The man behind the new Museum of the American Indian is visibly excited about this week’s opening. In fact, Richard West will be donning native garments and participating in a Cheyenne dance at Tuesday’s ceremonies. “From a native perspective, this is a powerfully affirming time in history. We should have been among the first threads of culture on the Mall. Instead we are the last. But, poetically, we occupy the first site next to the Capitol. There is poetry in that having belatedly gotten here, we occupy one of the two key sites on the National Mall.”