tribes that have been fighting for
the past 100 years to gain the victories that now allow the Mohegans to
enjoy their new wealth by virtue of geographical luck, are struggling to
survive while the new ones roll in wealth.

Realistically, the National Museum of the American Indian (notice that they
didn’t name it the National Museum of the Native Americans) is a tribute to
all of the indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere. Like the other
buildings on the Mall constructed to display America’s history, this museum
will do much to educate the non-Indian Americans about the history and
cultures of the Indian people.

George Gustav Heye’s collection of Indian art and artifacts, a collection
that was mostly stored in boxes in New York City for many years, will now
be on public display. They tell the story of many of the Indian tribes of
this country.

The leaders of the American Indian Movement have submitted a legitimate
complaint. It is a complaint based on fact and not just thrown out there to
create controversy. Members of AIM want to know why there is not a section
of the museum dedicated to the "American Indian holocaust." And they do
have a point because a museum must tell the entire story if it is to be a
legitimate storage place for the history of a people.

And to this I would add that there should also be a display to honor and to
tell the story of the thousands of survivors of the Indian missions and
Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools that did so much damage to the
modern day American Indians. This is a sordid history of attempted
assimilation, acculturation, and of child abuse on a massive scale never
before or since seen in the history of this continent. It is a history of
collaboration between church and state to "kill the Indian and save the
child." This misbegotten program nearly killed the child along with the
Indian.

Millions of Americans and visitors from foreign countries will have the
pleasure of visiting this museum and they will learn much about the
indigenous people of the Americas. But, as I said, and as the American
Indian Movement says, there is more to the history of the American Indian
in this Hemisphere than artifacts and art.

Those Indian people with the money to visit Washington, D.C. will be the
immediate beneficiaries of the museum. Thousands of poor Lakota from the
Indian reservations in South Dakota, or from the Navajo and Hopi Nations in
the Southwest will never get the opportunity to visit the museum built to
honor them. They are too busy just trying to survive and they are too poor
to afford the trip.

Rick West said the National Museum of the American Indian was built to
"affirm our length of existence in this hemisphere." It should also affirm
all of the failed policies that brought about the near destruction of a
people. It should display the warts along with the niceties.

© 2004 Knight Ridder Tribune News Service

(Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, was born, raised and educated on the Pine
Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Now retired, he was the founder of The
Lakota Times, Indian Country Today, and the Lakota Journal newspapers. He
can be reached at giagobooks@...)