Tatanka Fugit

Washington DC's a nice enough place. From a visit around six years ago, I remember it being very politically charged, and that was reinforced, although with less gusto than I imagined. As the centre of US politics, the people I spoke with sensed a feeling of rampant positive discrimination that stems from a conservative government trying to rid itself of the perception that minorities are underrepresented. This is the same discrimination that makes it culturally diverse to to hold a black film festival, but racist to hold a white film festival, the same over-PC ideas that make gay clubs acceptable, but straight clubs non-existent. It may even be behind the strange logic that supports the idea that women should have equal pay but expect male colleagues to always buy the drinks.

Superfluous glorification of minorities is encapsulated nicely in DC's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Billed as the museum in which the native Americans finally having the final say in what is said about their history. The museum itself is a great collection of artefacts, displays and multimedia testimonials from Native Americans. There's no disputing that what happened to the indigenous peoples of the Americas during the European colonisation of the continent is one of the biggest tragedies in history both at a humanitarian level – with the unfettered spread of European disease wiping out – and from a human rights perspective, with Native Americans being slaughtered and forced into slavery without much flinching from across the Atlantic. However, the problem is that the Native American culture is inherently linked to particular tribes – of which there are thousands – each with different world views. This leads to a museum that is disjointed, hard to follow and with no real narrative or theme that you can take away from it. It's clear that the past and keeping a balance with nature are the key elements of where they found their identity, but a large portion of the museum was dedicated to life today – which appears to be much like any other American, only with a few special occasions thrown in. Meanwhile, video screens have the elders eulogising their culture and expressing that its so important to remind the children of where they came from.

Its fair to say that the native cultures of Latin America and the Inuit, still live on in everyday life of the people. But for the American Indians of the USA, where certain exemptions from US law have fostered casinos, alcoholism and trailer park mentality, one has to ask if the ideology of their ancestors really lives on in the reservations. If they no longer have the same beliefs and practices, then can they justify the claim that they identify with all that appears in the NMAI? Societies come and go, and we can certainly celebrate the positives that come from each of them, but now the Egyptians have stopped the practices and beliefs of the Pharaohs' dynasties, they certainly do not claim to the same culture that we see depicted in museums. I have to disagree with the Indian on a DVD loop who claimed that “It's so important to let [the children] know where they've come from.” since they are being brought up in a world where its not only those outside of their social sphere that discount indigenous ideologies as irrelevant in today's world, but it's their school friends and in all possibility many of their family as well. So let's celebrate the positives of native cultures, but please let's not celebrate culture for culture's sake by pretending or insinuating that life on the reservations is any more valuable or culturally rich than my life in my comfortable London flat.

Having said that, the restaurant (buffet style) is fantastic, with all kinds of traditional recipes, breads, and meats – including buffalo – which I had to try and actually enjoyed. The meat is naturally more tender than beef and has both a taste and texture that has no real close comparison I can think of.

Next door to the NMAI is the Air and Space museum, full of things that fly (at a variety of speeds and altitudes) and a revelation that the Chinese invented the rocket launcher. Plenty of lunar modules to gaze upon, although I hear that the real excitement is in an out of town extension which can house bigger stuff (read: Space Shuttle Enterprise, the Enola Gay and Concorde). I'm also down to five days left before I'm off to the DR, “time flies” as they say.