by

In September 2004, the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington DC provided the nation with another opportunity to self-narrate on both sub-national and national levels. For many Native and non-Native peoples, the newest Smithsonian Institution represented not only a new method of museological practice based on self-governance and representation but also that Native America existed prior to European Contact, continues today and is worthy of being understood as both part and precursor of a larger collective identity of the nation. This occurred with the museum’s successful Mitsitam Café whereby American cuisine was defined with a Native genesis. The landscape, as well, was scripted as begin original to the northeastern habitat of the United States, in contrast to the Beaux-Arts inspired landscapes of Europe which define the rest of the National Mall. A sensory engagement with both the Café and landscaped grounds, moreover, would separate this particular museal space- intended to be a Native place- from its neighbors. How the senses attend to an engagement with the museum is central to th