'First people' celebrate

By Frank Oliveri
Advertiser Washington Bureau

From left: Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i; W. Richard West, Jr., director of the National Museum of the American Indian; and Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., lead the Native Nations Procession of thousands of Native Americans down the center of the National Mall in Washington. Gannett News Service

A cool breeze offset the bright sunlight for the thousands walking in the Native Nations Procession, marking the opening of the new National Museum of the American Indian. Gordon Lee, a Honolulu native living in Virginia, swelled with good feelings, warmly yelling to the crowd, "Alooooooo-haaaaaaa!"

Young children smiled. To Lee's delight, many responded in the same way.

"I've got chicken skin," he said, rubbing the bumps on his arm.

The Native Hawaiian contingent joined about 20,000 American Indians representing more than 515 tribes that signed up for the procession. Hundreds of thousands of others — Indians and non-Indians alike — watched the colorful spectacle and listened to speakers at the dedication ceremony on the lawn just outside the museum.

Though the ceremonies had a decided American Indian texture, Lee and other Native Hawaiians felt a strong bond of kinship.

Kumu Hula Nalani Kanaka'ole, a leader of Hilo's Halau O Kekuhi, said the gathering "is more important to the Native Americans. ... It's been a long time."

Native Hawaiian Nau Kamali'i sounds a conch shell during the Native Nations Procession, marking the opening of the museum. Gannett News Service

The day started early as hundreds of Native Hawaiians circled in the shadows of trees, joined hands and were led in a pule, or prayer.

Tony Sang, chairman of the state council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations, said the sight of people of so many different cultures gave him "an overwhelming feeling of ... we're still alive, still here. Part of this great country. We haven't gone away."

Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona said the gathering made it clear "that we have these common ties. "We all are so proud and humble and appreciate the respect."

Apoliona said the placement of the museum on the National Mall was a great honor.

"The last space for the first people," she said.

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo, right, and museum director W. Richard West Jr. honor their Indian heritage at dedication ceremonies. Associated Press

The museum was 15 years in the making and partly pushed to creation by Hawai'i Sen. Dan Inouye.

The pattern for the welcome plaza outside the east entrance plots the configuration of the planets on Nov. 28, 1989, the date Inouye introduced legislation in Congress to create the museum.

Clad in textured, wheat-colored Kasota limestone from Minnesota, the five-story building's curved lines are reminiscent of rocks shaped by wind and water over thousands of years.

Officials expect the museum will draw 4 million visitors a year, which would make it the Smithsonian's third most-popular museum after the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History.

Exhibits will display about 7,000 items that span 10,000 years and an area from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America. The Smithsonian gained the cornerstone of the museum's exhibits when it acquired the collection of George Gustav Heye, an heir to an oil fortune who accumulated 800,000 Indian objects before his death in 1957.

The museum's three permanent inaugural exhibits examine themes common to all Indian people: the spiritual relationship between humans and their universe; native people's survival in the face of the European onslaught; and how Indians maintain their distinct communities in the modern world.

Also this week, the National Museum of Natural History will display a canoe that was a gift to the Smithsonian from Queen Kapi'olani in 1887. Lee, who also helped to design several of this nation's submarines, helped to restore the canoe.

NATIVE HAWAIIANS, AMERICAN INDIANS CONNECTED

Q&A with Rick West, director of the National Museum of the American Indian, conducted by Advertiser Staff Writer Tanya Bricking Leach, during a recent visit by West to Hawai'i:

Q. Why are Native Hawaiians represented in an American Indian museum?

A. Obviously, from a cultural perspective, Native Hawaiians look to the greater Pacific Basin, where there are other Polynesian cultures. ... However, both Native Hawaiians and American Indians are native peoples who reside within the boundaries of the United States of America. And so I think there has always been a linkage between native peoples on the Mainland and Native Hawaiians, because there are political connections, if not literally cultural connections. For many purposes under the federal laws of the United States, Native Hawaiians are equated with Native Americans. And so I think it was reasonable at the time of the establishment and authorization of the National Museum of the American Indian to consider the Native Hawaiian culture would be part of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Q. When visitors come to the museum, what will they learn about Native Hawaiians?

A. First, let me point out that we do not literally collect Hawaiian objects. There are no Hawaiian objects within our collections. Of course, there are huge repositories of Hawaiian objects both here in Hawai'i at the Bishop Museum as well as at the National Museum of Natural History. ... Since we do not collect Native Hawaiian material, we have looked to other areas of programming. For example, the biannual film festival that's hosted by the National Museum of the American Indian, one of the most important native film events and festivals in the world, probably has long included works of an experimental nature addressing cultural issues, talking about the sovereignty of Native Hawaiians on film. ... In addition to whatever we have in collections or whatever goes on the exhibition floors, public programming is very central to what we do, and Native Hawaiians have always been full participants in that area of the National Museum of the American Indian's activities.

Q. As far as Native Hawaiian culture goes, who do you go to as the authority who can say, 'This is the story you should tell of these people'?

A. Well, I think Native Hawaiians are not entirely different from American Indians, or native Americans, in this respect. We are organized around communities, particular groupings. You don't have to call them tribes, but just particular communities. And there are as many authorities on Native America in the United States as there are communities. There are 564 federally recognized tribes. So getting to definitive authorities is not easy sometimes. Now, the Smithsonian Institution, blessedly from our standpoint, had longstanding connections with the Native Hawaiian community, long before the National Museum of the American Indian came along. It was mostly through the Office of Folk Life at the Smithsonian Institution, and through this connection, they had relationships with Native Hawaiian artists, Native Hawaiian historians, both here and O'ahu, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the University of Hawai'i, but also connections with cultural communities on the Big Island. ... And all I can say is we try our best not to make mistakes and to make sure that people with whom we work are respected at-large, or by many people within a particular community, including the Native Hawaiian community.

Q. What particularly interests you about Hawaiian culture?

A. What particularly interests me about Hawaiian culture is that it's indigenous. And what do I mean by that? Well, by indigenous, I mean that amongst most indigenous people I know of, certainly among American Indians and native Alaskans, native peoples of Latin America, but also among the aborigine in Australia, the Maori in New Zealand, and finally the Native Hawaiians of Hawai'i. I see cultural outlooks, philosophies, values, ideas, which resonate with me. Our attachment to place, our attachment to the land, our view of all of life as living, there's very little that's inanimate in our lives. I mean, as far as we're concerned, rocks are living beings. It's this notion of seeing life all around you and being respectful of that life. These are values that I find in indigenous cultures almost anywhere I go, and it's been true with Native Hawaiians also, and I respect that. The other affinity I feel with Native Hawaiians in particular, beyond the cultural, is the political. And that is that at one time, I believe you pointed out earlier in our conversation, or asked about, Native Hawaiians indeed were an independent political entity. They have this sense of nationhood and sovereignty that is something that resonates with anybody who is American Indian because, even though we are most respectful of all ethnic groups in the United States, the fact is that we are different from most in that we have a certain political and sovereign status that other ethnic groups do not have. And I think that many Native Hawaiians, even though I know that it's a complicated political situation, many Native Hawaiians feel the very same way about themselves and that's obviously common ground between Native Hawaiians and me, or us as American Indians and native Americans.

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Facts about the National Museum of the American Indian: Cost: $214 million. Of that, $119 million came from taxpayers and $95 million from private donors. Location: 4.25 acres near the Capitol on the last open spot on the National Mall. Architecture: Five-story, 250,000-square-foot curvilinear building topped with a 120-foot-high skylight rotunda. The exterior is Kasota dolomitic limestone from Minnesota. Expected number of visitors: 4 million a year, which would make it the Smithsonian's third-most-visited museum after the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. Number of objects displayed: About 7,000, including a rifle owned by Apache Chief Geronimo and items taken by astronaut John Bennett Herrington, a Chickasaw, on the space shuttle Endeavour. Focus of exhibits: "Our Universes" will feature tribal philosophies and worldviews; "Our Peoples" will focus on historical events told from an Indian viewpoint, "Our Lives" will explore modern Indian life; "Window on Collections" will feature about 3,500 objects from the collection. Places to spend money: Mitsitam Cafe, which means "let's eat" in the Piscataway and Delaware Indian languages, will serve up indigenous foods such as salmon and buffalo chili. Two museum stores will sell items created by Indian artisans, such as jewelry and textiles. Tickets: Same-day, timed, free passes are available at the museum. Advance passes are available, for a small service fee, at americanindian.si.edu/tickets.cfm or call (866) 400-6624. Hours: The museum is open daily, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., closed Christmas Day.

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	Kumu Hula Nalani Kanaka'ole, right, and her grandson, Ulu, sing during the Native Nations Procession which marked the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Gannett News Service
	Macuil Xochitl, of the Aztec tribe in California, participates in the Native Nations Procession. Gannett News Service
	Wearing an elaborate headdress of pheasant and macaw feathers, Jorge Medina, of San Jose, Calif., dances on the National Mall. Associated Press