The American Indian Cultural Center and Museum integrates the earth, people, and nature as a connected whole. There are four fundamental elements in the universe that help shape the American Indian experience: Earth, Wind, Water and Fire. Native people have an interactive relationship with these elements, so the museum begins its story directing the visitors' attention to their cultural significance.

Earth

The earth is viewed by many tribes as a living being. A kinship that establishes an interconnected relationship, thus the term "Mother Earth."  The Central Promontory Mound is both symbolic and culturally significant. This iconic earthen architectural feature takes its inspiration from the many mound building cultures in Oklahoma and eastern North America. Oklahoma has a rich legacy of mound building beginning centuries ago with Oklahoma’s indigenous American Indian people dating back to around 500 A.D. Thirty of the Thirty Nine tribes in Oklahoma today are descendants from mound building cultures. Regulators of early trade, these innovative people flourished as an extension of the Mississippian mound builders east of the Mississippi River. The Spiro Mounds in eastern Oklahoma are considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries in North America. The Promontory Path offers a place to connect with the presence of the wind, the solstices of the sun, and to take in the vistas of flowing water to the North.

Wind

Wind carries with it the spirit of environments while drawing attention to the four directions. The Courtyard of the Wind serves as the welcome area for the Cultural Center. Circling the courtyard are twelve wind posts. These honor the twelve Indigenous language families that have a historic relationship to Oklahoma. The wind flowing through the 28’ chimes produces a natural sound that is analogous to breath, language and song. This courtyard positioned as an orientation space conveys the essential relationship native communities have with wind.

Water

Water serves as a conduit and often has a prominent role in ceremonial life. It is often used for healing purposes or is considered to have cleansing powers. Native peoples have convened at the river for thousands of years and will once again gather to celebrate the restored natural landscapes of river and wetlands to form a cultural park and outdoor museum.

Fire

Fire holds a prominent position in many native communities and is often representative of life itself. The fire has a point of beginning, when it must be nurtured and stoked from smoldering embers to blazing flames. Particular tribal members are often selected as "Fire Keepers." The honor of tending the fire is respected because the individual must sustain the life of the fire. When the fire diffuses it completes its cycle of life. The idea of “Moving Fires” reminds visitors of the journey made from original homelands, and the struggle involved in the continued rebuilding of each nation’s camp in Indian Territory, now known as Oklahoma.

"Indian people have known relationships for a long, long time. Relationships to other human beings, to our family, to our communities, clans and societies. But also relationships to the spiritual, the metaphysical, to earth, the fire, wind, water-all of these things"- Dr. Donald Fixico (Muscogee Creek)