The National Museum of the American Indian is now part of the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington, D.C. It houses more than one million Native
American artifacts from all over the Western Hemisphere.  The collection
was formerly the Museum of the American Indian, operated by the Heye
Foundation, in New York City.  Needing very badly to update and expand its
facilities, the Heye Foundation began looking for new locations and
sponsors in 1980.  After much debate and controversy, the foundation
decided to become a national museum and so joined the Smithsonian by an
act of Congress signed in 1989.  W. Richard West, Jr., pictured above, was
appointed director in May 1990.  A member of the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribes
of Oklahoma, born in San Bernadino, Californi a in 1943, West is an
attorney who has represented Indian tribes before the Supreme Court, and
has been active in many Indian organizations.