Southwest Museum Services worked in collaboration with the Historic Arkansas Museum
representing the State of Arkansas in partnership with the Caddo, Osage and Quapaw
Nations; and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the source for most of the artifacts presented, to celebrate and tell the story of Arkansas‘s first people from prehistory to today. One of the first steps in creating the Conceptual Design was focus group sessions conducted with tribal representatives to ensure that the story would be told entirely with the voice of living Native Americans.

In many instances, historic artifacts and documentary text are juxtaposed to similar objects created recently by the nations with contemporary commentary by the living tribal members. The museum also features touch screen interactives to access historic timelines and treaty documents, a drum interactive, and video towers featuring personal interviews with Native Americans. This presentation shows how a continuity of culture was maintained across many generations in spite of significant adversity, so that today, these tribes preserve who they were while also thriving in the western world.

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Opened March 27, 2009