Commemorating the Anniversary of the National Museum of the American Indian Act
On November 28, 1989, President George Bush signed the NMAI Act into law. It created the museum’s two locations and a research center; it also set an important precedent for the Smithsonian and the nation.
This month marks the 34th anniversary of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Act of 1989, which established the museum’s DC location; its New York City site, also known as the George Gustav Heye Center, in the Alexander Hamilton Customs House; and a storage, conservation, and research facility in Suitland, Maryland.
It was a fifteen-year process to realize the vision the legislation laid out. The Heye Center opened in New York in 1994, the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland in 1999, and the flagship DC museum in 2004. The opening ceremony in DC was the largest known gathering of Native American communities in history: it was a powerful reclamation of the National Mall.
Ninth Smithsonian Secretary (1984-1994) Robert McCormick Adams (1926- ), signs Memorandum of Understanding with Museum of American Indian (MAI), Heye Foundation, transferring its superb collection of American Indian artifacts to Smithsonian at ceremony on May 8, 1989, overlooking the site of the hoped-for new National Museum of the American Indian to be built on the Mall in Washington to house Heye Foundation Collection. Looking on left to right: Suzan Harjo, member of board of trustees, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York City; Roland Force, director MAI; Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), chief support of legislation to create NMAI within SI; Dick Baker, member Lakota Sioux Red Feather Society; Congressman Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-CO), only American Indian member in Congress. (Photo by Laurie Minor-Penland)
The designs for both the Maryland and DC buildings were determined through a collaborative program—The Way of the People—between Native American communities and architectural consultants. The museum on the Mall was initially designed by Native American architect Douglas Cardinal, and its curvilinear form is intended to evoke a wind-sculpted rock formation.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. (Photot © 2004 Judy Davis/Hoachlander Davis Photography for Smithsonian)
In the decades since, NMAI has stewarded one of the most expansive collections of Native artifacts covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. Across its three buildings, NMAI houses over 800,000 artifacts, 300,000 images, and the largest holdings of Native art from the Americas in the world.
Among those holdings are the remains of Native people: many were looted from gravesites by Smithsonian officials and their accomplices long before a museum was established, and NMAI was intended from the very beginning to reckon with this legacy. The National Museum of the American Indian Act also established the Smithsonian’s repatriation policy for Native American human remains and associated funerary objects (the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which governs repatriation for non-Smithsonian entities, was passed the following year).
Since the passage of the NMAI Act in 1989 and its amendment in 1996, the Smithsonian has repatriated the remains of more than 5,000 people. Our Human Remains Task Force is set to release its recommendations to expand upon that existing policy by the end of the calendar year, so that we might broaden and accelerate that important work.
Our NMAI team has a long history of working closely with tribal nations so that remains are returned to their origin communities and histories of sovereignty, dispossession, and resilience are appropriately shared with global audiences.
Treaty of Canandaigua, courtesy National Museum of the American Indian “Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and the Indian Nations”
Today, visitors can come to the DC location and marvel at exhibitions that cover everything from a history of treaties between the United States government and tribal nations to an exploration of one native artist’s remarkable portfolio. In New York City, exhibitions range from tracing ten artists’ works inspired by their personal tribal heritage to covering some 700 works of Native art from throughout the Americas. Both locations host exhibitions that examine the history of the native land the museums are built on.
Muisca clay head, Colombia, A.D. 1200–1600. Clay, paint. (23/920), courtesy National Museum of the American Indian “Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian”
It’s been 34 years since President Bush signed the legislation creating a national museum dedicated to the native history our government tried to eradicate. It was both a remarkable act and a watershed moment. The National Museum of the American Indian Act set twin precedents for the Smithsonian Institution and, in turn, for the nation: it was the first piece of legislation to create an American history museum dedicated to a particular community—the National Museum of African American History and Culture followed in its footsteps, as will the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum and the National Museum of the American Latino—and it established the first Smithsonian policy governing the repatriation of human remains.
Both are vital legacies we continue to build on today. I am proud to recognize NMAI’s singular history and its vital role in the legacy of the Smithsonian.
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Posted: 30 November 2023
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