The building's architecture is really cool and different from anything else on the Mall. Probably because it is the newest museum - it was built in 2004.
The atrium of the building is also very cool. There is a copper wall and prisms in the windows so there were lots of rainbows on the floor. Look - we're kaleidoscope'd!
It is recommended to start on the fourth floor so we did. The atrium is open all the way up so looking at the ground floor from the fourth floor is pretty cool. Across from the little theater there is also a pretty great view of the mall. The theater for the intro movie had a really cool set up but the actual movie was just okay and it didn't have captions.
The way the displays are arranged by the theater is really cool. (Photo from here)
Most of the displays are arranged by tribe instead of chronologically. Also, I assumed that the American Indian Museum exhibits would just be tribes within the United States, but it is tribes from all of North and South America. To be perfectly honest, a lot of the things from different tribes blended together to me.
This was part of an Alaskan tribe display. It looks like a snow tank! Fun!
The second floor has modern Indian paintings that did not impress me, but most modern paintings don't impress me. I would skip this floor if we went again. On different floors there were some cool sculptures; one was George Washington with a pine tree and Native Americans (4th floor), the other one is an Indian shooting an arrow into the sky (3rd floor, I think). They were both really cool. (Photos from here and here)
In this museum they have a cafe that serves Native American food. We had heard good things so we decided to try it out. Except everything looked gross. To be fair, though, I am not very adventurous in food. There were a lot of fish dishes (we both hate fish) and the things that weren't fish just looked... well, slimy and gross. The tacos didn't look as bad as the other things but the tacos were $8 each. Which is a bit much for a gross looking taco when you can get one you know you will like at Taco Bell for $1. So we got fry bread with cinnamon and honey. T really liked it and I thought it tasted like a heavy, thick scone but not as good.
After the museum T and I went to check out the CIA. And by check out, I mean drive past. Of course we didn't get in. But it was a lovely drive. Really. It is so close to the city, but it feels like you are in suburbia or the woods - there are so many trees! There is the sign and the guard hut at said left.
To sum up: My favorite part of the American Indian museum was the architecture (inside and out). Skip the cafe. Skip the second floor art. If we went again I think we could see the whole thing in an hour.
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