Change Over Time: The National Museum of the American Indian

Abstract

Consisting of curves and nonlinear in conception, the five-story National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) symbolizes nature in the urban environment of Pantheon-like buildings that dominate Washington, D.C. An impressive sight, NMAI is where East meets West on the Atlantic seaboard. It reflects the history of indigenous peoples of this hemisphere, extending new cultural knowledge to foreign visitors from all parts of the world and to all non-indigenous wanting to learn about Native peoples. NMAI was designed to show how and why Native peoples hold nature to be integral to their lives and cultures. Seemingly out of place, NMAI is actually the only structure on the Smithsonian Mall that is in its natural element of the indigenous. In its distinct architectural form, resembling an off-white mesa indigenous to the Southwest, this abstract and mountain-like structure challenges visitors to entertain a different perspective, the perspective of the other side of Indian-white contact that began over five hundred years ago. NMAI is a political and cultural statement of conflict resolution allowing people to learn from native ideas, beliefs, and worldview. Ironically, NMAI occupies the last site on the Smithsonian Mall to celebrate the first Americans of this continent. NMAI has sixty thousand members, more than any other individual Smithsonian museum. The large and