EXHIBITS
Dinosaurs
Fossils
Prehistoric People
Native Americans
Mountain Men
Oregon-California
Trail
Mormon Trail
Pony Express
Cherokee &
Overland Trail
Stagecoaches
Union Pacific
Railroad
John Wesley Powell
Coal & Trona Mining
Oil & Gas Booms
Mormon War of
1857
Chinese
Massacre
U.S. Army in Wyoming
Outlaws & Lawmen
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
Big Nose George
Cattle Ranching
Sheep Herding
Riverboats
Lincoln Highway
Aviation
Amelia
Earhart
Women's History
Wyoming General Hospital
Nursing
Firemen
Rialto Theater
Home
Entertainment
Wild Horses
Offsite Exhibits
Chinese Dragon
Parade
NATIVE AMERICANS
Most
of what is now
Sweetwater County
was inhabited by
the Shoshones,
whose descendants
still live on the
Wind River Indian
Reservation in
Fremont County.
Before the Native
Americans were
confined to
reservations, the
warriors
decorated their
buffalo robes,
tipi liners, and
war shirts with
battle and horse
raiding scenes.
On the
reservation, they
continued to draw
pictures of their
past; however,
because bison
hides were no
longer
obtainable, they
were forced to
make do with more
common materials
such as paper
from accounting
ledgers and
colored pencils.
Ledger art, as
this type of
drawing is
called, was
designed to
illustrate a
story. People
are drawn in
profile and are
identified by the
designs or colors
on their shields,
body-paint, and
equipment.
The museum holds a collection of ledger drawings done by Henry Iott (1870-1924). Born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, Iott’s mother was a Brule Sioux and his father was a Missourian of French ancestry. He married On The Ground, a Sioux also known as Red Wooden Ring, and raised several children. Iott worked in a Wild West show and later had a cattle and horse ranch near the reservation on which he was born.
A selection of Lakota Sioux beadwork, tobacco pouches and pipes are on display in the Native American Exhibit.