''The truth is what it is," said West, who is of Southern Cheyenne extraction. ''The history between Native Americans and Euro-Americans has been quite tragic. We do not propose to skirt that tragedy."
But, he said, the museum will show ''so much good and so much positive along with the tragedy."
The five-story museum took the last remaining spot on the grassy National Mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument -- a four-acre site at the foot of Capitol Hill.
It is the first new museum on the Mall since the National Museum of African Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, for Asian art, opened together in 1987.
Indian museum curator Gerald McMaster expects 5 million visitors a year.
Exhibits will include ancient artifacts, such as a 2,000-year-old ceramic jaguar clutching a man between its paws, as well as works from modern Indian artists George Morrison and Allan Houser.
Other exhibits will focus on the lives of Indians today, touching on the highs and lows. For many Indians, wealth generated by casinos has increased living standards. But Indians still have higher poverty rates than the national average, and higher rates of diseases such as diabetes, respiratory infections, and alcoholism.
The Indian museum will be surrounded by 700 trees and a wetlands area with plants such as yellow pond-lily and wild rice. The ''three sisters" of American Indian agriculture -- corn, beans, and squash -- will also be planted.
The exterior, made from Kasota limestone quarried from Minnesota, is rounded to reflect the curves of the earth, sun, and moon.
The inside of the museum also emphasizes curved features, with a skylight topping off a series of narrowing concentric circles that make up the building's ceiling. Crystal prisms facing south will reflect sunlight through the museum, and a ''Welcome Wall" will greet visitors with 200 native words, all meaning welcome.
