Visitors emerging from the Bowling Green subway station in New York City may find themselves confronted with hawkers for the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island. Here at the very tip of Manhattan, everyone, it seems, is in a rush to go someplace else—to the Staten Island ferry, to the Governors Island ferry, to one of the nearby courts, over to Wall Street, or to see that statue gifted to the United States by France. Yet the Native American Museum stands right here, housed in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, waiting to be visited.
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After walking past this attraction for far too many years—and, truth be told, a little concerned that I would become depressed by visiting given the sad history of the indigenous people who happened to live on land claimed by the United States—I finally venture into the Native American Museum in New York City.
What Is the Smithsonian American Indian Museum?
Formally known as the George Gustav Heye Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the museum opened in the Custom House in 1994. Heye, who died in 1957, had begun collecting artifacts of indigenous people while working in Arizona as a mining engineer in the late 1800s. He later founded the Museum of the American Indian in New York City in 1916. Housed at Broadway and West 155th Street back then, the museum, after Heye’s death, foundered a bit. In 1988, the New York Times likened it to “equal parts antiques shop, wax museum and attic.” William Grimes, The Indian Museum’s Last Stand, N.Y. Times, Nov. 27, 1988, 46, at 66.
The New York City location of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian opened in the Bowling Green portion of Manhattan in 1994. The National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, DC did not open until 2004.
What Is the Role of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House?
The New York City portion of the Native American Museum shares space in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House with both the National Archives at New York City and Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (there’s a separate entrance for the latter). The Beaux-Arts style Custom House was designed by architect Cass Gilbert and built in the early 1900s. The Customs Service moved to the World Trade Center in the early 1970s.
Now designated a National Historic Landmark, the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House was restored in the 1970s. Notable elements include a grand staircase and a central rotunda.
What Is on Display at the Native American Museum in NYC?
Not certain where to begin my journey through the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, I ask a docent for suggestions, and she guides me to an exhibit of artist T. C. Cannon’s work. Cannon, an indigenous person, served in the Vietnam War and died in a car crash in Santa Fe, NM in the 1970s at the age of 31. His work, influenced by artists as varied as painter Henri Matisse and singer Bob Dylan, focuses on colorful images of Native Americans. At the same time, misperceptions about indigenous people and about U.S. warriors that slaughtered them are also addressed in his art. The works lead me further into the tragic history of indigenous people after explorer Christopher Columbus managed to misname them. The T. C. Cannon art exhibit will be on display through September 16, 2019.
Permanent exhibits display artifacts of indigenous communities throughout North, Central, and South America. I am struck by how much the universe has lost with the destruction of indigenous populations: reverence for the Earth and for the spiritual world, the ability to survive in nature, languages, art forms, lives, families . . . . I have not learned enough about the history of Native Americans but still mourn their treatment.
Also on display is contemporary art made by Native Americans.
A visit here is bittersweet as well as educational. I begin to appreciate how much the history of indigenous people was obscured in my own schooling. On this visit, I learn that Abraham Lincoln approved the hanging of 38 Dakota Sioux. There are versions of history about which too many of us are unfamiliar.
Where Is the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian?
For Bashful Adventurers
Nonflash photography is allowed.
If the subject matter becomes too intense for you, take a break in the central rotunda.
An onsite gift shop carries works by Native Americans.
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, One Bowling Green, New York, NY 10004
—Lori Tripoli
Lori Tripoli is the editor and publisher of Bashful Adventurer. Based in the New York City vicinity, she writes about travel for a variety of publications.
Contact Lori at loritripoli@bashfuladventurer.com.
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