Thomas Daschle: “this is a happy and historic day for all Americans, and especially for the First Americans. Right now, about a dozen…”

“this is a happy and historic day for all Americans, and especially for the First Americans. Right now, about a dozen blocks from this Capitol, an estimated 15- to 20,000 Native Americans representing tribes from South Dakota to South America are beginning a grand procession down Pennsylvania Avenue. The procession is the largest gathering ever of American Indians in our Nation's Capital. As someone from South Dakota, proud homeland of the Great Sioux Nation, I can tell you, it is an incredibly beautiful sight. The procession marks the beginning of a week-long festival in Washington celebrating the opening of the spectacular new National Museum of the American Indian. The new museum--part of the Smithsonian Institution--is America's only national museum dedicated to Native Americans. And it is the largest museum in the world dedicated to telling the story of indigenous people in their own authentic voices. Every detail reflects the views of Native people, from the text of the exhibits to the menu in the museum restaurant. The building itself was designed by the famed Native architect, Douglas Cardinal. Its curved exterior walls, made of rough-hewn limestone, suggest the ancient cliff dwellings of the American Southwest. Inside those walls are 8,000 extraordinary artifacts representing more than 10,000 years of history from more than 1,000 indigenous communities from as far north as Alaska and as far south as Chile.”