On a recent trip to Washington, DC, I toured the new National Museum of the American Indian, opened in September, 2004. The building is extraordinary in its appearance and setting, and the exhibits feature a collection of 800, 000 works of aesthetic, cultural, historical, and spiritual significance that span more than 10,000 years of Native heritage.

I had lunch in the unique Mitsitam café, which offers Native foods from throughout the Western Hemisphere. (The name means "Let's eat!" in the language of the Delaware and Piscataway peoples.) My lunch consisted of foods typical of the Great Plains area: buffalo chili and pinto beans with fry bread, watermelon and tomato salad, and a fesh mint cooler. Yum!