Museums across country preserve Indian past, culture

By RICHARD NILSEN
The Arizona Republic

The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington pulls the stories of native peoples all together, but there are scores of smaller and more focused museums around the continent that tell smaller bits of the story in greater detail.

Some cover regional subjects. Others take on the history of a single Indian nation.

Many of them are worth a visit if you are in the area, and some — the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, the Eiteljorg in Indianapolis and the Peabody in Cambridge, Mass. — are destination stops for those interested in the subject matter.

Of special note is the stupendous Mashantucket Pequot Museum, which, according to Gary Avey, publisher and executive editor of Native Peoples magazine, "is a most unusual museum and the only one I'm aware of that started with no museum collection."

The museum manages to tell the story of the Pequot Indians with the newest and most-up-to-date museum technology, even without the beadwork, blankets and paintings.

Here a list of some museums around the country and beyond that focus on native history and culture:

In the United States

Heard Museum, 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, 602-252-8848.

Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, 317-636-9378.

Peabody Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Mass., 617-496-1027.

Southwest Museum of the American Indian, Los Angeles, 323-221-2164.

Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park, Phoenix, 602-495-0900.

Apache Cultural Center and Museum, Fort Apache, Ariz., 928-338-4625.

Mashantucket Pequot Museum, Mashantucket, Conn., 800-411-9671.

Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Evanston, Ill., 847-475-1030.

Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, Maine, 207-288-3519.

Southern Plains Indian Museum, Anadarko, Okla., 405-247-6221.