National Museum of the American Indian

The National Museum of the American Indian is an institution of living cultures dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere.  The five-story, 250,000-square-foot, curvilinear building is clad in a golden-colored Kasota limestone that is designed to evoke natural rock formations that have been shaped by wind and water over thousands of years. The museum is set in a 4.25-acre site and is surrounded by simulated wetlands . The museum’s east-facing entrance, its prism window and its 120-foot-high space for contemporary Native performances are direct results of extensive consultations with Native peoples. The museum offers a range of exhibitions, film and video screenings, school group programs, public programs and living culture presentations throughout the year.

The National Museum of the American Indian is home to the collection of the former Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. The collection includes more than 800,000 objects, as well as a photographic archive of 125,000 images. The collection, which became part of the Smithsonian in June 1990, was assembled throughout a 54-year period, beginning in 1903 by George Gustav Heye (1874-1957), who traveled throughout North and South America accumulating Native objects.

The museum also features a cafeteria that serves indigenous cuisines from different regions of the Americas , including the Northern Woodlands, South America, the Northwest Coast, Meso America, and the Great Plains. Each food station depicts regional lifeways related to cooking techniques, ingredients, and flavors found in both traditional and contemporary dishes.