Museum of Native American History

The rain had definitely arrived by the time we got to the museum so fortunately, it is an inside experience. This is a private museum started by a wealthy man in the area who started collecting arrow heads and other Native American items.  He decided to fund this museum which is free to the public and share his collections and other items which are donated from other collections for the public to see.  It is not focused on any particular tribe or even time period but goes through centuries of items found throughout the Americas/

You are welcomed into the museum by this huge mammoth bone statue....

This is a painting on the lobby of the museum.  Loved it!

In the lobby, there is on display hundreds of different types of what the public would call arrowheads although they really have lots of different names depending the time period and use of piece.

The exhibits were marked with numbers and you could type the number on this device and listen to information about what you were looking at.  They also had a few brief movies along the way as well.

This was a display about "chunking" a game that was played across the Americas in a variety of versions--somewhat like bocci ball except throwing spears instead of balls.

Jena using the handheld device....

There were SO MANY interesting displays that I could post a hundred pictures from here alone.  It was amazing to see and hear about life and differences between different time periods, etc.  If you are interested in Native American life, you should come to this museum.  

Over and over, I thought to myself--how short-sighted (or arrogant or evil) were the Europeans that they could not see that Native Americans had well-developed customs and cultural and skills for living here.

They have a small research library for people to come and to study and do research, just like in the Church History Library.  Books are not lent out but must be used in this small area.  Sister Delimont who is very interested in such things found several books which she was very interesting in.  She has some Native American heritage and has learned about such things.

A few examples.....

The sign says that this is the biggest collection of head pots in the Americas....

Typically what American children think about when they think about Native Americans....

I forgot most about what I learned as I walked through this museum but it was a great way to spend an afternoon and it is always good to be reminded that Western European culture is not the "only game in town."  The diversity of the world we live in is one of the amazing things about it.