National Museum of the American Indian

This is one of the newest of the Smithsonians, and it shows.
They avoid the problem of an overwhelming display case of contextless stuff by designing the artifact displays almost like a web page. The main display cases are pretty compact, with plenty of “related links” are laid out in a drawer underneath. The drawers are easy to miss though—the only reason I realized they could be opened was that some of them said “drawer locked do not open”, so I opened another one.

The “Our Lives” was a very high tech exhibit about modern native americans. It goes beyond and fleshes out the white-man-messed-this-place-up storyline (but of course there is quite a bit of white-man-messing-up) by exploring the modern life of several different tribes and their answers and responses of assimilation/separatism/etc. It’s designed as a series of half-open rooms, so each of the different tribes has a separate area, but you can hear and catch sight of the neighboring ones, which seems to me to be adapted to a very modern way of focusing attention.

Oh, and the food is great too, and the cafeteria is on the first floor. I think that’s highly appropriate, since in US urban areas, food is often the easiest way to learn about different cultures.

i went to the opening of this museum because my name is on the wall because my grandfather was one of the first white men to be accepted into a native american tribe (the ojibway/ojibwe tribe). really neat place… especially the food haha.

This museum is awesome – but the part I liked best was, surprisingly, the cafeteria. Authentic Native food running from the Southern most tip to the Northern most tip of North America. This is a MUST see part of the Smithsonian!

A great museum with both historical and current exhinitions. I have observed boat makers for mLago Titicaca make a reed boat right in the atrium ath entrance of the Museum!

I think the best overall museum at Smithsonian and definitely the best cafeteria!

Peace, Joy and Success
Ivolutionary

While it isn’t the only reason to visit, because this is truly a fantastic museum, it is the GREATEST place to eat on the mall, interesting, educational, and tasty.