Go Native American

Go Native American

Museums

There are a wide variety of public and private museums devoted the Native American history, and current culture.

Indian museums ranging from institutions of national significance to small private entities which are little more than souvenir shops.

National Museums

The National Museum of the American Indian

Located in Washington DC, the NMAI is a Smithsonian Institution member museum. It hosts rotating exhibits from its huge collection, sponsors events, and sends travelling exhbitions to other museums acros the country and around the world.

Tribal and Regional Museums

Abbe Museum

Bar Harbor, Maine. Celebrating Maine's Native American Heritage. offers exhibits, presentations of the Native American archaeology of Maine. Also serves as a resource for helping teachers and students comply with the Wabanaki Initiative, state legislation that requires the teaching of Wabanaki cultures and history in Maine schools. Established in 1926.

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum

Located on the big Cypress reservation of the Seminoles, the museum is a teaching center about Seminole history and culture. Unfortunately the website, while attractive is a difficult to use flash application which provides little information.

Autry National Center: Southwest Museum of the American Indian

Los Angeles, California. Houses An important collections. Currently undergoing relocation, the future Museum project describes the collections and planned facility. The Southwest collection contains more than 240,000 objects including: 11,000 pieces of pottery; 13,000 baskets; 1,000 Katsina dolls; 1,300 Navajo textiles; 600 Pueblo textiles; and beadwork, costumes, clothing, tools, and paintings from the Great Plains, Plateau, and Eastern Woodland Nations.

Museum of the Cherokee Indian

Located in Cherokee, North Carolina, west of Asheville, the museum's exhibits focus principally on four periods of Cherokee history, ancient (paleolithic) times (10,000 to 8,000 BC), Archaic times (8,000-1,000 BC), the Mississippian period (900 BC to 1500 AD and the Trail or Tears (June to December 1838).

Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art

Located in Indianapolis, Indiana, the museum houses collections of western/cowboy art of various periods, but of interest to this directory, collections of historic and modern art by American Indians. the collections of historic art represent peoples from across North America, and the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Art has awarded more than half a million dollars in grants to Native American artists and has procured more than 125 pieces by living and recent artists.

Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art

Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum educate the public about the heritage and living cultures and arts of Native peoples, with an emphasis on the peoples of the Southwest. Its collections include almost 40,000 items and it has extensive holdings of textiles, katsina dolls, pottery, jewelry, baskets, cradleboards, paintings, and sculpture, both antique and modern.

Institute of American Indian Arts

Located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, both an important college and a significant museum showcasing contemporary Native American Fine Art. IAIA sponsors traveling exhibitions to other museums, as well.

Iroquois Indian Museum, Schoharie, NY

Located in Schoharie, New York, The Iroquois Indian Museum is dedicated to fostering understanding of Iroquois culture and Iroquois arts. The museum exhibits Iroquois art and the works of Iroquois artists, and serves as a meeting place for all peoples to celebrate Iroquois culture. The museum especially focuses on archaeology, history, and modern Iroquois artists and craftspeople.

Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Mashantucket, CT

Billing itself as the world's largest and most comprehensive Native American museum, Mashantucket's exhibits show the history and culture of Native Americans.

Mille Lacs Indian Museum, Onamia, Minnesota

Managed by the Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe and the Minnesota Historical Society, the musem offers exhibits dedicated to telling the story of the Ojibwe, tracing their journey to settle in Northern Minnesota, with their history up to the present. Videos, computer interactives, listening stations and objects of art and daily life.

Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

A museum devoted mainly to fine arts by well known mainstream artists, the museum also houses a fairly extensive collection of Native American art. The collection has particularly distinguished examples of basketry and jewelry. In line with its focus on modern art, contemporary artists such as Dan Namingha, Tony Abeyta, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith and Allan Houser are represented as well. Native artists and artisans frequently offer workshops or educational talks at MAM.

Mount Kersage Indian Musem, Warner, NH

Museum and nature trail provides educational programs and displays artifacts. Educational programs include a summer camp. Emphasizes local archaeology.

Pamunkey Indian Museum, King William, VA

Visitors information and directions. Largely devoted to pottery.

Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA

This regional museum includes maritime and regional art in addition to extensive Native American collections, one of the oldest such collections in the western hemisphere. Includes contemporary artists. Their artscapes web resource displays many pieces from their Native American collection online.

Poeh Museum, Santa Fe, NM

The museum is a unique hub of Pueblo culture designed to serve both Native and non-Native peoples, it strives to promote cultural preservation through curation, exhibition, and interaction. In an effort to maintain traditions and recover heritage stripped from contact with colonizing Europeans, Pojoaque Pueblo is revitalizing their traditions in part through the efforts of the Poeh Center’s mission to teach their native language, traditional song and dance, and material culture.

Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park, Phoenix, AZ

Located at a 1,500 year-old Hohokam village ruins, the museum has been dedicated to the study and interpretation of the Hohokam culture. In DIG IT: Explore Archaeology, visitors will explore how archaeologists study clues from ancient and historic sites.

Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Hosts changing exhibitions of contemporary and historic Native American art. Established in 1937.

White Mountain Apache Culture Center and Museum

Exhibits on arts, history and the land. The museum blends a recounting of history and traditional items with modern artistic production and education.