Museum need to know

By Gannett News Service

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 like 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 will be available at the museum after Sept. 21. Advance passes are available, for a small service fee, on the Web or call 866-400-6624.

Hours: The museum opens Tuesday. It will be open daily, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., closed Christmas Day.