Indian Activist Will Head New Museum

The Smithsonian Institution on Monday named W. Richard West Jr., an Indian activist attorney and former Stanford University professor, to direct the National Museum of the American Indian it will build on the Mall.

West told reporters that he wants the $106-million museum to represent more than just the “romanticized past” of American tribal people.

He said it will serve as a link to contemporary Indian culture throughout the Western Hemisphere, and address politically charged issues such as alleged genocide against Indians in Brazil and recent conflicts between Mohawk tribesmen along the Canadian border.

The collections will consist largely of items to be received from New York’s Heye Foundation.

West, a Cheyenne-Arapaho, was born in San Bernardino. A 1965 graduate of Redlands University, he earned a master’s degree in American history from Harvard University and a law degree from Stanford’s School of Law, where he was an adjunct professor.