Institute For American Indian

A museum and replica village devoted to Native art, history, and culture. Much of the traffic through here is from school groups and camps, but it’s chock full of fascinating objects and ideas that anyone will enjoy perusing for an hour or so.
Much of it focuses on local Indians, but not all. The small galleries inside are informative and well-​designed, although I did wish that artifacts were better labeled (some had no dates attached). One focused on history, one on archeology, one was a children’s hands-​on room, one is a replica long house, another a replica modern house.
The outside exhibits include a longhouse you can walk through (very cool), smaller dwellings that illustrate the building process, and a garden. Almost nothing here was well-​labeled or explained, unfortunately. I thought it was interesting nonetheless, and I suspect most kids would love it.
There’s a garden on another level that is planted with healing herbs and flowers; these were labeled, but it was hard to tell which labels belong to which plants.
A gift shop is very well decked out, but upon examination turns out to have the usual assortment of dreamcatchers and turquoise jewelry. Although everything seemed nicely made, I wish there was more of a focus on local Indians. There was some beautiful music playing, so that’s worth checking out if you’re looking for a more unusual gift.