Phil Konstantin's 2004 Vacation Through Washington, D.C. - Page 23
All small pictures
=============
The following pictures are of the official opening of the museum. A prayer
was said asking the spirits to watch over the building and the people. The
man in the light colored regalia with the red tipped feathers is museum
director Richard West, Jr. He is a member of the Southern Cheyenne.
Above is U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. He sponored the original legislation
which led to the creation of the museum. He is posing with an outrigger made for the
museum. He said that at the time he proposed the building of the museum there were
over 600 monuments and statues in Washington, D.C. Not one of those objects were for
the indigenous people of this country.
Above is Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo. President Toledo is the first person
of idigenous ancestry to lead Peru since the Spanish invasion over 500 years ago.
Toledo is Quechua.
© Phil Konstantin - 2010-2013