Santa Fe - Camino Lejo

The Wheelwright Museum is concerned with the arts and crafts of the Indians of the American South-West. In addition to a great variety of cult objects, woven fabrics, silverware and sand paintings it also has a collection of old writing and documents inscribed on clay (in particular Indian songs). It should be noted that the exhibits include contemporary works as well.

The museum is named for Mary Cabot Wheelwright, who established the museum in the 1930s with the help of Hastiin Klah, a Navajo "medicine man" who she had long been friends with. One of the original names, which changed several times, was the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, as it sought to preserve ritual knowledge.

In the 1970s following a number of changes in the Navajo Nation, which wanted the Navajo religion to be maintain solely by Navajo people, items in the museum's collection were surrendered to the Navajo people and the name of the museum was changed to the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. It also changed its focus to exclude Navajo religion and now displays traditional and contemporary Native American arts.

The Museum of Spanish Colonial Art is housed in a building by the late architect John Gaw Meem. The collection spans centuries and features a variety of media including ceramics, ironwork, tinwork, furniture and textiles.