Museums in particular are educational tools used to create and perpetuate specific ideologies and historical memories. They have played a prominent role in defining the visibility of Indigenous peoples and cultures in America historical memory by creating exhibits of Indigenous peoples based on perceptions and views that benefit and justify American colonialism. However, many museums such as the Denver Museum of Natural History of the 1970s dehumanize Indigenous peoples with their exhibits. These museums, private and public, teach "America" that Indigenous peoples are peoples of the past who never "progressed" forward. With many national and international museum visitors accustomed to envisioning Indigenous peoples in such contexts, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) faces an enormous task: to shift the paradigm from Indigenous peoples as exhibition subjects, to educate the different publics visiting the museum about the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and, importantly, to make Indigenous history "present." In this article, the author cites several instances that provide evidence of NMAI's failure in contradicting what the American public has been taught about the Indigenous peoples. (Contains 12 notes.)