At the Threshold: A Response to Comments on the National Museum of the American Indian's Inaugural Exhibitions

Abstract

We appreciate the opportunity to comment on the thoughtful essays prepared for The Public Historian’s roundtable discussion of the opening exhibitions at the National Museum of the American Indian (the NMAI) in Washington, D.C. The essays add to the growing commentary about the museum and go a long way toward helping the NMAI meet the challenge of its mission. The introductory essay, written by Douglas E. Evelyn nearly a year ago in the early post-opening months of the museum, provides background on the NMAI’s mission, components, initial opening events, and operating principles, particularly the museum’s insistence on including Native Americans as full participants in all its programming. We will try not to repeat that essay’s content here, although we should remind readers that the roundtable reviews comment on just one, albeit important and visible, component of the NMAI: the museum’s exhibitions. Public programs, lectures, film festivals, publications, educational materials, collaborative projects with other museums and organizations, Native community outreach activities, and the use of the Mall Museum and its George Gustav Heye Center in New York City for relevant