Home » Visual & Performing Arts » Art Museums » The Antelope Valley Indian Museum

The Antelope Valley Indian Museum

© Judith Stock

In the heart of the historic Mojave Desert on Piute Butte, this museum is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Situated among the buttes, next to yucca plants and Joshua trees, where occasional loose tumbleweed roll down the street bumping into cars and chasing stray dogs, nestles an obviously out of place Swiss Chalet style structure, home to the Antelope Valley Indian Museum.
In 1928 H. Arden Edwards, a self-taught artist, couldn't make up his mind when he homesteaded 160 acres whether to build a ranch or a chalet. The finished structure looked like a Swiss Chalet with some alternations for western living and topography. Large granite boulders were incorporated into the building as integral parts both inside and outside. Edwards built the upper level of the house to hold his extensive and unusual collection of pre-historic and historic American Indian artifacts.

The Edward's family lived in the peculiar house until, due to health reasons, Edwards sold the building to Grace Wilcox Oliver, a student anthropologist, who had discovered the structure while hiking in the area around the museum. She added her own collection of American Indian artifacts and expanded the facility to include more room to showcase more artifacts.

By 1980 the State of California had taken over the museum and designated it as one of the regional museums to represent Indian cultures of the western Great Basin (east and southeast of the Sierra Nevada Mountains).

Visitors literally climb through and over rocks to see the entire collection housed at this folk art museum. Five rooms overflow with Southwest Native American artwork and artifacts including arrowheads, baskets, bowls and paintings. A number of the heirlooms on display are one of a kind or rare items. Joshua Cottage features the Touch Table room, where visitors can experience the daily life of Indians including demonstrations in fire starting, food preparation and basket weaving.

There is a half-mile self-guided nature trail that runs alongside the museum. A gift shop offers authentic Native American hand-crafted jewelry, kachina dolls, pottery, rugs, and a large selection of publications on American Indian history and crafts.

Open on the weekends only from September through mid-June, this museum has been open to the public since 1982. During the summer months, due to extremely hot weather and the inability to air condition the building, (how do you air condition around boulders?) the museum goes on vacation and opens again in mid-September. Call the museum for further information. (661) 946-3055.

The copyright of the article The Antelope Valley Indian Museum in Art Museums is owned by . Permission to republish The Antelope Valley Indian Museum in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.