30 



Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 1999 



Collections Awards Program," which offers transportation 

 awards for scholars to come and study at the museum. 



The Affiliations Program gained momentum. In 1999, the 

 museum had a total of 2 1 affiliate relationships with muse- 

 ums nationwide. Of those, eight active affiliations involve 

 more than 350 loaned objects, with 10 other affiliations in the 

 planning stages. The largest and most active affiliate in 1999 

 was The National Museum of Industrial History (NMIH), a 

 new museum that will be located at the former Bethlehem 

 Steel Corporation mill in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1999, 

 American History dismantled its "1876: A Centennial Cele- 

 bration" from the Arts and Industries Building after a 23-year 

 run and sent it to Bethlehem. In addition, an American His- 

 tory team shipped 100 artifacts weighing more than 50 tons 

 from the Arts and Industries Building to Bethlehem. That in- 

 cluded the "Great Locomotive Switch": a Smithsonian rigging 

 crew and two contracted rigging crews, with curatorial assis- 

 tance from American History's train experts, moved three 

 Smithsonian locomotives to new homes. The Jupiter was 

 moved into the railroad hall at American History. The Olo- 

 mana and the 1 i-ton Pioneer of 185 1 went to Bethlehem on 

 long-term loan to the new museum, along with items such as 

 an 1875 Otis elevator, steam engines, a tractor, machine tools, 

 telegraphy equipment, and a windmill. 



Other Allifiations involved with American History in- 

 cluded the Chabot Observatory in Oakland, California. 

 Eight objects, including six telescopes, from American His- 

 tory's physical science collection are going on long-rerm loan 

 to the state-of-the-art observatory and planetarium. Origins, 

 a museum and cultural center in Arlington, Texas, received 

 items from American History's sports history collection last 

 year for installation at the Legends of the Game Museum in 

 Rangers Stadium. The B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, 

 Maryland, and American History are exploring collaborative 

 research, exhibit, and educational programs. The first tangi- 

 ble step occurred in 1999, when American History lent the 

 museum a nineteenth-century B&O signage drum that was 

 used on a B&O caboose. 



National Museum of the 

 American Indian 



W. Richard West, Director 



The National Museum of the American Indian, established 

 in 1989 by Public Law 101-185, is a hemispheric institution 

 of living cultures dedicated to the preservation, study, and 

 exhibition of the historic and contemporary life, languages, 

 literature, history, and arts of Native Peoples. The museum 

 also is dedicated to supporting and perpetuating contempo- 

 rary Native cultures and communities. 



Three days of events from September 26 to 28 celebrated 

 key museum achievements as the National Museum of the 

 American Indian also marked its first decade. The public 

 opening of the Cultural Resources Center on September 26; 



delivery of a seminal speech titled "Against All Odds" by 

 NMAI Director W. Richard West to the national press corps 

 about the purpose of the museum on September 27; and on 

 September 28, a ground-breaking ceremony for the National 

 Mall museum. The ground-breaking ceremony was covered 

 by media from throughout the world and captured front- 

 page attention in the Washington Post and the Neu> York Times. 



More than 1,500 museum members and others toured the 

 new Cultural Resources Center (CRC) in Suitland, Mary- 

 land, which eventually will house the museum's entire 

 800,000-object collection. The collection is being moved 

 from the Research Branch in the Bronx, New York. The 

 CRC now serves as a research, study, and educational facility. 

 At the Cultural Resources Center, which reflects Native 

 design concepts and orientation thanks to extensive tribal 

 consultations, indoor and outdoor ceremonial areas are avail- 

 able to tribal delegations. There tribal elders and others can 

 perform ceremonies and rituals with objects from the collec- 

 tion connected to their tribes. NMAI Native artist fellows, 

 Native interns, scholars, and researchers are other primary 

 users of the Cultural Resources Center. Since its founding in 

 1989, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American 

 Indian (NMAI) has worked closely and collaboratively with 

 tribes throughout the Western Hemisphere. The museum's 

 world-renowned collection has been available to tribes for 

 inspection and ceremonial use. During these visits, tribal 

 representatives have assisted the museum in identifying 

 objects and explaining their traditional uses. 



The museum's Community Services Department works 

 regularly with tribes throughout the hemisphere in cultural 

 exchanges, workshops, and other programs. For example, a 

 daylong workshop was held by rhe NMAI in Sonoma 

 County, California, ro introduce a new generation of basket 

 weavers from Pomoan tribes to a sedge and willow gathering 

 area that was not known to them. As development erases Tra- 

 ditional gathering areas for basket-making materials, 

 connecting weavers to previously unknown sires helps ro 

 perpetuate their art and craft. The workshop was held in 

 conjunction with an NMAI exhibition "Porno Indian Basket 

 Weavers, Their Baskets and the Art Market." Porno weavers, 

 storytellers, dancers, and others tribal members participated 

 in the exhibition programming and traveled to New York 

 from California. 



In the past year, NMAI's interdisciplinary research has 

 been focused in Peru and Mexico and the North American 

 Plains, Southeast, and Southwest. Current research with and 

 for indigenous communities is creating the inaugural exhibi- 

 tions for the museum on the National Mall, which will 

 encompass the worldview and philosophies, histories, and vi- 

 talities of indigenous peoples. 



NMAI's curatorial staff is working collaboratively with 

 the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Eastern Band of Cherokees of 

 North Carolina, Oglala Lakota of South Dakota, and 

 Quechua of Peru on the first several of approximarely 40 

 tribal consultations that will be the basis of tribally curated 

 exhibitions at the Mall museum. Tribes will also select ob- 

 jects from the NMAI collection to represent their cultures in 



