held in conjunction with the exhibition, "Red, Hot & Blue: A 

 Salute to American Musicals." A tribute to producer Vincente 

 Minnelli, "That's Entertainment," was also held in conjunc- 

 tion with the exhibition. 



"OuiStory." a new series of family programs designed to 

 bring history- to life for museum visitors from pre-schoolers to 

 adults through storytelling and hands-on activities, was 

 launched this year. The first session, held in conjunction with 

 Hispanic Heritage Month, was devoted to "Santos of Puerto 

 Rico." Other notable education, outreach, and public programs 

 included a celebration of National Chemistry Week. National 

 Engineer's Week Future City Competition. National History Day. 

 the Kids Learning History Conference, the Transportation in 

 American History Symposium, and the American Landmarks Con- 

 ference. "The People, the Language: Preserving Endangered 

 Languages of the United States," an exploration of the en- 

 dangered Native languages of the United States and their 

 preservation through the arts and innovative educational 

 efforts, was cosponsored by the museum's American Indian 

 Program. The museum's popular "Looking American Series" 

 featured informal discussions with staff about clothing and 

 textile objects collected, studied, and cared for by the 

 museum. The annual Holiday Celebration brought more than 

 one hundred musicians, craftspeople, storytellers, dancers, and 

 artists into the museum in order to demonstrate the wide 

 variety of holiday traditions celebrated and enjoyed by 

 Americans at the end of the year. 



National Museum of the American Indian 



W. Richard West, Director 



The National Museum of the American Indian is dedicated to 

 the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, 

 literature, history, and arts of the Native peoples of the Western 

 Hemisphere. In consultation, collaboration, and cooperation with 

 Native peoples, the museum works to protect and foster their 

 cultures by reaffirming traditions and beliefs, encouraging artis- 

 tic expression, and providing a forum for Indian voices. Through 

 innovative public programming research, and collections, the 

 museum works to fulfill its mission. 



Construction of the NMAI's Cultural Resources Center in 

 Suitland, Maryland, continued on schedule this year. The Cul- 

 tural Resources Center, which is the heart of the National 

 Museum of the American Indian, has three purposes: to house, 

 protect, and care for the more than 800, ooo objects in its col- 

 lection; to serve as the focal point for research, community ser- 

 vice, and outreach; and to support the museum's public 

 facilities on the National Mall and at the George Gustav 

 Heye Center in New York City. The center will open in 1999. 



The NMAI was awarded a $500,000 challenge grant by the 

 Kresge Foundation to help fund construction of the Cultural 

 Resources Center. Before the grant is disbursed, the foundation is 



requiring the NMAI to raise more than Si. 5 million in needed 

 construction funds in order to encourage private giving. 



"Woven by the Grandmothers: Nineteenth-Century 

 Navajo Textiles from the National Museum of the American 

 Indian" opened in October at the George Gustav Heye Cen- 

 ter. This exhibition of some 45 spectacular examples of Navajo 

 weavings from the museum's unparalleled collection is travel- 

 ing to museums in Arizona and Washington, D.C., under the 

 sponsorship of the Mobil Corporation. Efforts to further the 

 museum's mission to "consult, collaborate, and cooperate with 

 Native peoples" throughout the hemisphere were realized in a 

 special training program held in conjunction with "Woven by 

 the Grandmothers" in August. The program, which began in 

 Window Rock, Arizona, the capital of the Navajo Nation, 

 brought together several aspiring Navajo museum profes- 

 sionals to learn about exhibition installation, conservation, 

 and registration while the exhibition was on view at the 

 Navajo Nation Museum. The Navajo trainees continued their 

 instruction in Washington, D.C., when the exhibition tra- 

 veled to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The 

 NMAI also reached out nationally with another exhibition, 

 "Newborn Ancestors: The Art and Articles of Plains Indian 

 Children," which went on view for a year beginning in March 

 1997 at the San Francisco International Airport. 



On March 27, just two and a half years since the Center's 

 opening in October 1994, attendance totaled one million. 

 Weekly attendance soared during the summer months to 

 13,000 visitors per week, a 54.5 percent increase over last 

 summer's figures. Year-end attendance topped 600,000, 

 almost double last year's attendance. 



The museum continued its commitment, under federal law 

 and museum policy, to repatriate human remains and objects 

 of religious and cultural patrimony to Native groups through- 

 out the hemisphere. Among the most significant returns this 

 year was 19 strands of wampum — Iroquois history documented 

 in meticulously stranded shells — to the Haudenasaunee (Iroquois 

 Confederacy) in May. This was the second return of wampum to 

 the Iroquois people in less than year. 



A traditional Native American star-pattern quilt commis- 

 sioned by the museum was installed in May in the Rayburn 

 House Office Building on Capitol Hill. The quilt was made 

 by Nellie Menard (Rosebud Sioux) and replaces a quilt pre- 

 viously on loan from the Anacostia Museum Director W. 

 Richard West and Representative Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), 

 chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, were 

 on hand for the dedication. 



National Museum of Natural History 



Robert W. Fri, Director 



The opening of the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, 

 Gems, and Minerals highlighted fiscal year 1997 at the Na- 

 tional Museum of Natural History. At its inauguration, the 



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