This impressive collection represents the Smithsonian Institution. The collection will be housed in New York only until its new home on the Mall in Washington, D.C., is completed in 2004. Until then, enjoy items spanning more than 10,000 years of native heritage, collected a century ago mainly by New York banking millionaire George Gustav Heye. About 70% of the collection is dedicated to the natives of North America and Hawaii; the rest represents the cultures of Mexico and Central and South America. There's a wealth of material here, but it's not as well organized as it could be. The museum also hosts temporary themed exhibitions and interpretive programs plus free storytelling, music, and dance presentations.

The museum is housed in the beautiful 1907 beaux arts U.S. Customs House, designed by Cass Gilbert and a National Historic Landmark that's worth a look in its own right. The giant statues lining the front of this granite 1907 structure personify Asia (pondering philosophically), America (bright-eyed and bushy-tailed), Europe (decadent, whose time has passed), and Africa (sleeping), and were carved by Daniel Chester French (of Lincoln Memorial fame). The most interesting, if unintentional, sculptural statement -- keeping in mind the building's current purpose -- is the giant seated woman to the left of the entrance representing America and surrounded by references to Native America: Mayan pictographs adorning her throne, Quetzalcoatl under her foot, a shock of corn in her lap, and the generic plains Indian scouting out from over her shoulder. Inside, the airy oval rotunda designed by Spanish engineer Raphael Guastavino was frescoed by Reginald Marsh to glorify the shipping industry (and, by extension, the Customs office once housed here).