down to the water, from the walkway.

What an amazing process. It is good to know that these indigenous people have been able to keep the ancient traditional, arts,skills, roles alive through so many generations. It is so heartening, as many indigenous peoples in other nations have not fared so well, including obviously , in our own country.

This is quite a community project, ceremonious, occasion and a celebration for the whole. It's hard to imagine staying safely balanced on the bridge support ropes for hours on end, while weaving the upright supports and railings on either side of the new bridge in progress. Every part of it fashioned from grass and sticks, that grow there.

Very informative video, phenomenal people and culture. Thank you for sharing it, Judi Lynn.

At the time their big visiting exhibit was about the Inca bridges. They had a short section of one, and a video about how they are made. While they are really neat, there is no way I would ever walk across one!

Here is their page about the exhibit:

The Great Inka Road
https://americanindian.si.edu/inkaroad/

Aside from the Inka Road exhibit, the other exhibits are absolutely immersive and beautiful. Lunch was at their cafeteria which had different sections for different groups - we had salmon from the Pacific Northwest, but it was a hard choice. I highly recommend that as a good place for lunch if you're touring the Mall area of DC.

Our only regret was that we did not go to the then brand new African American Museum - it was so new they were giving out tickets and we weren't certain of our timing so we didn't get any ahead of time.

So glad you've taken the time to make people more aware of what's available to them. It's clearly worth the time. It's all information that was never really covered in public education. It's serious information.

If the opportunity arises, no one should miss it.

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Here's an article about a man who spent his adult life trying to document the Original Americans for the U S government. There are great volumes in libraries, and the Library of Congress, and books stores holding his many portraits of his subjects. It's good to keep in mind they had probably all be through hell by the time he found them, and easy to understand why they didn't all wear huge grins!

https://www.goldenfingers.info/edward-s-curtis-photographs-of-disappeared-world/

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Thanks for the illumination.

When I was working at the university library in the 1970s, I came across a copy of the several volume edition of Curtis photos and spent time (on the clock, my bad) looking through the pictures. That library was a depository library which meant it got copies of everything Library of Congress did. I don't know if they still do that kind of thing, but it certainly made for interesting browsing, including all the government publications.