About

The Plains Indian Museum advances understanding of living American Indian cultures—their histories, art, spirituality, and traditions—for present and future generations. Through active collection, preservation, conservation, exhibition, and interpretation, the museum sustains and shares the deep cultural heritage of Native peoples from the prehistoric past to today. Guided by the belief that knowledge of the past gains its greatest value when it informs the present and shapes the future, the museum approaches its mission with respect, collaboration, and care. The museum’s collection, remarkable in scope and beauty, features culturally significant works of Plains Indian artistry spanning from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Unlike the ethnographic collections assembled by many North American and European institutions during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Plains Indian Museum’s holdings originated with the clothing and personal items of Native performers in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows, which toured between 1883 and 1913. Over time, the collection expanded through important private acquisitions and, more recently, through works by contemporary Plains artists whose creativity continues to honor and renew cultural traditions.

Together, these works reveal the extraordinary artistry, innovation, and endurance of Native peoples of the Great Plains across nearly two centuries. Beyond their visual power, the pieces express the cultural values, historical experiences, and contemporary lives of their makers. Throughout the era represented by the collection, Plains Native communities adapted to the vast environment, developed diverse traditions, flourished as buffalo hunters, and later faced the challenges of the reservation era in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Through resilience and vision, they rebuilt their communities and carried their traditions forward. Memory—collective and individual—has sustained this strength, helping people preserve cultural identity, understand the spiritual foundations of tribal life, and imagine the future. For Plains Indian and other Native peoples, art, memory, and vision intertwine inseparably—each supporting and giving life to the others.