Thomas J. West Music

Yesterday, I spent about five hours visiting the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. (and about seven hours on a bus with 40 middle school kids). Our field trip to the museum is in conjunction with this year's theme for our Integrated Arts curriculum, "The Art of the Native American".

For me, it was a profound and humbling experience. I think our students got something out of it, but the weight of the story of these nations and how it is seamlessly woven into the building's architecture seemed to elude them.

The central circular atrium of the museum has a medicine wheel pattern on the floor and is visible from open balconies on all four of the museum's floors. There is a vertical window on the eastern wall of the atrium with prisms installed. On sunny days (which luckily we had), the sunlight coming in this window casts bands of rainbow across the floor of the medicine wheel. The window is positioned so that on the fall and spring equinoxes, the rainbow band aligns perfectly with the center of the wheel. Our students' reaction of course: "Oh look! Rainbows! I love rainbows!"

The museum represents over 600 active indigineous cultures in America speaking over 200 languages. It also covers Canada, Central, and South America, bringing the total number of cultures into the thousands. These are people who still today must have proof of their lineage on file with the U.S. government to be registered as sovereign nations within the country. As one Cherokee told me, "Only Indians and show animals have to have their pedigrees on file."

The exhibits for the Conquistadores, Trail of Tears, and weapons through the centuries ("ooh look - guns!") Were particularly chilling. The trials that these nations have had to endure make my own personal challenges seem paltry.

Another highlight of the museum was the bronze sculpture of the Tree of Peace. Standing about twenty feet tall, the sculpture depicts a meeting between General Washington and Oneida indian grandmother Polly Cooper, who walked with others from her tribe 400 miles from Wisconsin to deliver corn and other foods to Washington's starving army at Valley Forge. The back side of the tree features an Oneida girl representing the future seven generations, the weapons under the tree's roots represent the "burying of the hatchet", and the eagle atop the tree represents the Creator. The detail and craftsmanship of the sculpture is mind-boggling, right down to the individually crafted bronze pine needles on the tree, which look as organic and pliable as the real thing.

I highly recommend the museum to all, as well as the other 18 facilities that make up the Smithsonian Institution - all free to the public.

This article (c) 2011 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

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