Robert C. Lautman The 254,000-square-foot National Museum of the American Indian, showcasing 10,000 years of American Indian art, history and culture, opens today on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Click photo for larger image. National Museum of the American Indian WHERE: The museum is at 4th Street and Independence Avenue, S.W., on the National Mall. HOURS: Opening week from 1 p.m. today through 5:30 p.m. tomorrow; 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday. Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily; closed Dec. 25. Admission is free. Given the expected crowds, museum officials have created a system of timed passes. Those planning to visit the museum may obtain passes online at www.americanindian.si.edu or by phone at 1-866-400-6624. Tickets also are available at www.tickets.com, but there is a convenience fee of $12.75 per ticket plus a $1.50 service charge per order. There will be a limited number of same-day passes distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. INFORMATION: 1-202-633-1000 and online at www.nmai.si.edu.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The National Museum of the American Indian opens today, a spectacular symbol of the cultural and political renaissance of the nation's "first people."

With its sinewy limestone facade and prime spot on the National Mall, the 254,000-square-foot museum is a visually stunning showcase of 10,000 years of American Indian art, history and culture.

More than 500 years after Indians' first, often disastrous contacts with Europeans -- and just a half-century after Congress passed a law trying to "terminate" tribes -- the museum offers American Indians "a prominent place of honor on the nation's front lawn," said W. Richard West, the museum's founding director.

"At our heart, we feel we represent something intangible," West said. "We define a moment of reconciliation in American history."

West said he hopes the museum serves as "an instrument of enlightenment, helping our visitors learn more about the extraordinary achievements of the indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere."

"We also hope that native people will look upon the museum as a truly native place, where they are welcome and honored guests."

The $200 million museum, the 16 th museum operated by the Smithsonian Institution, is expected to draw 4 million visitors annually, said Smithsonian secretary Lawrence Small. It is likely to be the last museum built on the Mall, because of space limitations.

"It's a tribute to the first Americans, a tribute that's long overdue," Small said, noting that the museum is the first to allow American Indians to present their history and culture from their own point of view. "We hope it will mark a new beginning in our nation's history."

While the museum will explore the often-difficult past of American Indians, "it will also recognize the thoughts, wisdom and arts of native peoples today," Small added.

Making it happen

The museum's opening today will be marked by a 2 1/2-hour procession of hundreds of tribal leaders, most in native dress, along the National Mall. The museum will stay open all night through 5:30 p.m. tomorrow to accommodate the expected crowds.

In addition, the museum's opening will kick off a six-day First Americans Festival on the Mall that will feature storytelling, dancing and music.

First authorized by Congress in 1989, the new museum is one part of a three-part endeavor. There's a New York City branch of the museum, which opened in 1994. A second facility, the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Md., houses the vast majority of the museum's 800,000-piece collection.

The collection, most of it gathered over the past century by New Yorker George G. Heye, is generally regarded as the finest collection of American Indian artifacts in the world.

The new Mall museum is designed as the centerpiece of the three facilities. Created in a collaborative process with tribes, the museum is designed to be a "dynamic," ever-changing place.

Exhibitions of Indian history and culture, put together in consultation with tribes, will be regularly rotated. In addition, a "Changing Exhibitions" gallery will feature the work of various American Indian artists; the inaugural exhibition spotlights the work of George Morrison and Allan Houser.

The museum also will regularly host storytelling, music and dance sessions by American Indians and will eventually attempt to reach out to those who can't physically visit the museum through an interactive Web site.

Designed to teach

	Manuel Balce Ceneta, Associated Press Martin Champi, center, leads Quechua Indians from Chuquisca, Bolivia, as they rehearse a harvest dance called "Danza Ayarichi" for tomorrow's grand opening of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. Click photo for larger image.

Reflecting American Indian life, the museum is steeped in symbolism. The building is designed to look as if it were shaped by wind and water, just as the natural world has shaped so much of American Indian history and tradition.

Inside, the museum is dominated by an atrium, called the Potomac, which is 100 feet in diameter and soars to a windowed dome 120 feet high. A long, narrow slit in the atrium's south wall contains eight large glass prisms that catch the sun and create rainbows.

The Potomac, encircled by a wall of woven copper bands meant to evoke native basketweaving traditions, is designed as a gathering space, as well as a place where visitors can watch boat-building by a rotating succession of tribes.

Visitors may sample the diversity of American Indian food in the cafe, which is designed to evoke the feel of a native marketplace. The museum's two gift stores also incorporate American Indian artistry, featuring purple and white tiles crafted from shells by the Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts.

Much of the museum involves cutting-edge technology and design. The first stop for many visitors will be the 125-seat circular Lelawi Theater on the fourth floor. Here visitors will be introduced to the museum through a dazzling multimedia presentation, "Who We Are."

The presentation utilizes the entire theater, including the ceiling and a cast-acrylic "rock" in the center, which transforms from a rushing river to a campfire. The idea, according to museum officials, is to immerse viewers in the vibrant life of contemporary American Indians.

Special exhibitions

	Ernesto Amoroso Among the items on display at the museum is an Absaroke (Crow) beaded bridle ornament, circa 1880, from Montana. Click photo for larger image.

Three inaugural exhibitions further explore the culture, history and spirituality of American Indians. Each of the exhibits focuses on eight different tribes, who have collaborated with museum officials and helped choose objects from the museum's collection to tell their stories.

In "Our Universes," eight tribes, from places as disparate as Alaska, Peru and New Mexico, describe how they celebrate the relationship between humans and the natural world, especially the seasons.

"Along the way, visitors will discover how celestial bodies [the sun and moon] shape our daily lives and establish our calendar of ceremonies and celebrations," said curator Emil Her Many Horses.

In the exhibit, visitors learn that the Hupa tribe of California believes that when people die they go to a place where they dance forever. "So when we pray, we ask them to come back and dance with us," Hupa leader Mervin George Sr. states in a quotation on the exhibition wall.

A second exhibit, "Our Lives," provides a glimpse of American Indians today as they attempt to keep their native identity in modern society. The exhibition highlights tribal efforts to find economic self-sufficiency, including the controversial growth of casino gambling on Indian lands, as well as attempts to preserve native customs and language.

One of the most poignant parts of this exhibition is the section devoted to the Pamunkey Indians of Virginia. The Pamunkey are the tribe of perhaps the best-known Indian among non-natives: Pocahontas.

Since European settlement of North America, the Pamunkey have lost their language and many of their traditions. Today, the Pamunkey reservation in eastern Virginia is home to about 35 "households," yet the tribe proudly keeps its treaty duty of presenting the Virginia governor with game each year.

A third exhibition, "Our Peoples," tackles the topic of history and how the image of American Indians over the centuries has been largely shaped by non-Indians. The exhibition offers a revised history of Indians from the Indian point of view, noting the stark losses of American Indians to disease, poverty, racism, war and oppression.

The exhibit includes a brief, hard-hitting video, starring American Indian actor Floyd Flavel, that warns viewers that the exhibition "may fly in the face of what you've learned" about American Indians from movies, television and even textbooks.

The paradox, Flavel notes, is that, until now, "for all of our visibility, we have been rendered invisible and silent. This museum is a way of giving us a voice."

In the exhibit's section featuring the Seminole Indians of Florida, Seminole Ronnie Jimmie says that "these stories can't be found in books." Yet, as an activist from the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina notes later in the exhibit, "We're still here.''

And that, said West, is exactly the point of the museum.

"Visitors will leave this museum experience knowing that Indians are not [just] part of history. We are still here and making vital contributions to contemporary American culture and art."