Museum Director —Achieving a Dynamic Balance

The director of the National Museum of the American Indian has an expansive, inclusive vision of democracy in America. Referring to Native Americans, W. Richard West told an interviewer: "We want to be part of that great pluralism, which really is the United States. It has been in the past and will continue to be in the future. I think that one of the great lessons of American democracy is [that] it has allowed through time this great cultural pluralism to live and grow up together in the United States. That really is the beauty of American democracy, and Native people themselves are quite dedicated to that vision."

It's a vision that has guided West's approach to leading what is one of the nation's most important collective cultural undertakings in recent years, the establishment of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The museum now occupies a place of prominence on the Mall in Washington, D.C., near the Capitol, drawing visitors from around the United States and around the world.

A citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma and a peace chief of the Southern Cheyenne, West has devoted his professional and personal life to working with American Indians. He grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, the son of an American Indian master artist, the late Richard West, Sr. Although the younger West ultimately chose to study law, he credits his lifelong interest in Indian history with influencing the career choices he has made.

Asked to articulate his version of the "American dream," West describes a kind of dynamic balance between the prerogatives of individual identity and membership in the larger society. There are, he notes, "five hundred and sixty-four federally recognized tribes in the United States. [The] ability to occupy cultural space in the United States is very, very important to us. And yet, we also appreciate that we are part of a larger political hub, which is called the United States of America, and we're very committed to that."

How does that work out in practice? "On a percentage basis," says West, "native people in the United States volunteer for military service, to the defense of this country, at much higher rates than any other segment of our population. So you see there is this wonderful commitment to the country of the United States, but at the same time to our own particular cultural communities." While his identity as a Southern Cheyenne is "very, very important, my being a citizen of the United States is equally fulfilling."

The director of the NMAI brought his vision of participation and pluralism to the daunting task of guiding the development of the three facilities that comprise the National Museum of the American Indian. West oversaw the creation of the George Gustav Heye Center, an exhibition and education facility in New York City, and he supervised the planning of the Cultural Resources Center, which houses the NMAI's 800,000-object collection, in Suitland, Maryland. He also directed the architectural and program planning for the museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C., which opened in September of 2004.

From his arrival in 1990, West understood that this was an undertaking of great social and political significance for the nation, and he took steps to ensure that its evolution faithfully reflected the stake that so many Americans had in it. By pushing back the construction schedule two years, he allowed museum planners to consult with contemporary native communities throughout the Americas. From 1991 to 1993, the museum hosted two dozen consultations, attended by hundreds of people. The result of their involvement profoundly influenced both the design of the museums and the programs they carry out.

Native peoples did not wish to be seen as "cultural relics" but as "peoples and cultures with a deep past who are very much alive today," says West. They also wanted "the opportunity to speak directly to audiences through the museum's public programs, presentations, and exhibits; to articulate in their own voices and through their own eyes the meaning of the objects in our collections and their import in native art, culture, and history."

The end result of that full-faith collaboration is an architectural design that reflects the values and experience of native peoples. As West has written, "I believe... based upon my own upbringing and life experiences as a Cheyenne, that native views of the world, of reality, of cosmology, are profoundly different from those that have grown out of the Euroamerican cultural experience, and that these differences have a deep impact on the meaning and interpretation of the millions of objects sitting in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian." Anyone who visits the museum can attest to the accuracy of the observation. The National Museum of the American Indian is a testament to the power of democracy in action. — Mark Jacobs

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