EDITORIAL
History comes alive in new Indian museum

Hawaiians marched near the head of a Washington procession that marked the formal opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian this week on the national mall.

Their presence, and a related exhibit on Hawaiian treasures at the National Museum of Natural History, places the Hawaiian people in the spotlight as this long-awaited facility takes its rightful place in the nation's capital.

For now, Hawaiians have no permanent place in the new museum — acknowledgement of a delicate political and sociological situation.

Hawaiians are not American Indians. Indeed, they are not Native Americans under currently accepted legal and political concepts.

And many Hawaiians would insist they do not wish to become Native Americans, either politically or anthropologically.

They would argue that they are a once and future sovereign people, a nation unto themselves.

Still, the effort to preserve and protect Hawaiian rights and programs has driven many Hawaiians to seek recognition similar to that offered by the federal government to Native American Indian tribes and nations.

Clearly, these sensitivities were in mind as curators and museum specialists decided what would be featured in this magnificent new museum.

Among those most sensitive to these matters is senior Hawai'i Sen. Dan Inouye, a leading player in the effort to conceive of the museum and then work through the political and financial difficulties that stood in the way of its reality.

Inouye began to push for the museum more than 15 years ago, shortly after he became Indian Affairs chairman for the Senate. He said he was appalled by the way Indian artifacts and objects were cared for and displayed.

Another outcome of that experience was the development of federal law that provides for the repatriation of certain Indian and Native Hawaiian artifacts.

A column on this page today expresses some disappointment in the quality of the exhibits to be seen on opening day. They fail, the author argues, to fully capture the nuance and drama of the Native American story.

That opinion contrasts with the highly emotional and generally favorable response the museum has received from Indian organizations and other museum critics.

In time, one hopes the proper place will be found to tell the Hawaiian story as well —whether it is in this splendid new museum or in another venue.

When that story is properly told to the nation, it should be not as an isolated piece of history — a curio — but rather as a living, breathing part of the fabric that has become America today.