"The culmination of many years of dedicated work by hundreds, indeed thousands of people culminated on May 22 with the opening at the Anchorage Museum of the new Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center. The complete $110 million museum enterprise also includes a space age Imaginarium, a new planetarium, not to mention a moon rock from NASA, all contained within a revitalized, reenergized, expanded Anchorage Museum. Excitement ran high with dances and dedicatory speeches, thudding drums and accolades, Native chants and riotous applause.

More than one person was seen puddling up as tears streaked the cheeks of the young and old, some in coat and tie, others dressed in moose hide. Alaska was honored by a dedicatory speech by Wayne Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian. Anchorage's Mayor Dan Sullivan promised ongoing support for this terrific addition to Alaska's cultural scene. Alaskans are being given a whole new understanding and appreciation of our first people.

The centerpiece for me is the Smithsonian's respectful and interactive display of the spectacular and iconic cultural items. About 90 percent of the 600 items have never been seen by the public before, many of them gathered before the Civil War, according to Aaron Crowell, director of the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center in Anchorage.

The world-class interpretive display of these extraordinarily beautiful items was the collaborative dream of Crowell and Bill Fitzhugh, who traveled to Alaska with staff members from the Natural History Museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Crowell and Fitzhugh combine as the most talented and inspired anthropologists and archaeologists ever seen in the Far North. "

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Michael McBride: Smithsonian's Arctic Center open to public in Anchorage (The Homer News 6/2)