Over 100,000 artifacts, illustrating the lives of indigenous tribes from North and South America are on display, with the primary focus on Native American tribes. Collections dating from 12,000 years ago include thousands of arrowheads, obsidian knives, spear points, primitive ancient stone tools, native clothing, intricate bead work, basketry, pottery and more. The museum is home to an incredible fire opal arrowhead, found in the Black Rock Desert in 1910.
The collections on display give the visitor a suggestion of the richness and variety of societies no longer here and they illustrate how creative and adaptive the native people were. The artifacts give you a feel for what it must have been like for the early Native Americans to survive and thrive in southern Oregon, on the Columbia River and up and down the west coast of North and South America. Cultures from the mid-west to the Pacific and from Peru to Alaska are represented.
Among the ancient artifacts, you will find original paintings by many famous western artists, including the original oil “The Scouts” by Charles M. Russell. You will also find original paintings by John Clymer, Frank McCarthy and many more, who tell in their own artistic style, the story of the west. The displays represent a significant roll call of the Cowboy Artists of America.
