Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian

The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian was founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, of Boston, and Hastiin Klah, a Diné singer, to make a permanent record of Navajo ceremonial knowledge that both of them believed was about to be lost. It stands at 704 Camino Lejo on Museum Hill, southeast of downtown, and it is New Mexico’s oldest independent nonprofit museum.

The Building and the Original Purpose

Wheelwright and Klah met in 1921 and worked together for twelve years, recording chants, commissioning weavings, and having sandpaintings copied in tempera so that the designs would survive on paper. The building was designed by William Penhallow Henderson in consultation with Klah, on the plan of a Navajo hogan, entered from the east, so that a visitor descends and then rises into the central gallery. It was called the House of Navajo Religion, and later the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. Its plan owes nothing to the Spanish and Pueblo vocabulary of the rest of the city.

What Changed in 1977

By the 1970s, the museum began to reassess its practice of holding ceremonial items. In 1977, it repatriated ceremonial belongings in keeping with appropriate protocols. It was one of the first museums in North America to voluntarily repatriate sensitive materials. The ceremonial belongings were transferred to the Ned A. Hatathli Cultural Center Museum, Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona. From this point, the museum became known as the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, with the main exhibition gallery renamed the Klah gallery.

What It Is Now

Since 1977, the museum has focused on contemporary arts and it has held a nearly unique role in Santa Fe in promoting the work of emerging and established Native artists in solo shows. The collection runs to Diné and other Native North American art from roughly 1850 to the present, with real depth in Southwestern jewelry. The Jim and Lauris Phillips Center for Southwestern Jewelry opened in 2015 and is the strongest single argument for making the trip up the hill. Exhibitions rotate and lean contemporary, and the museum shows emerging artists alongside established ones without much ceremony about the distinction.

Downstairs is the Case Trading Post, opened in 1975 and built to resemble a reservation trading post of the old kind. It represents several hundred Native artists, runs artist markets, and generates income the museum depends on, since it takes no state funding. It is also, quietly, among the better places in Santa Fe to buy jewelry, because the provenance is not in question. The Whitehawk antique Indian and ethnographic art shows each August are the other reliable point in the calendar for material of this kind.

Nearby

The Wheelwright shares Camino Lejo with the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the Museum of International Folk Art, and the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art. The first two of those are state museums and are covered by the New Mexico CulturePass. The Wheelwright is independent and is not included in it, which is worth knowing before you arrive holding one. The Santa Fe Indian Market fills the Plaza downtown each August.

Common Questions

Where is the Wheelwright Museum?

At 704 Camino Lejo on Museum Hill, southeast of downtown Santa Fe, alongside the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the Museum of International Folk Art, and the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art. It is not downtown and it is not beside the Plaza.

What is the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian?

New Mexico’s oldest independent nonprofit museum, founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright and Hastiin Klah. It holds Diné and other Native North American art from about 1850 to the present, with depth in Southwestern jewelry.