Smithsonian Institute/Jeff Tinsley

W. Richard West

Head of National Museum of the American Indian to speak Nov. 29

November is national Native American Indian month. To observe the occasion at U.Va., the Native American Student Union is sponsoring a talk by W. Richard West, founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.

West, an attorney and member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, will speak on "Native America in the 21st Century: Out of the Mists and Beyond Myth," Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. in Clark Hall, room 147. West has devoted his life to working with American Indians on cultural, educational, legal and governmental issues. Before becoming founding director of the museum in 1990, he served as general counsel and special counsel to numerous Indian tribes and organizations, where he represented clients before federal, state and tribal courts, Congress and various federal government units.

West is responsible for guiding the creation and completion of the three facilities that are part of the museum, "an institution of living culture, dedicated to the preservation, study and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history and arts of the Native People of the Western Hemisphere." Besides locations in New York City and Suitland, Md., the third building will open on the last available site on the National Mall in D.C. in 2002-2003.