Since opening in 1940, the State Indian Museum in Sacramento has given generations of visitors a unique introduction to the world of California’s Native American tribes. With thousands of years of cultural history and more than 100 tribes living from the low desert to the North Coast, California’s Indigenous peoples developed distinct lifeways that have survived into modern times. The museum tells aspects of the tribes’ stories through an exceptional collection of crafts, artifacts, and historic displays, including an exhibit on Ishi, considered the last surviving Yahi Indian when he famously emerged from the Butte County wilderness in 1911.
The museum in the city’s Midtown neighborhood is a bit over a mile from the State Capitol and Capitol Park’s newly dedicated California Native American Monument, which depicts Miwok leader and cultural dancer William Jefferies Franklin, Sr., and honors several Sacramento area and Gold County tribes: the Buena Vista Rancheria, Chicken Ranch Rancheria, Ione Band, Shingle Springs Band, Tuolumne Band, and Wilton Rancheria.
The museum is also just steps from Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park, the reconstruction of the compound established by John Augustus Sutter, the trader who played a major role in the discovery that set off the 1849 Gold Rush. The fort was primarily constructed by coerced and enslaved native laborers, and the juxtaposition of the Indian museum and Sutter’s Fort is a reminder of California’s long and troubled history with the state’s Native Americans. Indeed, the Gold Rush was one of the historic events most responsible for the destruction of so many tribal cultures and the 90 percent decline of the state’s Indigenous populations over the next 50 years.
Experiencing the Museum
Shaded by stately valley oaks and towering redwoods and edged by a garden filled with native California plants traditionally used by the state’s Indigenous people, the low-slung, adobe brick museum building displays a diverse collection. The pieces range from Nisenan-Maidu, Hawaiian, and Portuguese artist Harry Fonseca’s 1985 contemporary acrylic Coyote Dancer (which was commissioned for the museum) to 500-year-old bone fish hooks. An 18-foot-long Yurok dugout canoe crafted from a single redwood log commands the main gallery, and you can also see traditional dance regalia, including a flower dance skirt elaborately adorned with shells, beadwork, and coins that weighs 18 pounds.
Tribes across the state are justly celebrated for their basketmaking, and the museum’s collection of California baskets is considered one of the finest anywhere in the world. Among the museum’s most notable works are three miniature baskets—each smaller than a pea—crafted by famed Long Valley Cache Creek Pomo weaver and traditional healer Mabel McKay. Her story was told in the book Mabel McKay: Weaving the Dream by noted California writer Greg Sarris, tribal chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.
Speaking of books, the museum store (no admission required) stocks an outstanding inventory of Native American–themed titles, as well as such crafts as jewelry and ceramics handcrafted by Indigenous artisans. And if you buy a native flute at the store, you can learn how to play it during free lessons on Sunday mornings at 11.
For more shopping, the museum’s Native Arts & Crafts Market in November is a perfect way to get a jump on your holiday gift giving. Other special events at the museum include the annual Acorn Day in October (the museum also has an exhibit that focuses on the importance of acorns to California’s native people), which features processing demonstrations and the chance to use a mortar and pestle to grind your own acorns.
The Future
While the State Indian Museum remains a great place to discover the world of California’s Indigenous peoples, because of its age and small size (about 4,000 square feet), tribal leaders and state officials have long recognized the need for a larger, more modern cultural facility. Planning for the California Indian Heritage Center began in 2007, and, in 2018, Governor Jerry Brown’s budget allocated $100 million for the project, which will be sited on 51 acres in West Sacramento at the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers.
A task force of tribal leaders from around the state is collaborating with governmental representatives and a design team to develop this facility, which will honor traditional cultures while also celebrating the tribes’ enduring presence in modern California. In addition, heritage center representatives are traveling to tribal communities across the state to gather a wide range of perspectives to better portray the full sweep of California’s native cultures.
While the opening is still years away, Larry Myers, chairperson of the California Indian Heritage Center Foundation, believes the center will evolve into an important gathering place for the state’s Indigenous peoples. On California Native American Day in 2022, Myers said that visiting tribal members will help “turn this place into a very vibrant, spiritual, and living center. It’s a heritage center, it’s not a museum. Because we’re a living culture.”