Museums - California State Indian Museum

On the grounds of Sutter’s Fort in downtown Sacramento, the California State Indian Museum displays exhibits and artifacts illustrating the culture of the region’s earliest inhabitants. The artifacts in the museum include basketry, beadwork, clothing and exhibits about the ongoing traditions of various California Native American groups, including a display about Ishi, the last of the Yahi Indians. Also on display is traditional dance regalia (feather headbands, plume sticks, dance capes and headdresses) as well as musical instruments, such as the foot drum, clapper stick, wood and bone whistles, dance rattles and musical bow. The Central Valley Regional Indian Room focuses on the Indigenous Peoples of the Central Valley, with information about Native American fishing, hunting, tools, trade routes and use of tule, which carpeted the valley’s wetlands.