Questions Arise About Nat'l Museum Of the American Indian Choice

Screw them natives!Hell, their mooseeum ain't nothin but a bunch of blankets and trinkets and beads. who needs any kinda specialised background for that?
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original-indiancountrytoday

Questions arise about NMAI choice
Posted: September 13, 2007
by: Editors Report / Indian Country Today

The long-awaited proclamation of a successor to W. Richard West as head of the National Museum of the American Indian is over. The Smithsonian on Sept. 11 announced its selection of former BIA Chief Kevin Gover, Pawnee from Oklahoma, to take over the reins. He will become the second director behind fellow Oklahoman Indian lawyer West, who has been at the helm for the past 17 years. The choice of Gover met with immediate controversy.

Coming off an exceptional summer of programming including the acclaimed contribution of Indian wisdom to the global climate crisis during its July 7 Mother Earth concert event, and its spectacular National Powwow, the NMAI had been riding a wave of goodwill in Indian country for drawing national and worldwide attention to the ''Native place'' in the nation's capital. Its programs are effective and well-directed.

Presenting a new captain with little experience during a time when nearly every suspicion of Washington cronyism turns out to be true is risky and unfortunate - for the museum and for the Smithsonian (already rocked this year by scandal). Post-Abramoff, the delicate thread by which the perception of Indian peoples hangs is easily broken and arduously restored. Now more than ever, the museum must be above reproach in order to fulfill its mission to represent all Indian people and to educate the public about Native histories and cultures.

An immediate and outspoken critic was Eloise Cobell, lead plaintiff in Cobell v. Kempthorne and adversary of Gover since his tenure as head of the BIA in the late 1990s. In a Sept. 12 press release, Cobell expressed ''outrage'' at the hiring of Gover, who as assistant secretary of the Interior was held in contempt of court for repeated failure to produce court-ordered documents in the Indian trust fund class action lawsuit.

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