Introduction Schedule Press Potluck Gala Reception

The National Museum of the American Indian celebrates four landmark anniversaries—the signing of the legislation that created the museum twenty years ago, the fifteenth anniversary of our first museum in New York City, the tenth anniversary of our state-of-the-art collections facility in Suitland, Maryland, and the fifth anniversary of the opening of our flagship museum on the National Mall.

Since its creation, the National Museum of the American Indian has hosted tens of thousands of Native American artists, dancers, leaders, musicians, poets, scholars, and writers who have educated, entertained, enlightened, and inspired millions of visitors from around the globe. Thousands of items from the museum’s unparalleled 800,000-plus collection have been variously conserved, curated, displayed, digitized, exhibited, repatriated, and researched.

But we’re just getting started. The story of the Indian people of this hemisphere is central to America’s narrative and the world’s future. And the National Museum of the American Indian is the place where that story is just beginning to unfold and be told by Native Americans.

Join us this fall and become part of the uniquely American experience that is the National Museum of the American Indian through the richness of Native American dance, film, food, music, storytelling, theater, and more.

Celebrations begin on the Fall Equinox—Tuesday, September 22—and continue throughout November—Native American Heritage Month!

—Kevin Gover (Pawnee)
Director, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian

November 28, 1989
President George Bush signed legislation establishing the National Museum of the American Indian as part of the Smithsonian Institution.

October 30, 1994
The museum’s first facility, the George Gustav Heye Center, officially opened in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House at One Bowling Green in New York City.

September 28, 1999
The National Museum of the American Indian opened its second facility, the Cultural Resources Center, a state-of-the art research and collections facility, in Suitland, Maryland.

September 21, 2004
The National Museum of the American Indian’s third facility and flagship museum opened on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in front of the U.S. Capitol. The grand opening included a Native Nations Procession, opening ceremony, and a six-day First Americans Festival. Opening day alone brought more than 80,000 people to the National Mall.