Thousands traveling for museum opening

At some point, Debra Posey quit tallying the cost of airfare from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and a six-night stay for her and eight family members.

Posey, a Tulalip business owner, flew out Saturday with her husband, daughter, niece, three grandsons, a grand-niece and grand-nephew to attend today's dedication of the new National Museum of the American Indian.

"The cost became irrelevant because this is so important. It's historic," Posey, 51, said before the trip. "To be able to be there, to feel the presence of Indians from across the nation, to know how your heart will just be full — you can't put a price on that."

Thousands of Indian people from across the U.S., Canada and South America are journeying to the nation's capital to participate in the opening of the museum dedicated to the Americas' first inhabitants.

"We got the last spot on that Mall, but ... at least they found a spot for us," Posey said. "Think how tragic it would've been if we'd got nothing. So, I'm grateful."

Today's opening will kick off a weeklong celebration, with Indian art exhibits, dance demonstrations and performances by traditional and contemporary musical acts.

But there will be plenty of politicking, too, said Pearl Capoeman-Baller, president of the Quinault Nation based in Taholah, Grays Harbor County.

"It seems like every major Cabinet department or office is having some kind of function or meeting that week" to discuss issues important to Indian communities, she said.

The unprecedented gathering of Indian people in the nation's capital is an opportunity "for us to have our voices heard on a national level," she said. From agriculture and tax issues to education and health, national "boards and committees are all capitalizing on the fact there will be so many Natives in town."

Capoeman-Baller, 50, figures she knows at least 100 people from the Puget Sound region who are going. So does David Robert Boxley, a Tsimshian from Alaska who now lives in Kitsap County.

Boxley, 23, has visited Washington, D.C., several times with his father, artist David Boxley.

"When you go to the [National Museum of] American History ... there's nothing about Indian people — nothing. It's all about the building of America through non-Indian eyes," the younger Boxley said. "At the [Museum of] Natural History ... our totem poles and masks are in with the bugs and stuff."

With the new museum, "I feel we finally have a place, instead of being shoved in with nature or ignored altogether," he said.

Boxley is traveling with members of his dance group, Git Hoan, which means "People of the Salmon."

The group, comprised of Alaska Natives who now live in the Seattle area, was one of six dance troupes chosen to represent different regions of the country during the weeklong festival, Boxley said.

Dancing, he said, is "my connection to the old people; it's the feeling that I'm doing what my people have done forever.

"I can't wait to blow their socks off — or their moccasins."

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com