By Liane Ehrich, Guest Contributor from VAILAZ.COM
One of the best museums of Native American artifacts is located just east of Benson Arizona in the picturesque Texas Canyon. The museum is housed in a spectacular Mission Style building surrounded by grasslands and tall granite boulders.
Established in 1937 to better promote understanding and knowledge of Native Americans, the museum houses a large collection of artifacts from all over North America accompanied with contextual information explaining their history and purpose.
The museum also pays homage to the many renaissance pottery styles now sweeping through Native Groups as they attempt to regain some of their lost heritage. The museum has helped some of these styles achieve critical acclaim among collectors, providing much needed income for tribal people.
The museum has a long history of funding important archaeological explorations. One of their most notable was a joint venture with the Mexican Institute for Anthropology and History (INAH) to excavate Casas Grandes in Mexico’s Copper Canyon.
Today the museum focuses more on encouraging contemporary Native Americans to interpret their own history through the art that remains. A lovely example of this is in the room displaying native weaving. A two-year exhibit called, Interwoven Traditions: The Cultural Legacy Of Southwestern Textiles provides contemporary interpretation of weavings from Navajo and other cultures as seen through the eyes of Diné (Navajo) master weaver, Barbara Teller Ornelas.
Her interpretations offer a fascinating view of Navajo and other weavings.
The Amarind Foundation is located in Texas Canyon off the Dragoon Exit. It’s a quick cruise down I-10 from Vail, and once you’ve been there you’ll be shocked that such a beautiful museum exists so close by.