Congressional Broadside

Just because it's Superbowl Sunday doesn't mean I just sat around all day waiting for it to happen, I got an early start.
I'll get to my Sunday in a second, first I want to re-cap my week at work. The most exciting thing I had the chance to do was attend the floor vote for the confirmation of Senator John Kerry. The now former Massachusetts Senator was nominated by President Obama to succeed Secretary Hillary Clinton as the next Secretary of State. Like most floor votes, the process itself is quite mundane for the weathered eye, but for me and some fellow interns and some of Senator Kerry's staff sitting with me in the Senate Staff Gallery overlooking the Senate Floor, it was an emotional scene when the vote was tallied and the Senator was finally confirmed. The ensuing 3 minute standing ovation was a testament to his decades of service. I hope that is the first of many such votes I can watch. As always, I continued to sort mail and run errands for staff. Each week gets better and better. I can't wait to see what comes up next.

Anyway, despite being outside yesterday for 12 hours or so, I was up nice and early today for some more. I went back to the Smithsonian Castle to their cafe to start planning a bit of an excursion for the near future. There is so much to see in D.C., but there is so much more to see next door in Virginia. As a product of our Civil War in the middle of the 1800's, almost all of the South East retains today scars of battles fought long ago. Virginia is rich in history, it is for all intents and purposes the cradle of the American Republic and the site of the nation's most severe internal struggle.

Today though I went to the National Archives and the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. Photos were not allowed inside The Archives, but were in the Museum of the American Indian. To be honest, I'm still trying to wrap my head around much of what I saw; it's not a history well understood in my opinion. The Museum of the American Indian does deserve the attention everything else does though, and this museum was an incredible step to do just that. It was by far the best-curated museum I have visited yet. I think that is very much a product of the building it is housed in, a structure crafted specifically to house this collection:

The Smithsonian Castle

Didn't notice until this morning the Smithsonian crest was planted in front of the castle

The National Archives; I saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and Virginia's copy of the Bill of Rights. When Virginia ratified the Bill of Rights, it achieved the 2/3 majority necessary for ratification..I'm assuming that's why it's in the archives. Also there was a special Cuban Missile Crisis exhibition. It was SO COOL. Unbeknownst to his staff but knownst to the President, JFK had the Secret Service install audio recorders under the West Wing with concealed microphones in the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. These recordings are at his Presidential Library, and segments were playing in different parts of the exhibition today. They reveal some of the most sensitive conversations in the Oval Office during the Missile Crisis. There were also original letters from the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Russian and then translated into English that the President and the Premier exchanged throughout the conflict.

The Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian

I'm already in love with the architecture

Part of the fountain is frozen

The massive atrium reminded me of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

If I were still small and child-like I would like this

Peace Medals between the US Government and the dispersed Indian Nations used to be commonplace, but by the time this coin was minted under JFK's presidency, the practice was seldom used

Thomas Jefferson coin

This canoe was carved out right in the atrium of the museum

So was this one

And this one

Wanted to see the thatchness up close...it's definitely thatched

This was the orientation theater

While each tribe has a distinct organization to their beliefs, the common denominator I noticed was how most are circular, like the circle of life. For some tribes, different cardinal directions meant different parts of life, for others they had different representations

There was this incredible story about The Seven Truths, seven ideas associated with an animal and a story.

This wall highlights different things of value Native Americans traded, and eventually were hunted down for by Europeans. Gold and corn were probably the two most predominate things

This wall exhibited firearms used by and against Native Americans through the ages

On this wall, the Smithsonian put down as complete a list as possible of languages that used to be spoken, but aren't any longer since the tribes they belonged to no longer exist.

a close-up

On my way out I was walking by the gift shop and noticed off to the side a photograph exhibition from the 1905 Presidential Inauguration of Teddy Roosevelt.

6 Tribal leaders came to the Inauguration as envoys from their Tribal Nations to fight initiatives by the Federal Government to consolidate their tribal lands. The Chiefs were Buckskin Charlie of the Ute Tribe, American Horse from the Oglala Sioux, Little Plume from the Piegan Blackfeet, Geronimo from the Chiricahua Apache, Hollow Horn Bear of the Brule Sioux and Quanah Parker of the Comanche's

These are the chiefs riding in revue during the Inaugural Parade. Interesting story behind Chief American Horse, in his youth he was known as a fierce warrior, helping to secure victory in the Battle of the One Hundred Slain. So the names of battles and the chiefs themselves seem funny, but it's the crude interpretation into English from their indigenous languages that takes away from the majestic meaning and sound their names have when spoken the right way.

I took a second to take another picture of the Capitol, noticing the Inaugural Platform almost all taken down

I want to say a brief thing about the National Archives. I wish I could take pictures in there because of how awe inspiring the sites are. You can stand inches away from America's founding documents. One point I want to make, since the blog titles have something to do with...well something from the day, I promise you Congressional Broadsides are real. Broadsides were one-sided announcements that Congress dispersed to communities across the country when they needed to make an announcement quickly. Paper-bound announcements were for all intents and purposes the only way to communicate with the voters if you weren't speaking with them in person. I think that's ingenious; the government could have easily just not communicated with the voters because of the cost and time associated with dispersing these announcements, but their commitment to the new American democratic experiment led them to make the tougher choice.

I've been to a lot of museums, but my no means am I a professional museum critic. With that said, I loved the Museum of the American Indian. It tells a valuable story, a story suppressed by our obsession with America's history and greatness. I promise you, for everything the United States has accomplished that was great, Native Americans pulled off something just as momentous, but probably long before us. I'm guilty of it; when I say I love American history I am not referring to the true Americans who live here and have lived here for generations, Americans we tried to wipe out or convert. The museum is also very much different in the way it's presented, each exhibit is described like a story being told in the first person. Often times, that's exactly what happened. The Smithsonian was in constant consultation with tribal leaders throughout the construction, which is indicative of the importance stories have to the survival of Native American culture. It was a really cool way to learn. This was a first step in altering my views.

I'll leave you with a quote from Tecumseh, one of the great Native American tribal leaders during the twilight of their autonomous existence:

"So live your life so the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their views, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and of service to your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a stranger if in a lonely place. Show respect to all people, but grovel to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself. Touch not the poisonous firewater that makes wise ones turn to fools and robs them of their visions. When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home."
~Tecumseh 

I think some would live this like a code of conduct. It essentially says to me have no regrets, to live with honor and live your life to the fullest. That's as good a goal as any to have in life.

Stay Tuned....