Macuil Xochitl of the Aztec tribe in California participates Sept. 21 in the Native Nations Procession, marking the opening for the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. (Heather Wines, GNS)

Americans Indians celebrate opening of national museum

By FAITH BREMNER
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON ¡X Drumming and singing, circling and stomping, Indians in feathered headdresses, color-soaked shawls, business suits and T-shirts celebrated Tuesday's opening of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Some 20,000 Indians walked in the two-hour procession along the National Mall to the new Smithsonian museum near the Capitol.

Some of their dress was familiar, like the buckskins and feather headdresses worn by Plains Indians, and some less so, like the black hoods and white wooden crowns of the Apaches. Many women wore shawls of the deepest red, royal blue, yellow, green and turquoise.

The Choctaw Lady Warriors, a girls' high school basketball team from Mississippi, wore their 2004 state championship T-shirts, jeans and sneakers as they marched in the procession.

''The pride shown here today among the tribes is one thing I want them to take back,'' said their coach, Walter Wilson.

Singing and dancing broke out spontaneously along the seven-block route and the scent of burning cedar and grasses filled the air.

It was a celebration of a new museum that celebrates native people's history, accomplishments and future.

"I think the museum is long overdue," Larry Madden, a Mohican from Wisconsin, said as he adjusted a black bear skin over his head and shoulders. "I hope it tells the whole story and not a sugarcoated, politically correct version."

The museum was 15 years in the making. One entrance plaza plots the configuration of the planets on Nov. 28, 1989, when the bill was introduced to create the museum.

The $219 million for the building and public programs came from taxpayers and private donors, including Indian tribes that run tribal casinos.

Darrell Martin, a Gros Ventre from Montana, said the museum is a blend of the old and the new, nature and technology. President of the Fort Belknap Community Council, the 39-year-old Martin wore a conservative gray business suit, black shoes and a feather headdress and held an eagle feather fan.

"I want people to realize that we are today's Native Americans," said Martin, who owns a handful of small businesses including a bed-and-breakfast in Hays, Mont. "We can't change the past but we can change the future."

The museum, with its curved walls of wheat-colored Kasota limestone, took the last open spot on the National Mall lined with museums and monuments. Officials expect it will draw 4 million visitors a year, which would make it the Smithsonian's third most popular museum after the Air and Space and Natural History museums.

Exhibits display more than 7,000 items from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America. The museum's three permanent inaugural exhibits examine themes common to all Indian people: the spiritual relationship between humans and the universe, native people's survival in the face of the European onslaught, and how Indians maintain their distinct communities in the modern world.