Smithonian

[Mechslasher]

spent the 4th of july with my brother-n-law in washington, d.c.  he's been in the air force for over 26 years and had a great time listening to him tell about all the deployments he's been on.  he's a flight engineer with the rescue squadron and has been involved with every military action the u.s. has been in since 1984.  guess that's why he's now a E9 or i think a command chief.  he was transferred to andrews airforce base a little over a year ago and he's getting a kick out of explaining to the fellows in his new squadron that flying around d.c. is not a "real" mission.  he took us onto bolling afb on the potomac to watch the fire works.  it was something else.  there must have been a dozen or more fire work shows going on at one time along the potomac.  he got a chuckle at the heweys flying up and down the river just to burn fuel and log in some flight time.  ended up going to the smithonian a couple times.  saw this odd deer at the natural history museum.  then went to the american indian museum.  it was a little weak in displays of artifacts.  here is a pic of all the points they had on display.  i thought the most intriguing was the rifle that had been repaired using bone and raw hide.



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[n2everythg]

sounds like a cool trip chris. thanks for the pics.
that deer looks scarey... you dont have any like that down at your place do ya?
Looks like it would take a bite out of you if it caught you in the woods hunting it.
later
wade

[cowboy]

Yeah, ole snaggletooth there is pretty cool. Bet he could hold his own against a hog. that rifle repair, now that's original!

[shikari]

the deer is called a musk deer and are native to India and Nepal,The musk from these deer is extremly good smelling and very valuable and prized.They are a protected species and highly endangered due to poaching for their musk.

[Pat B]

Chris I was a little disappointed when I went a few years ago. The Museum of The American Indians was newly opened. The draws under the glass displays was full of artifacts too. Did you check them out?  Some of the buckskin dresses were the coolest things in that museum. One was covered in elk ivory. Must have weighed a ton.  Most of the cool stuff is in storage.

[Mechslasher]

here's a shirt and dress i got some pics of.  i'm hoping to have rebecca make me a war shirt similar to this one.

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[Josh]

That's pretty cool, Chris. 

[Pat B]

That will look good with your kilt! 

[Postman]

The drawer setup is kinda confusing, but there is lots of cool stuff to dig out if you are there at a slow time.  My kids wouldn't let me leave the tomahawk drawers!  I was expecting to see more bows, though.  If there was a drawer setup for them, I missed it.  Most were part of displays on a specific tribe. Good luck with the war shirt!

[mullet]

 Well, I guess Rebecca could substitute the blue for purple; Then that dress would look good on ya'.

[Grunt]

If you are standing outside the main door of the Museum of the American Indian which faces east turn and face north. Walk across the paved entrance way to the large rocks. There is a small pathway that leads to a small open area among the rocks. There are four stones on the ground that signify the four directions in that small open area. There are usually sage and tobacco ties on the ground on the directional stones. Most traditional Native people who visit the museum go to this area to smudge and pray before going into the building.

[Lombard]

I have got to get there one day. Although one day probably wouldn't be enough.

[Grunt]

I've been there three times and I'm just getting to know my way around. I like the weapons display.

[Pat B]

I thought it was odd they had a full wall display of weapons that were used against the Native Americans but very few of the Native American's defensive weapons; bows!

[Grunt]

I think very few weapons survived because it was US policy to seize and destroy NA defensive weapons. I liked the M-16 used in the contempory Wounded Knee stand off with AIM