Welcome to the Smoki Museum
Located in Prescott, Arizona
The Mission of the Smoki Museum is to instill an understanding and respect for indigenous cultures of the Southwest.
Designed to resemble an Indian pueblo, the Smoki Museum was built in 1935 of native stone and wood. It was constructed with labor provided by the Civilian Works Administration and the Smoki People. The Smoki People were a group of Prescott citizens organized in 1921 and dedicated to the perpetuation of American Indian ceremonies and dances.
Until 1990, the Smoki People held annual pageants at the Yavapai County Fairgrounds, but they also became a large social organization focused on developing appreciation for Southwest Indian tribes through the Museum and their annual program. Most of the display cases, hand-chiseled furniture and models were built shortly after the building and qualify as antiques. The challenge is to maintain the historical value of the building, the display cases, and the like while making visitors comfortable and the collection physically and environmentally safe.
The ethnographic collections include clothing, ornaments and ceremonial paraphernalia from the Sioux, Apache and Woodland Indians. The extensive collection of baskets on display are from the local Yavapai, Apache, Pima, Tohono O'odham and Seri tribes and various California tribes.
The Museum's art collection
includes oil and watercolor paintings, charcoal drawings and
hundreds of Hopi photographs by Kate Cory. Ms. Cory
decorated the Museum walls with several incredible kachina
paintings.
The Smoki Museum library contains some 600
volumes, mostly on Native American prehistory and
ethnography. In the library, you will find periodicals from
Museum News and Pottery Southwest, among others.
Admission Fees:
Adult – $7 Senior-$6 Student [with ID] – $5 Children [Under 12] – 0
Museum Hours - Open Year Round
• Mondays through Saturdays: 10 AM - 4 PM
•
Sunday:1PM - 4 PM
• Open Labor Day, 10 AM - 4 PM
•
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, December 31 & Easter
•
Open Dec. 24th -10 AM - 1 PM only
• Closed Dec 29th to
Jan 11th, 2012 for Annual Cleaning and Repair
• If
weather restricts travel, call the Museum to see if it is
open.
Handicapped Accessible
Map to the Smoki Museum
Handicap Parking & Accessibility is available behind the Museum. Turn off Gurley into the Grace Sparks Activity Center’s parking area. Continue through that parking area to the back of the Museum.
The Joanne Cline Research Library Is Open Wednesdays, 1 to 4 PM. The Library contains books, Journals, magazines and videotapes related to Southwest Tribes. Part of the collection is available for circulation and part is intended for research within the Library. The collection is indexed in the Yavapai Library Network catalog. The Library is open to researchers by appointment.
