Masterworks of Native American Idencicy and Belief (on 

 view through spring 1998) remain on view. 



The Heye Center hosted three traveling exhibitions during 

 the year. "Ancestral Memories: A Tribute to Native American 

 Survival" and "Partial Recall: Photographs of Native North 

 America" were on view from May 19 through July 21. The 

 first exhibition, organized by the Falkirk Cultural Center in 

 San Rafael, Calif., celebrated a cultural and cross-generational 

 understanding of Native American issues through the presen- 

 tation of 18 contemporary works that commemorated the life 

 and work of historical figures in Native American history. 

 "Partial Recall," organized by Tyler Galleries, Tyler School of 

 Art of Temple University and curated by Lucy R. Lippard, ex- 

 plored the relationship between photography and identity 

 through historical photographs selected by a panel of Native 

 Americans and che works of three contemporary Native 

 American photographers. 



"Crossroads Alaska: Native Cultures of Alaska and Siberia," 

 a traveling exhibition organized by the Arctic Studies Center 

 of the National Museum of Natural History, was on view at 

 the Heye Center from June 27 through August 8. Two 

 hundred detailed miniatures and models illustrated the diver- 

 sity and ingenuity of the cultures and peoples of the North 

 Pacific region who learned to adapt to their cold environment 

 in creative ways. The exhibition was created in collaboration 

 with American, Canadian, and Russian curators, and included 

 objects from the museum's collection. 



"Stories of the People" — the first exhibition presented by 

 the National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall — 

 opened in the Arts and Industries Building on August 10, the 

 first day of the Smithsonian's Birthday Party. The exhibition 

 features 200 objects chosen by seven Native selectors repre- 

 senting six tribes or regional groups from the Americas, and 

 examines the last 150 years, a period of great social and cul- 

 tural change for Native Americans. Made possible through 

 the generosity of The Greenwich Wotkshop, Inc., the exhibi- 

 tion will be on view through August 10, 1997. 



The Heye Center continued to offer a full schedule of 

 public programs through its Expressive Cultures Series, in- 

 cluding storytelling, theater, dance, film and video. Key 

 public programs included the museum's first public sym- 

 posium, "The Changing Presentation of the American In- 

 dian," held at the Heye Center on October 7-8. Prominent 

 Native and non-Native scholars presented papers and dis- 

 cussed the presentation of the American Indian in museums 

 and the media over the past few decades. In June, more than 

 : vx. peopie attended a noon program a' the Heye ' enter ror che 

 unveiling of the U.S. Postal Service's new "American Indian Dan- 

 ces" stamp series. The Film and Video Department presented 

 programs both at the museum and in Washington, DC A spe- 

 cial program held on May 10 co-sponsored with the Canadian 

 Embassy in Washington titled "Native Land/Native Home," was 

 part of the District of Columbia s 1996 Environmental Film Fes- 

 tival and featured well known Native Canadian filmmaker 

 Gar/ Farmer f Cayuga; as guest speaker. 



The Smithsonian's Birthday Parry on the Mall on August 

 IO— II was the site of a major spotlight on Native American 

 cultures as the museum staffs from Washington and New 

 York came together to welcome Native dancers, musicians 

 and athletes from across the Americas. A full array of ac- 

 tivities in two performance areas took place on the site of the 

 Mall museum over the weekend. Featured groups included 

 Kwakwalfcz'wakw singers and dancers from Alert Bay, British 

 Columbia; the Southwest Singers (Dine) from Arizona; the 

 Oklahoma Native American Youth Choir (Kiowa and Com- 

 anche); drumming by both Southern and Northern Plains 

 groups from the United States and Canada; Haudenosaunee 

 dance (New York); Caddo stomp dance (Oklahoma); 

 Hawaiian music and dance; Latin American music and dance; 

 and a special performance by 1996 World Champion Hoop 

 Dancer Derrick Davis (Hopi/Choctaw) and his brother Vin- 

 cent Davis (Hopi/Choctaw). The weekend ended with a 

 dramatic "Native Nations Procession" on Sunday, August II 

 that featured Native dance and musical groups and staff and 

 friends of the National Museum of the Amencan Indian. Per- 

 formances by the American Indian Dance Theater and the 

 Lakota Sioux Dance Theater were followed by remarks to an 

 audience of thousands by museum Director West. 



The museum went "live" over the Internet during the 

 Smithsonian's Birthday Party on August 10-n with the 

 launch of "CoNexus," a project developed by the museum's 

 Resource Center and Public Programs department designed 

 to transmit live performances over the World Wide Web. 

 Web browsers had a unique opporrunity to access live images 

 and commentary from the museum's performance area from 

 their own home computets. The special Web page featured a 

 live simulcast of the museum's activities which wete updated 

 every few minutes with live text from on-site "video 

 curators." CoNexus now occupies a permanent site on the 

 Web, offering constantly changing wotld wide access to 

 public programs at the Heye Center. 



An updated version of the museum's Web homepage — 

 introduced in December 1994 with the opening of the Heye 

 Center — went online in February. Since that time, it has won 

 several awards including the 4 Star Magellan Award. The pur- 

 pose of the homepage is to link the museum and Native com- 

 munities and provide access to the museum's cultural and 

 educational tesources to audiences who may never have an op- 

 portunity to visit the museum's facilities in New Yotk or 

 Washington. The homepage also links online visitots to other 

 Native sites on the Internet, expanding the museum's out- 

 reach to the public. The homepage represents — as perhaps no 

 other museum program can — the museum's mandate to bring 

 its programs, services, and information to Native com- 

 munities in a tangible and accessible form that reaches far 

 beyond the museum's walls. 



Collaboration with Native communities is mtegtal to the 

 museums mission. This yeat, the museum has been involved 

 in a numbet of educational outreach activities and program- 

 matic collaborations in Alaska. Partnerships with the Nation- 



71 



