We&rsquo;re all familiar with totem poles and beaded moccasins, feathered headdresses and kachina dolls, but these well-known art forms don&rsquo;t begin to encompass the richness of American Indians&rsquo; contributions to American art history.</p><p> Kansas Citians and other visitors will have access to a fuller, more detailed picture of the art produced on this continent when the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art opens its new American Indian galleries on Nov. 11.</p><p> The installation, almost seven years in the making, features 200 objects dating from pre-contact to the present, produced by artists from more than 65 tribal groups in the U.S. and Canada.</p><p>At more than 6,100 square feet, it is one of the largest installations of American Indian art in any comprehensive museum in the world.</p><p>The display is studded with stellar objects. Among them are an exquisite 17th-century feast bowl incorporating a carving of a thunderbird&rsquo;s head at the rim; a dramatic Kwakiutl mask representing the Wild Woman of the Woods; and a Hopi manta dress, subtly banded in dark blue and brown, that would make painter Mark Rothko gasp.</p><p>Occupying three renovated second-floor galleries emptied by the move of modern and contemporary art to the Bloch Building, the project represents the second half of a $17.2 million renovation that presents American and American Indian art in contiguous spaces.</p><p> The location has everything to do with what curator Gaylord Torrence and the museum want to convey: that the art of native peoples is &ldquo;an essential part of our nation&rsquo;s heritage.&rdquo;</p><p> The variety is overwhelming, from carved pipes and intricately woven baskets, to pottery, clothing and jewelry. </p><p>And yes, the display includes totem poles, beaded moccasins and kachina dolls &mdash; as well as one of the best feathered headdresses in existence. </p><p> The museum&rsquo;s eagle feather headdress (c. 1875), from the Northern Cheyenne of Montana, is intact. The eagle feather crown incorporates a dense &ldquo;cap&rdquo; of raven feathers, visible from the rear. The original 6-foot-long trailer displays stains from its former wearer&rsquo;s body paint.</p><p>The headdress is one of roughly 60 pieces in the installation that were part of the Nelson&rsquo;s original collection assembled in the early 1930s.</p><p>More than half of the works on view have been added over the last several years by Torrence, who joined the museum as founding curator of American Indian art in 2002.</p><p> &ldquo;When I got to the Nelson, I put together a list of objects I wanted in the collection, and I went after them,&rdquo; he said during a recent tour of the galleries.</p><p>Torrence managed to charm some of them away from private collectors and dealers, such as Ned Jalbert, from Westborough, Mass., who made a gift to the museum of a rare Ojibwa buffalo skin coat embellished with painted and embroidered designs.</p><p> Others, such as the entrancing mid-19th century Arikara shield painted with a visionary image of a buffalo, he purchased with funds from the Donald D. Jones Fund for American Indian Art. The fund was &ldquo;critical to building the collection,&rdquo; Torrence said.</p><p> Donald D. &ldquo;Casey&rdquo; Jones, a staff member and editor at The Kansas City Star and Times for more than 40 years, also left his American Indian art collection to the Nelson. Fifteen objects he collected appear in the installation, including a striking red Tlingit tunic emblazoned with a beaded clan crest image of woodworms. In addition to gifts and purchases, the installation features roughly two dozen loans from individuals and institutions. Nerman Museum director Bruce Hartman lent the oldest items in the installation &mdash; a pair of flint ceremonial blades (2500-1500 BCE) from Pettis County, Mo.