The Indian plaintiffs in Cobell v. Norton also
continue to deal with government officials hostile
to their concerns. Instigating the largest class action
suit in the history of the United States, the plaintiffs
charge the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) with mis-
managing trust accounts set up by the government
for individual Indians in the 19th century. Since the
lawsuit was filed in 1996, Judge Royce C. Lamberth
has repeatedly taken to task government officials in-
volved in the case for making false representations
and possibly destroying evidence. Largely because
of his outspokenness, Lamberth was removed from
the case in 2006.
Despite these ongoing battles, Indians have
also recently seen some victories in their efforts to
secure their rights and earn the respect due their
peoples and cultures. Some of these victories,
though largely symbolic, show an increasing shift in
the way both Indians and non-Indians view Amer-
ica’s first peoples. For instance, in 2005, Boston
lifted a 330-year-old ban against Indians entering
the city—now deemed an embarrassing relic of
the early Massachusetts colonists’ hostility toward
nearby Indian groups. In 2001, after years of liti-
gation, the descendants of Lakota warrior Crazy
Horse achieved a moral triumph by compelling a
company responsible for selling Crazy Horse Malt
Liquor to issue a formal apology for defaming the
name of their ancestor.
The issue of Indian team mascots has also re-
ceived increased attention. The National Collegiate
Athletic Association in 2005 banned teams with
“hostile and abusive” Indian mascots from partici-
pating in postseason tournaments. The resulting
controversy has forced Indians and non-Indians
alike to reexamine old and familiar Indian mascots
and reevaluate whether they are innocent celebra-
tions of past peoples or damaging stereotypes that
actively humiliate and demean Indians of today.
Similarly, several new memorials ask Americans
to rethink the way Indians fit into the narrative of
the nation’s history. At the site of the Battle of Little
Bighorn, an Indian memorial, dedicated in 2003,
honors the Indian warriors who defeated the Sev-
enth Cavalry, calling into question the traditional
depiction of Indians as the villains in that famous
conflict. And at Bosque Redondo in New Mexico,
a new memorial invites visitors to learn about the
most painful era in Navajo (Dineh) history—an era
that until recently has been largely ignored outside
the Navajo tribe.
The National Museum of the American Indians
(NMAI), located on the National Mall in Washing-
ton, D.C., is further evidence of America’s renewed
efforts to understand and commemorate Indians of
the past, while celebrating modern Indian nations.
With more than 8,000 objects on display, its exhib-
its tell the story of some 500 Indian peoples from
an Indian perspective.
The dedication of the museum was itself a
momentous event. Joining in the festivities were ap-
proximately 25,000 Indians, the largest gathering of
Indians in modern American history. In his address
to the crowd, museum director W. Richard West,
Jr., expressed his desire that the NMAI opening
would become a historical landmark in still another
way. For West, the museum “is a symbol for the
hope, centuries in the making, that the hearts and
minds of all Americans, beyond this museum and
throughout the Americas, will open and welcome
the presence of the first peoples in their history and
in their contemporary lives.”2000 to the Present