“Gotta see everything and do everything.” That’s just how it is when you go to a famous city like Washington, D. C.

Or so some people think, me included most of the time. Didn’t work out like that recently because I made the mistake—or maybe the right choice—of checking out the National Museum of the American Indian first thing.

Stayed all day.

Number 18 in the collection of Smithsonian Institution museums, this one in sight of the U. S. Capitol opened in 2004 but my first visit came four years later.

Being partial to people stories more than things behind glass, I felt like a guest, welcomed into American Indian communities with real residents telling their tales and helping me understand the context of what I thought I already knew.

Sounds heavy but it isn’t. Friendly. Interactive. Personal. Names and faces, families and friends, fabulous (and some would say funky) food. The breadth of experiences kept me all day, and I was alone, sharing reactions and insights only with myself.

“This may fly in the face of what you know,” Plains Cree Indian Floyd Favel cautions as he narrates one of the many films and audiovisual events.

“This museum is the result of consultations with Natives about our way of looking at American history,” Favel says, as opposed to collections not created by Native peoples.

“Our story of survival is one of the most extraordinary stories of humanity,” he says.

Self-telling: giving a personal point of view of the events in one’s community, family, daily life and history. That’s what’s going on in the National Museum of the American Indian with storytellers Favel calls the original people of this hemisphere.

Some are so personal I thought I might add their names and addresses to my birthday book, my calendar of contacts for sending cards and occasional notes.

These stories flesh out history, but they also triggered in me a sense of connection to today.

“I watched my grandmothers beading; they had no patterns, but pulled designs out of their heads.” I understood, because quilters in the south praise their grandmothers for patterns in their souls and minds expressed in scraps of fabric.

“Everything is about respect: our elders, the land, our traditions.” There’s a movement underway in the world today called The Elders tapping those who can contribute wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to bring courage where there is fear, agreement where conflict and hope where there is despair.

“We honor places of hope; for us natural resources are cultural resources.” America talks a lot about going green and seeking meaningful change.