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Article: In Indian country. (Native American Art; Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, New York, New York)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- December 19, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PASSING through the galleries of the Smithsonian's new National Museum of the American Indian in lower Manhattan is about as pleasant as a fever dream in which we seem to be running constantly toward a goal and never getting there. Thousands of objects are arranged within a cramped and narrow circuit of rooms around the Alexander Hamilton Custom House's central core (which, for various red-tape reasons, has not been leased to the museum) so that every time you think you've come to the end of the exhibition, another display awaits you, and then another and another. Once the busloads of schoolchildren start to pour in, this sclerotic entanglement will certainly become a ...