After momentous museum opening, Montana captures George's heart by Carol Schmidt As fall sunshine poured into the National Museum of the American Indian, a rippling, four-story structure built without corners, George Horse Capture, Sr., '79 M, '96 Hon Doc, contemplated the full circle of his life. "When I first heard about this museum project 11 years ago, I said I would be here two years, and two years led to another two years and so on," said Horse Capture, a member of the Gros Ventre tribe from Fort Belknap. "Now that it's open, my circle is complete, and it's time to head home." For the last decade, Horse Capture has helped breathe life into the $219 million NMAI, the latest Smithsonian museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museum that tells the story of the indigenous in the Americas opened Sept. 21 with unprecedented fanfare, ceremony and more than 275,400 visitors in its first month. The museum expects four million visitors in its first year. In recognition of Horse Capture's role as a senior curator who has helped shape the 50,000-item collection, the Fort Belknap native was selected as one of two greeters during the museum's first day. For many of the thousands of visitors from hundreds of tribes, Horse Capture was the elder who personified the museum. Horse Capture said the museum's opening was both unbelievable and revolutionary. "It's been my life's goal," he said. When he first heard about the museum more than a decade ago, Horse Capture said, "I knew that they were building history. I wanted to be a part of it." History has been the essence of Horse Capture's career, but it always hasn't been so. Born in Fort Belknap, but largely raised in Butte where his father worked in the mines, Horse Capture joined the Navy after graduating from high school. He still talks about the difficulties of being an Indian youth in a non-Indian world. "A lot of (Indian youth) get down because there is so much intimidation," he says. "There are so many troubles. It is easy not to give a damn." Horse Capture was living and working in the Bay Area when a group of students and Native American Indians took over Alcatraz Island in 1969. He participated in the protest and something inside him clicked. He quit his job and began attending the University of California at Berkley, studying anthropology. He later came to MSU, where he taught Native American Studies and earned a master's degree in MSU's history department. He left MSU to become the first curator of the Plains Indian Museum of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody from 1980 to 1990. Horse Capture then suffered heart problems and returned home to Fort Belknap to die. Except, he didn't. Instead, after three years he became an administrator at the National Museum of the American Indian, then located in New York City. Within a matter of days of moving to the Bronx, his family van was stolen. Although he initially found the lifestyle challenging, Horse Capture stayed, immersing himself in his work as the museum began taking a fresh, national look at his people. He was part of a core group that traveled throughout the Western Hemisphere to meet with indigenous peoples. Rather than employing static exhibits used in other museums, the director and staff developed a dynamic museum model. "We visited people from 24 groups, from the Inuit in the north to the people in Tierra Del Fuego," Horse Capture said. "The (tribes) picked the material they would like displayed here, and we helped them with their story line. Their stories are in here now." For instance, one of the most discussed items at the museum is a pair of contemporary red, beaded Chuck Taylor tennis shoes juxtaposed with traditional moccasins. While reviews for the NMAI have been mixed, Horse Capture says the reviewers often fail to understand the goal of the museum. "This building and the displays say 'We are alive,'" Horse Capture said. "East Coast art people are used to the European styles of exhibition with pedestals, paintings on the wall and soft lighting set at an angle. They have those glasses that they put on when they come to a museum. But that's not what this museum is about. It's not our primary goal only to show old things from the past. "Our Museum has a constituency of more than two million Indian people and they are living and growing and changing things. The fundamental goal of the Indian people is to tell the world they exist--they survived." Horse Capture is justifiably proud of his work helping give birth to the 250,000-square-foot museum. Soon he will admire it from afar as he returns to Montana. An expert in Plains Indian history, culture and traditional art, Horse Capture said he hopes to keep his hand in museum work part-time from Great Falls, where he and his wife have bought a home. "I just got lonesome for Montana," he said. "I have been a fortunate person. And now it's time for the next generation."