The National Museum of the American Indian houses one of the world's largest and most diverse collections of Native American art and artifacts. The museum's sweeping curvilinear architecture, its indigenous landscaping and its exhibitions, all designed in collaboration with tribes and communities from across the Western Hemisphere, combine to give visitors from around the world the sense and spirit of Natives in the Americas.

Exhibitions

Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World (Permanent) fourth floor. Organized around the seasons of the solar year, the exhibition highlights annual celebrations that bring Native people together.

Our Peoples: Giving Voice to Our Histories (Permanent) fourth floor. Examine the past 500 years of history from a Native point of view.

Our Lives: Contemporary Life and Identities (Permanent) third floor. Discover the cultural, social, linguistic and political issues of Native people and communities in the 21st century.

Window on Collections: Many Hands, Many Voices (Permanent) third and fourth floors. This exhibition showcases more than 3,500 artifacts, including animal-themed figurines and objects, beadwork, dolls, peace medals and projectile points.

Return to a Native Place: Algon­quian Peoples of the Chesapeake (Permanent) second floor. Learn more about the continued Native presence in what is now Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.

Vantage Point: The Contemporary Native Art Collection (Sept. 25, 2010-Aug. 7, 2011) third floor. Cultural memory, oral history, personal identity and place are but a few of the overlapping themes that inform the work of 25 featured Native American contemporary artists. At times provocative and at times moving, these works run the gamut from a blanket sewn out of thrift store fabrics to a photographic spoof of a Frida Kahlo self-portrait to a video installation projected on a screen of white turkey feathers.

Conversations With the Earth: Indigenous Voices on Climate Change (July 22, 2011-Jan. 2, 2012) second floor. Photographs and video made by tribal communities from the Arctic to Brazil offer the Native perspective on global climate change.

A Song for the Horse Nation (Oct. 29, 2011-Jan. 7, 2013) third floor. This critically acclaimed exhibition about the enduring relationship between Native people and horses features a 16-foot-high, hand-painted 19th-century Sioux tipi.

Stores and Cafe

The Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe (first floor) features a Native-inspired menu that represents five different regions of the Western Hemisphere. The Zagat-rated cafe is open daily 10 to 5, with a limited menu after 3.

The Roanoke Museum Store (second floor) offers silver and turquoise jewelry, pottery and textiles handmade by Native artisans. Also available are books, music, Native jewelry and crafts, toys, souvenirs and T-shirts.

Free Films

The Rasmuson Theater shows free films daily (closed some Wednesdays). No tickets required; check showtimes at the information desk.

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