Rick West looked out over a crowd of thousands of Native Americans gathered on the National Mall and said “welcome home.” In September, after 15 years of planning, fundraising, advocacy and negotiation by West, JD ’72, the National Museum of the American Indian opened in Washington, D.C., the latest and likely last addition to the Mall complex.
West, a Southern Cheyenne, has been director of the museum since 1990, a year after President George Bush signed legislation authorizing its construction. West had to overcome partisan squabbling, two recessions and questions about the project’s direction to complete the museum, originally slated to open in 2002. “Once in a great while, something so important and so powerful occurs that, just for a moment, history seems to stand still—and silent—in honor,” West said at the grand opening ceremony September 21. “[The museum] is a symbol of hope, centuries in the making, that the hearts and minds of all Americans, beyond this museum and throughout the Americas, will open and welcome the presence of the first peoples in their history and in their contemporary lives.”
The museum will showcase the history of Native Americans, including the catastrophic invasion of their homelands by settlers and governments, but will emphasize how Indian people have kept their cultures alive. “In our minds and in history, we are not victims,” West said at the dedication. “As the Mohawks have counseled us, ‘It is hard to see the future with tears in our eyes.’”
