Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian

Hours 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
www.nmai.si.edu

The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is an institution of living cultures, dedicated to the lives, languages, literature, history and arts of Native peoples. NMAI is committed to advancing the knowledge and understanding of Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere past, present, and future through partnership with Native peoples and others. The museum diligently works to support the continuance of culture, traditional values and transitions in contemporary Native life and gives Native peoples the unique opportunity to tell their stories—in their own voices. In view of a world connected, among the multitude of traditional Native values are community service and environmental respect, the same values taught to Scouts.

In fact, many exhibits at NMAI can help Scouts looking to earn the Indian Lore Merit Badge. Explore the modern Lives of Native Americans. Try and find the net-covered machine Bombardier of the Metis Saint-Laurent people. Don't stop there!  Go to the Resource Center for a chance to play Native Games. NMAI has much more to offer, including an exhibition where the sky and the starsare literally the limit. Atthe end of Our Universes, see howYup'ik boys of Alaska are taught in a Qasgig. After you've seen all that, don't leave without turning the corner to Our Peoples to see the Cherokee syllabary—just don't get distracted by the gold mask on the way in.