Native America in the twenty-first century

This essay overviews the subject of ‘good Native cultural governance’ and what it meant in law and ethical standards of practice at two institutions that have occupied a considerable part of my life in museums. The first institution reviewed is the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), one of the more recent components of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, when I had the honour to be Founding Director (1990–2007). The second institution discussed enables significant comparisons through my current concerns as a museum director at the Autry Museum of the American West (Autry Museum) in Los Angeles. Finally, I will expand on a comparison of these two institutions to reflect on why ‘good Native governance’ in the cultural area has such deeper and wider implications for what museums are and may accomplish in the twenty-first century.